912 Coolant

[CloudDancer]

What Brand of coolant do you guys use in a 912? Is Castrol All Climate "pre-mixed ready to use" blue colour ok to use as well as the genuine VW or Toyota red anti-freeze?

[Morph]

Yes mixed 50:50 with distilled water.

I have found that if you use it in it's neat form the coolant retains too much heat and the 912 is sensitive to water temps. I started with the normal 0.9bar pressure cap and the CHT temps only need to hit 114deg c to boil over. If you are not careful you can hit these temps easy. I have now put the 1.2bar cap on and this will only release at CHT's of 120deg C

The other day 7am, it was 19deg C on the ground, took off, climbed to 1500ft and suddenly the temps were 36deg C. I looked at my CHT's and they were pushing over 110deg C in less than 10 minutes.

My normal temps on a normally cool day at cruise are 90 to 100.

[CloudDancer]

Thanks Morth, as I understand it, the "Castrol All-Climate" ready to use is already pre-mixed 50/50, so i do not dilute any further and fill to capacity straight from the can? You now get the Castrol SF at Midas, replacing the "All Climate" which is the undiluted concentrate.

Now some guys use tap water, some use 5l still mineral water, others distilled battery water. What would you recommend, as tap water these days ....

[Morph]

No it's not prediluted. You can mix it with distilled water, but if you suspect the water quality you may use it "ready to use" as is.

Castrol All climate antifreeze is a new cost effective means of protecting cooling systems operating under arduous South African conditions. Castrol All Climate Antifreeze serves a dual purpose. It offers cost effective all round protection at 33% or 50% dilution and is "ready-to-use" should water quality be suspect or unavailable for topping up.

[CloudDancer]

OK Thanks for the info.

[Mc Guyver]

What Brand of coolant do you guys use in a 912? Is Castrol All Climate "pre-mixed ready to use" blue colour ok to use as well as the genuine VW or Toyota red anti-freeze?

In Aus, we only use Evans waterless coolant.
Airborne do this as a standard.
This is expensive but never has to be replaced.
I was under the impression that Rotax had specified this for the 912

[Morph]

yes Evans Waterless is one of the recommended coolants, but not readily available in SA.

[Ian]

I found Castrol supplies both a premixed and a neat "SF Antifreeze". You can download the product specs from their website.

Problem is they don't give you the ratio of their premixed product, so best to get the "Antifreeze SF" and mix 50:50 yourself.

Cheers ian

[CloudDancer]

Thanks Ian, apparantly a 50/50 mix with distilled water.