Reportedly the orange juice from Havoline is safe as well.  I get the blue
stuff at the dealer in the US for $14.80 per gallon, so it must be a bit
higher in Canada.
I use the blue stuff, once every year or two.
bmc :)
"Faith will move mountains, but you'd better bring a shovel...."

> From: Stones <sstones@IDIRECT.COM>
> Reply-To: Stones <sstones@IDIRECT.COM>
> Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 11:44:25 -0400
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: was To buy or not to buy:  87 Westy NOW: Green Coolant?
>
> At 11:14 AM 5/31/02 -0400, Eric wrote:
>> OK, this whole proper coolant for Vanagon issue seems somewhat baffling to
>> me.  Someone in a recent posting offering advice on whether to buy a Westy
>> said they were concerned about the green coolant.  My coolant is green
>> straight out of the container.  It is Prestone brand.  It says safe for all
>> aluminum parts on the label, but it doesn't say phosphate free.  So is
>> Prestone safe?  If not, what brands are safe?  What do phosphates damage in
>> the engine?
>
> The "blue goo", the coolant specifically designed to prevent head
> gasket-itis (PN: G 011V8BA1,   Mat No. G 011 V8B JB) is almost a green color.
> At it's price I don't know if it's worth it, about $20-$25 for 1.5L, but I
> haven't had head-gasket-itis in 7 years accumulating about 200,000 km. The
> dealership morons tell me that that part number doesn't exist until I speak
> really slowly reading it off of the clearly VW bottle, then they say that
> it's never been available in North America which makes me wonder which
> continent I drove to to buy it.
> Now I know this is going to bring the spammers out of the woodwork to flame
> me for paying too much for coolant, I know I did, but it has lasted a
> while, you needn't educate me on shopping.
> Basically, I suppose I'm just saying it doesn't matter what color they make
> it, what matters is whether it will help to pit your aluminum heads and
> de-grade your gasket. Phosphates can certainly cause problems with the
> gaskets of aluminum headed engines.
>