antifreeze stop leak

[rice400]

i recently added a bottle of "antifreeze stop leak" to my car. now i checked the antifreeze a few days later and i see that the antifreeze in the radiator has a thicker consistency than it should be. the fluid in the over flow tank is thin, just like normal antifreeze. do u think it thickened up because of the stop leak stuff? (i'm assuming thats how it stops the leak but i'm not sure) is this something to worry about?

thanks

[General Chaos]

Stop leak is a great short term fix... However it does have a tendency to thicken things up and can help in clogging the cooling system of the engine... I would only use it if the leak is somewhere that would require major work on the engine... I used it on a Ranger once that was leaking at the head gasket.. It did wonders for a while, but then when I flushed the coolant system it started leaking again... But I felt I was going to to a full rebuild on it so it was worth the short term gain...

[VertigoPills]

Of course... the best way to stop (or slow) a leak is to thicken whatever liquid is going through it. Maybe investigate the leak? It could be your water pump broke its seal, like mine did recently.

Actually, my dad was in Vietnam and he told me they gave the soldiers a drug that thickened their blood so they wouldn't bleed out as fast, but that after they got back stateside, their blood thinned out more than it should have, like temporary hemophilia or something like that. Pretty crazy!

[RapidTransit3]

The stop leak product will slow or stop some small leaks,but will also over time restrict flow in the radiator and heater core,resulting in engine overheating and/or no interior cab heat.Would strongly suggest flushing the entire cooling system including the engine block and heater core,and then fix properly whatever is leaking.