Fiat Twincam antifreeze

Road-race engines and ancillaries - general discussion
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Guy Croft
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Joined: June 18th, 2006, 9:31 am
Location: Bedford, UK
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Fiat Twincam antifreeze

Post by Guy Croft »

The excellent blue Paraflu is no longer available from Fiat, can anyone recommend a good alternative that is relatively easy to get in the UK please? I do know about the new 'pink' Paraflu UP that Fiat sell but have no idea if it's suitable.

The wrong additive can cause all sorts of problems esp white crystals forming on alloy parts...

Thanks,

G
Guy Croft, owner
nabihelosta
Posts: 94
Joined: December 14th, 2010, 5:37 pm
Location: Lebanon

Re: Fiat Twincam antifreeze

Post by nabihelosta »

Guy

Over here, we use the old blue german antifreeze. Any kind of it. (Original BMW, Original Mercedes-Benz, Febi, Kuhltech...)

It's still widely available, although production officially seized in 2005 (for the originals). But Febi and Kuhltech are still producing it.
It is well-known for his antifreeze and anti corrosion great capabilities.

Don't know if it's a pure coincidence, but I just filled my sister's car with it, 15 minutes ago. (Fiat Brava 1.6 16v). After a head rebuild 2 days ago, (corroded), it is the best way to save the engine from corrosion for maybe a decade! Needless to say, change it every year.

Nabih
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WhizzMan
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Joined: August 13th, 2010, 8:05 pm
Location: Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Re: Fiat Twincam antifreeze

Post by WhizzMan »

I don't know if it's available there, but for a TC in race trim, I'd go for Kroon SP-12 coolant. It's silicate free and can be used in light metal engines and is also kind for copper radiators, piping and the like. It's rated "G12 plus" for VW and is also approved by many commercial freight truck brands to be used in their engines. Basically, it's a very good long-life universal coolant that has a lot of anti-corrosion chemicals in it, but is kind to gasket materials. If anything, look for the "G12" or "G12+" approval for VW engines and you should have a good long life coolant that's not reactive to most engine and gasket materials. I just happen to be able to get the Kroon stuff easily at my local shop and Kroon makes high quality products, but there are plenty of other manufacturers that do so as well.

General advice about changing coolant: Make sure to flush with tap water at least once, to get rid of all the old coolant in an existing setup. Chemicals from different coolant formulas tend to not mix well together and react with each other. Best case scenario there is that you'll just have water with antifreeze left and no corrosion protection, worst case is something that will attack your gaskets or head, or form solid deposits clogging your pump, head and radiator. A lot of existing cars make it really hard to get out the last 10% or so of the coolant, so flushing more than once is probably a good idea. Flushing with tap water generally means just filling the cooling system with tap water, starting the engine, let it run for maybe a minute or so, so the whole system gets pumped through and then shutting off the engine again. There is no need to get a full heat cycle done and the calcium deposits that the boiling hot water will give are not what you want, so keep the water in only long enough for it to mix with whatever is left behind in the system. Do not leave the water in under any circumstances. You will forget and your engine will freeze into bits in the winter, or corrosion will happen. Once you start changing coolant, finish the job.
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