OhSix, you wanted the Story….
OK, Spring 2013, I had to have surgery and so I was home and not able to do much for 3 weeks. But I had my iPad, so I read, and a bunch of it on the Ridgeline Owners Club website. After spending a week or so reading about “SMOD” I had myself thoroughly convinced that I was going to have this problem, but rather than just arbitrarily replacing my radiator, which looked fine, (I have some “arm’s length” pictures from April/May 2013 on my PC. At this time I also started could a Oil Testing Lab, such as Blackstone Labs determine if this was an issue. Although the thought of spending $25 a sample seemed a little cost prohibitive, since I would need 2-3 possible tests. Then I looked for an alternate labs to test my fluids, that’s when I found Lab One. They do tests for Analysis Plus (Conoco Phillips) and also test Oil in Small Aircraft, after having spoken to them I decided to order 10 kits and a fluid extraction sample pump. When I got my kit from Lab One, I looked at the Coolant and ATF visually neither looked right at the time, but I couldn’t really tell and my other Honda was manual and had Prestone “Green Coolant” in it. I took my first samples on 4/20/2013. After I got my results I decided that I still had a like 4 bottles of Honda Z1 ATF Fluid, so I did a Drain and Fill and I ran it for a few weeks, and then realized that my best friend’s 2012 Honda Civic had both the same type of Coolant and similar ATF. In the parking lot of where we were at lunch, we finished quickly and since we were parked next to each other we compared fluids. Red/Pink ATF looked more like a dark red/purple and the Blue Coolant looked purple/green? With that my best friend tells me that he thinks he can test samples thru his work.
So we sent a new samples off to another lab (I have a 2 hand written reports at home in my Ridgeline File) and so we submitted it through his work, which already did fluid testing on their fleet vehicles. Since he managed the fleet as a part of his job duties, he knew the people at the lab and this was done as an off the books, pair of tests. Plus we told them what we were looking for Honda Z1 in the coolant and Honda Type2 in the ATF, we also provided samples of Z1, I still had like ½ a bottle and a new bottle of Type 2 as I was starting to build my supplies for because I was considering just doing a D n F on Coolant and maybe another on ATF. The results I got back were hand written tests compare the fluids to the source and also if the other fluid was in the wrong place. Long story short, Yes, Yes and Yes. Some of the numbers lined up (same type of test) with my attached LabOne reports, others were different. In that Lab’s opinion they didn’t feel it was critical but thought it should be monitored. At the time of the new sampling, I had somewhere around 1000 miles on it since adding 3.5 qts of Z1 also. LabOne doesn’t test much with the coolant (Freeze Point only), they are mainly an “Oil Testing Facility” as was the alternate lab. So what is found(reported) typically on Coolant is really limited, My advice to anyone skip testing your coolant. A dip test can determine "Freeze Point" By doing a D n F 1 time I had improved the transmission fluid numbers slightly, but to me the fact that they could detect (coolant in the ATF) still bothered me considering what the fittings looked like.
Originally it was my intention to do the conversion to DW1 in the summer of 2013, but these findings changed everything, and when I originally found the “SMOD” issue I was considering just doing the DW1 conversion and a flush and fill of Type 2, using distilled water to flush the system. But after the second lab report which confirmed I still had issues, I then shopped Radiators, and took my time to continue to build my arsenal of required parts and fluids. I ordered my Spectra Premium Radiator CU2830 on July 3, 2013. It arrived and looked as if it had been beaten from the Amazon Warehouse to my house, by every possible delivery person who handled it. Those that have purchased the Spectra, It was shipped in the Spectra box, it arrived with holes in the box and wasn’t worth the time to install. I emailed Amazon and had returned shipped it back and they shipped a second which looked considerably better than the first, but thinking about it later (now) I should have refused it also, it was shipped in a box with bubble wrap around the Spectra Radiator Box.
I installed that Radiator October, 21 2013, When I did I started a series of 5 D n F’s on ATF and 4 on the Type 2 Coolant, the first 2 of the coolant were pure distilled water, to purge the system, the 3rd was 1/2 gal of Type 2 and a bottle of distilled water, the last was all Honda/Acura Type 2. If you look at the last test you’ll see that my freeze point is on the “High Side”, after that test came back I added, Honda Extreme Cold Weather Anti-Freeze/Coolant - Type 2 Concentrate, this is basically pure coolant, and I got my freeze point corrected by mid Jan 2014. As for the ATF, I could and can consistently get 4 qts out and refill it with 4qts each and every time, I had my friend with the 2012 Civic, he did 4 D n F @ 2.5 qts each, starting with his 2nd we recaptured the ATF and used that as a part of my initial D n F. Basically I was able to do 5 D n F with a Case of ATF and 10 “free bottles” of slightly used ATF, at the end of it I ended up with a spare 4 qts that I used this spring.
As for follow up info to the dissembled Denso Radiator, That was the OEM Radiator, Pulled @ approximately 67k miles, Standard Type 2 Coolant, installed 03/2005 (Mfg Date) and all Z1 type ATF per the maintenance minder system.
