Flushing Coolant (What Kind Should I Use?)

Hey, just bought a 996 a month ago. Love the car so far but I have noticed the water pump leaking. I am going to drain and flush tomorrow. I am replacing the water pump and thermostat while I'm doing it. I just need to know what type of coolant to use. I looks like it currently has green coolant in the car right now. No clue what kind it is... I can get pentofrost sf coolant locally tomorrow. Looks like I will need to buy 8 1.5 liter bottles giving me half a bottle left over when doing 50/50 with distilled water. Will cost me $140 roughly for the coolant alone. Should I do this or should I use a cheaper coolant alternative? I plan on completely flushing the system either way with this tutorial https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...pump-tips.html Any options? Seems like a lot for coolant on top of buying the new water pump and thermostat. Open to any thoughts. Thanks

I just bit the bullet and did the P coolant. I figure its once every 10 years so what the heck.

Just buy the 1gal bottles from sunset porsche. You only need 3 gals for a complete flush as described in my post above.

If you do a search on this site you will find several threads on this issue. I read many when wanting to do a flush and ended up with the P coolant. With that said, I also read that others use an Antifreeze/Coolant - Organic Additive Type (OAT) with an aluminum-protecting inhibitor such as "Extended Life Antifreeze". Some of the types I found used by some are: Havoline Extended Life PEAK Global Lifetime Pennzoil DEX-COOL Extended Life Prestone Extended Life Zerex DEX-COOL Again, this is info I found on various threads in the past and am not making any recommendations. Just wanted to pass on some info I found here.

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Isn't Pentosin Pentofrost SF the same as the Porsche coolant? Lemme know thanks

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No its not. Porsche coolant is Pink, the only other formulation that is identical to Porsche coolant is VW G-12 coolant.

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I've used Pentosin Pentofrost SF ... it's pink. I have no idea if it's the same formulation as the Porsche coolant, but it's definitely pink: http://www.pentosin.net/f_antifreeze.asp FWIW, a while back I was reading up on Pentosin in connection with power steering fluid. I recall reading that Pentosin used to manufacture all OEM fluids -- including coolant -- for VW. That was quite a while ago, though, and may no longer be the case.

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You can waste your time doing the research and save $10 but I like to keep it simple and just use the P coolant

Porsche does not make coolant - the fluid is rebranded from manufacturer like pentosin. SF is what is recommended on the pentosin site- I can find those 1.5l bottles for around $12 at pepboys - and you can take any left over ones back to the store. I don't think I used more than 5 bottles plus the distilled water when I did my water pump (pierburg pump and whaler thermostat from pelican)

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Wouldn't it be more like 7.5 bottles if your doing 50/50 with distilled water?

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You're right. And that formulation looks to be identical to the VW G12 as well.

If you want to pay more and avoid Porsche OE parts like the plague, this is a great option. http://www.pentosin.net/specsheets/Pentofrost_pp.pdf

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No argument there ... Porsche coolant comes in gallon jugs, is easy to order on line, and we know it works. I used it the last time around, which was a planned flushing of the coolant system. But if you're in a situation where you need coolant right away and there's not a Porsche dealer available, Pentosin may be the only option -- last I knew, you can get it at Autozone. So it might not be about saving 10 bucks, just about necessity.

I know I am new to the Porsche world but, not to cars. Why no mention of Evans waterless? I ran it in my 87 BMW M6 and loved that no pressure was required in the system to raise the boiling point. I first learned of it watching Jay Leno's garage. It's all he uses in all his cars.

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I did not know that Jay Leno uses it in all his cars ... I knew he uses it in vintage cars because it inhibits corrosion in older or rebuilt vintage cooling systems. That's generally the context in which I've seen it mentioned. I'm not enough of a coolant guru to have any idea what benefit it would provide in a 996.

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Pentofrost SF is pink, and has VW G12 specification rating

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I didn't realize how emotional a topic coolant could be Most of the car nuts around me have Bimmers or PCars and use the readily available Zerex G40 and/or keep a couple bottles of pre-diluted Peak OET around for emergency. In Texas, we regularly stay above 100F in the summer, and it's not uncommon to have boil overs even on properly built / maintained vehicles in extreme circumstances. (traffic, track days, etc.) (although, I'm told by them not to use partial bottles of the pre-dilute after its been opened, maybe it picks up contaminants, I don't know.) In any case, I'm an hour from the nearest shop and don't have a lot of spare space in the garage for more jugs of 'backup'. So I just buy the G40. It's available at Oreilly, it's $20 a gallon vs. $40 shipped for the OE stuff and it very much seems to be OE'like enough to at least do no harm.