Antifreeze

[Cadence]

Hello All,

I’ve just had a new water pump fitted and the garage has suggested using OAT? pink for the cooling system. The previous owner had told me to use silicate (blue).

What’s the best route for my ‘72 big valve sprint?

Thanks for any feedback

[mbell]

These days there a lot of different coolants and you need to be careful.

You need something that is safe for the metal mix (cast iron, ali, brass, solder) used in the twincam. I'd likely want more information on the specific coolant (brand, G number etc) they wanted to use to validate its suitability.

[Ray419G]

I had a similar question a while back, I had always used Glycol based (Blue) antifreeze, which is what I assume is now referred to as silicate based. I posed the question to a mate who sources various auto products, including antifreeze, for a large retailer. He spoke to his contact at one of the UK manufacturers of antifreeze, who it turns out is their chief chemist. The chemists advice was that all of their antifreeze products were intended to be compatible with seals and gaskets used in both modern and older "classic" cars, so in theory any of their products could be used in an Elan. However he also added that personally, if it was his car, he would stick with the older type Glycol based antifreeze as he didn't think it was possible to be one hundred percent certain how every material that could have been used in an older car might react when exposed to a modern antifreeze.
Good enough for me, so Blue is what I have continued to use.

Ray.

[elans3]

I have always used Bluecol in all my Elan's, and my Alfa Twincams BUT ! mix with de-ionised water as against tap water.
De-ionised water available from the likes of Asda, Boyes, etc, at around £2.00 for 21/2 ltrs.

[Cadence]

Thank you both - blue it it’s !

[Uturn]

Haven't put my engine together yet but did look into this a while back.
The pink and orange stuff was confusing so the remaining choices were green and blue.

I have a '70s, '80s and 2013 BMW. BMW recommends the same coolant for all of them.
Since I have blue on tap, I'll be using blue!