Ferrari Testarossa 1988 coolant

[carfan]

Very knowledgeable people on here!

1988 Ferrari Testarossa.

What coolant ? Mind boggling number of antifreeze types available these days !

Bearing in mind want a product easily available in Europe or UK. Halfords is near by.

Have Maxol Ultra antifreeze concentrate & deionised water which I use in 1960s Jaguar 4.2s & various 70s Ford V8s etc , 96 Fiat Cinquecento.
Would be convenient to use same in Testarossa.


Tech data sheet for Maxol a/f includes....
B.T.C. 2E ( Seems to be British tech classification, ethylene glycol)
MEG (Mono ethylene glycol) based inorganic.
NO nitrites, amines or phosphates (NAP free)
Has borate & silicate.
Corrosion protection of all metals & alloys.

When I do some reading elsewhere about silicates in a/f it says it may attack gaskets...
Definitely don't want headgaskets deteriorating.

I see some recommendations for G11, G12, G12+ which are apparently silicate free...

A coolant which requires less frequent changing would also be nice !

Most of the cars only cover a few hundred miles annually. I drain some coolant every few years & refill with new.
I'm not seeing any rust usually on draining.
Out of interest do the corrosion inhibiting additives deteriorate more in the same time period with a lot of use / hot & cold cycles than with low annual mileage ?

Thanks in advance for any constructive input !

 

[slacktide_bitog]

It was most likely filled with old school green silicate IAT coolant, just like those other old cars you have. Remember, the mind boggling number of coolants didn't exist in 1988. The green silicate was the only coolant available from 1920 until the 90s. IAT silicate coolant is available at Halfords

If you don't like it for some reason, G05 might be usable, as it was one of the first modern coolants and has some silicate in it and could be backwards compatible.

The gasket attacks came with 2-EHA Dex-Cool aka Deathcool, which was recently banned in Europe

 

[michaelluscher]

Whatever the modern equivalent of late '80s Agip (now Eni) coolant is
@slacktide_bitog is right, the old school IAT is cost effective as long as you don't mind refreshing it every 2 years

 

[nthach]

Glysantin G-05 or G-48 would be my picks. OAT, one has sodium benzoate(05), the other 2-EHA(48).

Ferrari has an agreement with Shell now, so it’s now Glycoshell which seems like a European HOAT.

 

[SR5]

I consider G-05 to be the modern coolant for anything older, and many things newer.

It’s a hybrid coolant (HOAT) that contains organic acids (OAT) for long life, but not 2-EHA. But it also has some silicates like old-school IAT, but at a lower concentration so that it doesn’t cause any problems.

 

[nthach]

I consider G-05 to be the modern coolant for anything older, and many things newer.

It’s a hybrid coolant (HOAT) that contains organic acids (OAT) for long life, but not 2-EHA. But it also has some silicates like old-school IAT, but at a lower concentration so that it doesn’t cause any problems.

G-05 also has borate and a touch of nitrite in it for wet liner protection on diesels. There was a hypothesis it was behind the EGR coolers clogging up on the Ford 6.0/6.4 PSDs but Mercedes/Detroit Diesel/Freightliner was using it for years in OTR diesels.

 

[f355spider]

Glysantin G-05 or G-48 would be my picks. OAT, one has sodium benzoate(05), the other 2-EHA(48).

Ferrari has an agreement with Shell now, so it’s now Glycoshell which seems like a European HOAT.

I used G48 when I had older Ferraris...328, F355. I'm sure either will work fine.

 

[JHZR2]

I’d be looking for G-05 most likely, and if I had no idea what was in there, would flush it very well by radiator drain and block drains, and also do an intermediate changeover and drain of G-05 to run for a few months/hundred miles before a final fill.

I’ve run this in my classic MB diesels for years, though some now get John Deere Cool Gard II.