skyhawk174

Yes I did the search thing and also went to the FAQs, no luck.

Okay so I have been hearing some talk recently about Water Wetter (spelling?). From what I have heard, it is supposed to drop your coolant temperature by about 20°. Anyone use this product?

I would think lowering the temperature of the engine is a good thing but then isn't it designed to operate at a certain temperature anyway? So by dropping the temp, your thermostat would not really open and the flow would be as if it was a cold engine. Hmmm, I think living up here in Canada I would want the heat real fast so that the inside gets warm and toasty fast . Maybe a good product for California and the southern states but up north? Debatable.

njaremka

watter wetter won't drop your coolant temp by a specific amount. what it will do is make your cooling system more effective by aiding in the heat transfer from your engine to the coolant and then from the coolant to the radiator. in general, you will see a slightly cooler running engine, but not by much. what it will offer you is a little more running time before your engine overheats.

carguycw

To expand on what Nik said, Water Wetter works by allowing you to use straight water (no antifreeze) in your cooling system (using water with no Water Wetter or antifreeze will trash your engine). Water will absorb more heat energy than ethylene glycol antifreeze during the same increase in temperature. This will make your engine run cooler even though the coolant temperature is the same because the coolant is absorbing more heat. Besides helping with overheating, the engine will make a *little* more power because the cylinder head will be cooler, making the intake air denser; however, the increase will be pretty minimal.

You will notice that I said straight water with no antifreeze. This means that Water Wetter offers *NO* freezing protection whatsoever. To address the question in the original post, yes, your engine will theoretically take longer to warm up in the winter, but this is a moot point because it would be HIGHLY STUPID to use Water Wetter in the winter in Canada because the coolant will freeze and the engine will (at best) blow a freeze plug or (at worst) crack in half Don't go there. This is a summer mod only

skyhawk174

Thanks guys, just the info I need to know. So in effect it should not be used with regular antifreeze, just as I thought. I'll have to send one of the other guys with a P5 who is thinking of doing this to this post.

njaremka

ok, i never heard you could not mix this stuff with regular anitfreeze. as a matter of fact, i just copied this from www.redlineoil.com :

WaterWetter® Supercoolant is a unique wetting agent for cooling systems which reduces coolant temperatures by as much as 30°F. This liquid product can be used to provide rust and corrosion protection in plain water for racing engines, which provides much better heat transfer properties than glycol-based antifreeze. Or it can be added to new or used antifreeze to improve the heat transfer of ethylene and propylene glycol systems. Designed for modern aluminum, cast iron, copper, brass, and bronze systems.

Farsyde

so this stuff is a rippoff???? does it actually do anything or is like the $300 "electric supercharger"???? using just water shouldnt trash your engine though should it?? all antifreeze does is lower the freezing temp of water. I see where your coming from this though but is this just a dude selling a bottle of hope's and dreams?

skyhawk174

Hey there Farsyde, as far as I know the engine coolant has a whole bunch of additives to prevent corrosion, etc. I would much rather put that stuff in than water with all of its impurities. Gee I wonder what they used so many years ago when Henry Ford was around? There must be stuff on the NET about this. I'll have to look see.

njaremka

just using water will give you the best boil-over prevention, BUT it will also lead to more corrosion inside your iron engine components, which is really bad. going 50/50 with water/anitfreeze will give you the best corrosion protection, the best freezing protection, and the best boil-over protection.

now, what water wetter does is modifies the viscosity of the fluid you put into your cooling system so that it transfers heat better.

now, put this into practical application:
every cooling system, regardless of the temperature of the thermostat, reaches an equilibrium temperature that is higher than the rated temp of the thermostat. by adding water wetter, you reduce this equilibrium temp, and your car will run cooler.

carguycw

OK, a few more points to add here, in no particular order:

* You MUST use coolant with anti-corrosion agents because straight water will eat away aluminum parts. Back to high-school chemistry: if you submerge pieces of 2 dissimilar metals (like an aluminum cylinder head and a cast iron engine block) in an electrically conductive liquid (like water) and apply an electrical charge (like a car battery) the more reactive metal (in this case, aluminum) will be stripped away and deposited on the less reactive metal. This process is called electrolysis. If you use straight water with no anti-corrosion agents in an engine with aluminum parts, you will experience SEVERE corrosion. It will turn your engine into a hunk of scrap metal in a matter of weeks. DON'T do it.

* Back in Henry Ford's day, this was not a problem because almost all engines were 100% cast iron. No dissimilar metals = no electrolytic corrosion. However, people DID have to be really careful that their cooling systems had no air leaks to prevent rust.

* Water Wetter DOES work. It contains anti-corrosion agents and water pump lubricant like antifreeze, just without the ethylene glycol, plus the viscosity modifier that Nik talked about.

* Like Nik says, it's fine to use Water Wetter with regular antifreeze, it just won't make as much of a difference. My earlier comments about not using it freezing weather were based on the assumption that skyhawk174 wanted to leave out the antifreeze, which is the normal reason for using Water Wetter in Texas where I live

ARD MP5

We sell a lot of Redline products. WE usually use water wetter in our force induction vehicles like the RX7. I don't believe it will be necessary in this n/a application.

Let me know if you're interested in trying it out. We gray market this stuff to Japan cause it's so popular out there amongst the turbo guys.

rishie

skyhawk174

Hi Rishie and Chris, thanks for more GREAT info. I really appreciate it. You know how it is, some guys start talking about things and they make it sound so good. I always like to check things out before I do anything like that. Okay stuff like exterior mods involving paint I have no problems with but engine stuff, oh man I am careful. No engine, no get up and go zoom zoom .

Traveler

I used this stuff in my last performance car. A '73 Porsche 914 (custom body kit) with a 400HP 355CI Chevy in it. I used a large Griffin aluminum racing radiator with a Black Magic cooling fan. The engine was actually higher than the radiator so the system had to be bled properly to avoid air bubbles that would cause coolant blockage. I used water wetter in that car with a 50/50 water/antifreeze mix and it worked great. I saw about a 5-10 degree cooler running temperature difference. Keep in mind that this was a highly stressed environment for a cooling system and I needed all I could get with it. Very similar to a hot turbo setup on these cars.

Water wetter aids heat transfer from the coolant to the metal surfaces inside the engine block and the radiator. It allows better heat transfer from the engine to the coolant, and then better heat transfer to the radiator. You probably won't need it unless you start pushing 250 HP and try to run the stock radiator. The stock cooling system is usually tested under desert conditions with the stock HP levels so you shouldn't have a problem.

BlkP5Lethr

will this make my A/C any cooler?

skyhawk174

Okay I want this for my P5. I am sure I have enough space in the engine compartment since I removed all of that extra plastic that was the air box .

carguycw

No. The A/C is completely unrelated to the engine cooling system.