Do you use a "water wetter"?
 

How well does a water wetter work in reducing engine temperature? I want to be as proactive as possible in reducing head gasket problems. Street application, with anti-freeze.

I've used Water Wetter for decades in my race car and street cars.

I've never used it, and I've never had a head gasket problem (related to coolant). If everything is working correctly, on a stock car water wetter shouldn't make a meaningful diff.

I too have used Water Wetter for many years. In vehicles with real temperature gauges I've always seen a bit of drop in operating temperature.

I used it in my Viper, that are known for running hot. Only a few basic bolt on mods with a stock Long block. It dropped the coolant temp 15-20* from where it normally ran when I got stuck in traffic. It does what it says it does, but I only owned the car for 4 years. I don't know about long term effects it may have.

In theory, yes. In reality, I don't think I have seem much for a street driven car. If I were racing, every bit helps and for $10, if I can take that prize purse home, why not give it a shot. If you want to reduce head gasket failure, proper torque procedure might help more.

It's a salt and alcohol. Nothing special in any way shape or form... oh and it has a little bit of corrosion inhibitors and silicone according to the sds. It's literally a surfactant and nothing else. You could probably use dish soap and have the same thing happen.

I've never used that product. I prefer to run 160 deg. stats in my Vettes to get the additional benefit of more power.

I used it back when I first bought my 86 since I had no cash to spend on upgrades, it did help somewhat. Once I upgraded the radiator I found no need to ever add it again.

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Please test your theory.

Any soap that doesn't have a foaming agent would probably work. I'm not going to test it; my car runs "down against the stat" all the time already...how's it going to run any cooler than that?

On the surfactant, yes it works

If you have a swimming pool or the like, take a squirt bottle filled with water and a little dishsoap
Squirt it right down the middle of the pool, all debris will quickly be pushed up against the tile making your netting fast! (Used this do help knock down 30+ a day!)
It does work. Now if it getting a woman to listen was that easy?

A sink full of water with grease in itsame thing.

I have no vehicle to test it on, they all run hard against the stat including the vette. I suppose I could use a fan on a small heat exchanger and determine the time vs Delta T and measure it. Maybe on a day when I'm bored.

I have been using Red Line "Water Wetter" for decades and have suffered no ills from the experience. I have used it in both my Corvettes and have for over twenty five years. My C3 loves running HOT because of the compression ratio and this Water Wetter does indeed work like they said.

After replacing radiator and filling with Evans NPG I no longer use it in my 427 as there are no additives allowed in the NPG. The Evan's NPG Water-less Coolant is not cheap but it won't boil until over 375* (F) and protects to 40 below zero (F) with zero pressure needed for the system to work properly. The best part is that you can use it for decades without damaging your engine. Getting rid of pressure makes things last a bit longer and is easier on your engine and other systems in the Corvette.

Only bad side to the NPG is when you are cruising somewhere and suddenly something punches a small hole in your radiator you are in trouble. You can't put anything in the cooling system except NPG once you have made the switch. In a pinch I would drain the system flush out the NPG and go back to a standard coolant and Water Wetter. For any high compression or hot running engine the NPG is a godsend IF you can afford to fill the cooling system on a big block Chevrolet.

I have seen other brands of water wetter come out afterwards so there must be a lot followers out there using Water Wetter. I still use the Red Line branded Water Wetter in all of my conventional coolant systems. It works.

Good Luck

But how much is the effect in a pressurized system like the car? As said, if a prize purse was riding on it, not to mention my racing career, even 1 thousandth of a second is meaningful. How much do you think it will net on my street car, forgetting the "up to X HP" advertising?

Im not an engineer but it didnt do a damn thing for me. Had a big block in a tight engine compartment (86 5.0 stang)...even with the best fan I could get in there, cool stat and a griffin radiator that thing was impossible to keep from heat soak. Tried that water wetter when it became a big deal it made 0 difference, if I ran it with or wihtout coolant. Doesnt mean it doesnt work but if it did why isnt it already in coolant?

Awww... C'mon. You don't need to time vs Delta T. Just make sure you have it recorded on video. If you want to get an idea of what it will do, just fill your dishwasher cup with dish soap rather than the powder dishwasher soap. You will have suds on the floor in no time and you won't believe the amount of bubbles that can be generated. Just ask my college roommate :rofl:

I would picture massive bubbles trying to escape to the overflow tank and the coming out of the vented cap.

My Viper ran hard down against it's thermostat too when on the highway or back country roads. It would even set in traffic for a good 5 minutes before it the cooling fan even kicked on.. but once it starting getting hot... it got hot. It would slowly creep up to 190, 200, 220 and so on by the factory gage It never overheated, but you could tell the engine was not happy about being that warm not to mention the heat soak to the interior as that heat filled the transmission tunnel. It is enough having side pipes, have that heat creap in would start to get uncomfortable on a hot day.

I replace the t-stat (Factory 180), made sure the radiator was clear of debris and blowed it out from the rear with compressed air, changed the coolant yearly and you could tell both fans function. I was told by fellow owners this was all just normal. So, I added some water wetter to just see. It ran just a tick cooler (again by factory gage) the summer I had it in. I estimate based off the gage, it was about 10 degrees cooler. Not much, but the stuff isn't all that expensive. Question the accuracy of the gage.. was it 10, 20, 30 or somewhere inbetween? I will say 10 as a conservative mark.

I do not use it in my Iroc or C4, neither seem to have issues with heat soak. It will only help. It won't solve overheating issues.

Human nature. People screw themselves over. You can blend anything you want but if it costs more money, it makes it a harder sell. Much easier to sell Wal*mart tools than Craftsman. Wal*Mart sold a lot of junk because we asked for it.

So....is it going to help the OP prevent a blown head gasket? I'd bet....not.



As I said above...use a soap with little or no foaming agent. They put foaming agent in soap so it makes...foam. And that makes people "think" that it's working. The foam treats peoples' psychology. The soap is what thins water and helps it clean better.