Water wetter

[breezeblock]

has anyone used this in theyre engines. i think i have used something similar to this for diesels called dca it comes from fleetgaurd and is used to stop liner corrosion it prevents cavitation in the coolant . thoughts anyone ?

[Al Weyman]

Does'nt a good anti-freeze/inhibitor do the same? I always use it in my engines.

[Denis Bassom]

I've used it and it hasn't made anything worse. I couldn't guarantee it has made anything better as one vehicle doesn't overheat and the other had inherent design problems way beyond the scope of water wetter's apparent abilities.

[Adam43]

Someone told me that they used it and then struggled to get the temperatures up! I suspect it was apocryphal. I'd be a little worried if I had to use it becuase it may be masking a problem. However on mid-summers days at Lydden it isn't a bad idea.

[graham bahr]

never used it, in my view it should be a last resort, it may be worth adding for a little extra security, but shouldnt be used to try and mask cooling system which isn't man enough for the job

[thebear]

Originally Posted by breezeblock

has anyone used this in theyre engines. i think i have used something similar to this for diesels called dca it comes from fleetgaurd and is used to stop liner corrosion it prevents cavitation in the coolant . thoughts anyone ?

I really doubt if anything can overcome the "Laws of Physics" when it comes to fluid dynamics.

[ian_w]

I've used it without any problems. I would however take the claims about improved cooling with a pinch of salt.

Anti-freeze doesn't tranfer heat as well as water ( by about 20% ), which means its a pretty poor choice for your race car if the cooling system is marginal - you won't find it used in any professional race series.

Best thing to use is distilled water with an anti-corrosion additive to stop your engine rusting/furring up. Water wetter has anti-corrosion properties so is ideal for the job, although I'm sure there are plenty of other commercial products available that do the same thing.

[Al Weyman]

Anti-freeze doesn't tranfer heat as well as water ( by about 20% ), which means its a pretty poor choice for your race car if the cooling system is marginal - you won't find it used in any professional race series.

Well I have read quite the opposite, that a 50/50 solution of antifreeze/water ups the boiling point and is good to use in competition engines.

[graham bahr]

Originally Posted by Al Weyman

Well I have read quite the opposite, that a 50/50 solution of antifreeze/water ups the boiling point and is good to use in competition engines.

the raised boiling point is good, but the lowering of the heat transferr properties is not so good, so i do use antifreeze but only around 20/25%,

i suppose the key word here is marginal, unless a cooling system is marginal, wetter, antifreeze etc makes very little difference and if a cooling system is marginal the best thing to do is improve it!

[Al Weyman]

Mine is a bit marginal on a hot day as it happens, mind you have the guys that helped me build the car stuck the oil rad in front of the water rad so I have just moved that so hopefully it will help. Mind you your rules have obligated me to stick a grill in so maybe I will be back to square one :-(

[Chris Y]

The proper 'Water Wetter' (Redline I think) is ok, but beware of cheap alternatives. I tried one a while back - I think it was called 'Greased Lightning' - and it really didn't do much in the way of lowering temperatures, but it did leave a load of silt in the waterways!

Ian and Graham are correct - just about any 'additive' will raise the boiling point of the water, but some of them will lower the heat transfer properties by a substantial amount. I would suppose that a good quality antifreeze (particularly the ones marked as 'summer coolant') would be almost as good as any of these 'miracle cures', if addded in at around 20%

[Al Weyman]

Oh well I better thin it out a bit, learn something every day on here don't you. :-) I'll see how it goes testing at Brands on Saturday I may have to invest in a bigger rad.

[zefarelly]

I tried WW, can't say I noticed ther difference, an ally rad made a big difference however !

[1200Datto27]

I was under the impression that the way that water wetter works is by reducing the surface tension of the water/coolant, and there fore reducing the amount of bubbles (air being very poor at heat transferance) that can form in the water passages.

Also, gycol based coolants are banned in a number of race series as it is very slippery when spilled on to a track.

[noodles]

1200Datto27 is on the money.

Surfactants such as Redline Water Wetter work by lowering the surface tension of water, thereby improving water's heat transfer capability

Of the more traditional coolant additives, you have either the more common ethylene glycol or the more recent propylene glycol.

Propylene glycol is less toxic than ethylene glycol and is typically used in food processing applications heat exchange units.

Ethylene glycol has a lower viscosity then propylene glycol and thus is more efficient at heat transfer as well as a lower pumping energy requirement. Whilst Propylene Glycol does have a higher specific heat than Ethylene Glycol, other factors come into play to determine hear transfer efficiency. The specific heat of Propylene Glycol is not as high as water. It also takes slightly higher concentration of Propylene Glycol (about 3% from my studies) to provide the same freeze protection as Ethylene Glycol.