F12 Coolant Change

Hello Friends,
One of the things that I had wanted to accomplish quickly with my "new to me" F12 was to do a coolant change. It doesn't appear that coolant change is part of the "Ferrari Genuine Maintenance" program, and I believe that it is SO important to the long term health of these cars.

The WSM describes a procedure to drain and refill coolant that is known as a "static fill" method. In addition, the WSM references a need to replace the VESA style clamps on the hoses with "Milakor worm drive" clamps upon reassembly. On my 550, the most effective way to refill coolant was to use the Airlift Uview system and "vacuum fill" the coolant system. I will again do the same here. Several manufacturer websites state that the total cooling system volume for the F12 is 24 liters. I could not find any documentation of what the volume is in the WSM.

In the F12, the first step is to get the car on the lift and remove the extensive undertrays. This is like an hour's job, depending on what kind of lift you have.
In the F12, the radiator system is different than the 550 in that the radiator is slanted backwards, and sits in the chassis at a 45 degree angle or less. Because of this, the distance between the block and the radiator is significantly longer than any car I've worked on recently. There are multiple hoses involved that travel over a frame member and then connect into both the thermostat assembly as well as the secondary cooling pump. Then there are two more hoses that actually travel from this intermediate step to the radiator itself.

Upon removing the undertrays, I was surprised to find that several of these main cooling hoses were slipping off (Figures 1 and 2). I presume that this is the reason for changing the clamps that Ferrari requests.

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Getting these VESA clamps off is a real pain. They appear to be one time use clamps, and you have to use a fine flathead to pry the lips up to release the hoses. I was able to get all of the clamps removed, with time and busted knuckles.

The WSM states to remove just the two cooling hoses that lead to the radiator. (Figure 1) Gently wedging a screwdriver in the hose allows you to control the flow of coolant so you don't end up taking an ethylene glycol bath.

I also elected to remove the hoses that connect to the block because they had slipped, and wanted to make sure that I drained as much of the coolant as possible. It is a profoundly messy job, so lay down drop cloths. (Figure 2)

The bottom of the radiator is plastic, and both exit ports appear to have been painted all the way to the edge. Therefore, getting both hoses off those ports resulted in the paint breaking off of the ports and remaining embedded in each hose. (Figure 3). With careful use of a micro flat head screwdriver you can flake this paint off the inside of the hose without any damage to the hose itself.
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Because of splashing it was hard to tell exactly how much coolant came out but it was approximately 3.5 gallons.

There was significant built up corrosion on each exit port that was cast aluminum where the hoses had slipped, so all connections except for the joining pipes (smooth aluminum) and the lower radiator ports (plastic). I presume this was due to slow leak of coolant from these hoses after they slipped. The ports were all gently scraped and cleaned smooth so that they would not do any hose damage.

The complete hose system was reassembled using Mikalor worm-drive clamps. The Mikalor clamps are relatively unique in that they are not typical "slotted" worm drive clamps, they have a smooth metal surface where they contact the hose. I was able to obtain these from a gentleman in England who runs a racing bike business. Figures 1, 2, and 3 show aspects of the reassembled cooling hose system.
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The WSM recommends Glycoshell Coolant, which of course I could not find in the US. A similar coolant would be Zerex-G48, which is also basically known as "BMW Blue" coolant. I elected to use this to refill. The WSM recommends a 50:50 mix of coolant with distilled water, and that's what was used (Figure 1)

The Airlift system is a wonderful tool if you have an air compressor. The main valve is inserted into the expansion tank (this tank is now plastic in the F12 so take care not to overtighten the Airlift and crack the port of the tank) and using compressed air a vacuum is drawn into the green zone on the gauge. You then close the valve and make sure the system holds that vacuum (Figure 2)
The next step is to connect a screened supply tube that you put down into the coolant bucket. Turn the valves, and the system fills itself within 3 minutes. Easy peasy. (Figure 3)
This refill took just less than 4 gallons of total fluid volume.
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That’s a good question. Maybe some of them have gotten supplies of this through the factory supply chain, but I know that many independents use the BMW blue coolant.

 

Everything you see there is factory.