lucas water weter

[bucket]

red line water weter

this stuff dropped my operating temp from 215 to 220 down to 204 to 209..a welcome change for a small investment

 

[Hib Halverson]

this stuff dropped my operating temp from 215 to 220 down to 204 to 209..a welcome change for a small investment

Uh, "bucket"....Lucas does not make "Water Wetter".

Red Line Synthetic Oil Corp. makes it.

Lucas Oil Products does not sell a coolant additive.

 

[bucket]

lol....woops...thanx...

 

[JimBobC4]

ok , what is it ? How does it work ?

I'm not a physics genius but I don't understand how an additive can make an engine run cooler. :confused

I have seen some guys run this stuff in drag cars, but I thought it was just for cooling system lubrication purposes.

 

[Hib Halverson]

ok , what is it ? How does it work ?

I'm not a physics genius but I don't understand how an additive can make an engine run cooler. :confused

I have seen some guys run this stuff in drag cars, but I thought it was just for cooling system lubrication purposes.

There's a bunch of info on Red Line Oil's web site but the executive summary is that one of the two main components of Water Wetter is a wetting agent which enhances heat transfer between the hot water jacket metal and the coolant. Better heat transfer makes lower coolant temp.

 

[Red Vette]

I have read that water wetter works only with water in the cooling system, but with and a 50-50 water anti-freeze mixture, it is not as effective. I added some to my 94 (50-50 mixture) that always seemed to run hot and I did not notice a difference, either with the gauge or the digital readout. Installed a switch to turn on the second fan manually so I wouldn't have to turn on the AC to activate it. This dropped the temp from 230 to 195.
Barrett

 

[Hib Halverson]

I have read that water wetter works only with water in the cooling system, but with and a 50-50 water anti-freeze mixture, it is not as effective. (snip)
Barrett

It's not the Water Wetter that is less or not effective. It's that a 50/50 mixe of water and antifreeze is not as efficient a coolant as is lesser percentages (ie: 70/30) or straight water regardless any additives in the coolant. Bottom line: the idea that Red Line Water Wetter is only effective with low/no antifreeze coolants is urban legend.

Also, Water Wetter is more effective when nucleate boiling is present at the cooling jackets' hottest locations. Some engines have chronic trouble with nucleate boiling and, thus, see a bigger decrease in ECT with (and have a more acute need for) Water Wetter than do engines that do not have nucleate boiling present.

 

[Red Vette]

Thanks Hib for clearing up the "urban legend" for me and giving us some more facts about water wetter. I appreciate your response.
Barrett

 

[bucket]

i run a very high percent of anti-freeze with my water weter and also have an adjustable fan thermostat..($170 bucks worth...ugh)
but am pleased with 204 to 209 operating temp..
im wondering now if venting the under hood area would make a difference.....
and....
if an oil cooler will make a difference..
still..acording to GM...temps up to 240 or so are not considered hot..(?)
oh well

 

[mako41]

I have read that water wetter works only with water in the cooling system, but with and a 50-50 water anti-freeze mixture, it is not as effective. I added some to my 94 (50-50 mixture) that always seemed to run hot and I did not notice a difference, either with the gauge or the digital readout. Installed a switch to turn on the second fan manually so I wouldn't have to turn on the AC to activate it. This dropped the temp from 230 to 195.
Barrett

You didn't see a coolant Temp difference because Water-Wetter is best designed to be used with straight water as your coolant. Water has much better thermal heat transfer qualities as compared to a water/ethyene glycol coolant mix. If you run straight water as your only coolant (not advisable) you would see a significant drop in coolant temps. Using Water-Wetter with the recommended 50/50 coolant water mix will yield very little in the way of a temp drop, as you have experienced for yourself in the real world. This is not an urban legend, as you have already seen for yourself the results of using water wetter with a 50/50 mix of ethylene glycol/water as your coolant.

If you want to drop your coolant temps. the best way to do it would be to change the OEM 195* thermostat to one that opens at a lower temp. along with a ECM chip, or tune, that turns on the main cooling fan at a lower temp. If you have an auxillary pusher fan, the switch that activates it can be replaced with one that opens at a lower temp.

 

[rascal_rascal_99]

There is something else to keep in mind here when you're comparing water as coolant to antifreeze, both with adding in a liquid cooling assistant like we're talking about here. Antifreeze companies know that their product does not cool as well as water and many of them already have some kind of cooling additive in them, so when you're putting it in a 50/50 antifreeze water mixture, it's already there to start with and you're not going to get the same kind of results.