Old coolant colour
 

Changed my coolant today on 2001 car as I don't think Honda ever bothered. Bit messy but self bleeds so easy enough.

New honda stuff is blue and quite translucent, what I took out was like blackcurrant ribena and not at all translucent

Has it changed does anyone know or was mine just filthy?

Factory fill should be dark greenish.

Sounds to me like it's been mixed at some point, should be blue (Honda type2 blue), did you give the system a through flush through, till the water runs clear? if you mix antifreeze types it can turn to a gel type goo, not good.

I left it draining for ages then blew down the bleed valve at the top of the engine which spat another bit out. Only blue came out there when I brimmed it..

It was dirty regardless.

Are you sure you meant brimmed :D
Give it a couple of hundred miles and check it again if the colour is OK then fine if not another tub of the blue stuff might be in order.

Did you open the big coolant port on the side of the block? Lots of fluid in there if you want get everything out.
Bleeding all the air out can take quite some time, be very careful driving it unless you get scorching hot air from the cabin vents.

No I just used the one at the top as I wasnt in a big rush.

It took a while to get hot heater but seems fine now. It was fairly cool today so took a while to get the fans to kick in.