coolant question ?

[Sean McCarthy]

changed water pump/ thermostat lost 4 gallons of coolant. want to know if i flush system can i go back with a domestic brand like prestone,peak?

[s_wilwerding]

I wouldn't recommend it - why didn't you re-use the original coolant? When I added the GT3 radiator, I saved the coolant, strained it through a coffee filter (it inevitably gets things in it) and re-used.

Someone over on Renntech had figured out the brand of the coolant that Porsche uses - it's some foreign brand, and it seemed like it cost nearly as much as just buying it from Porsche. As info, Porsche sells undiluted coolant, so if you need 4 gallons, you only need to buy two from Porsche and add two gallons of distilled water.

[JFP in PA]

If the system is thoroughly cleaned out, you can use any third party coolant compatible with the car’s alloy engine. That said, I would have to ask why you would want to do that as the factory coolant is very good and has a long life if mixed only with distilled water. Another problem is that once a car is converted over, anyone working on it would expect the coolant to be Porsche’s due to the known problems with mixing aftermarket stuff with it, so if they had to add the factory coolant, they could inadvertently create a real nightmare.

When we get a car in the shop that we do not know the history of, we will only add distilled water to it until we know for sure what is already in it. If you had ever had to clean out a system screwed up by mixed coolants, you would understand why. We only use the OEM product as we have never seen an issue with it; and as mentioned, it lives a long time and seems to do an excellent job.

[tomk]

I would only use the factory coolant, compared to the overall cost of of running one of these cars the coolant cost doesnt even register on the scale. That said, JFP is right about mixing coolant,