Water wetter

[DavidL]

Snake oil or a useful option?
I thought the former but there are a number of Rennlist threads that seem to recommend it.
Surely a correctly functioning system shouldn't need it or is it just to stop the fans being necessary so often - if that's really a benefit?

 

[Alexw]

I've used this in a water cooling system - but not in a car I was cooling a PC and the stuff was added to the water to see if it did anything. There was no difference in temperatures (I had sensors on the CPU, GPU and inside the water before and after the radiator, each linked to its own little LCD display).
After a few months it left a residue on the side of the pipes (clear piping so easy to see) which over more months sloughed off into chunks which circulated inside the system. At that point the system was emptied and it was never used again! The chunks were harder than i thought too, I expected them to be soft squishy things but they were not which made me fear it would clog the pump.
In my experience (with the PC cooling system anyway) just add a few drops of detergent to the water + antifreeze to stop bugs growing. I don't think there's that much of a difference between the PC cooling system and the cars one [] Same principle anyway (pump->heat->radiator) Maybe it was sunlight reacting with the "Wetter" that caused it, I'll never know as I won't touch the stuff! Hope it helps!

 

[BlackMagic]

Unless you have a very highly modded engine, the radiator is more than capable of keeping the engine cool. My radiator has never been changed and despite some very hard driving, has never gone above half way.

 

[ChasR]

I think Alex used it in the wrong application IMO, but I could be wrong.

From what I understand, water has superior cooling properties to coolant (in terms of heat transfer). However, it's lubricating properties (water pump) and anti corrosive properties are not as good as coolant in these respects. The water wetter comes in as a lubricant for the water pump from what I understand.

 

[944 man]

If you have a calibrated coolant temperature gauge, then youll see a noticable difference. Im sorry Alex, but you couldnt have made a less relevant post.

 

[Alexw]

How so? What do you think is irrelevant about the post?

How is cooling a PC any different to a car? It uses a pump, radiator etc, just on a smaller scale.

 

[Peter Empson]

I did quite a bit of reading on this subject as I was considering it for what might be the slightly marginal cooling in my car. From what I read there were loads of reports from users that had experienced a bad build up gunk on pipes and waterways, exacly as Alex discovered. To counter this most people agreed it does lower temps slightly, but because of the former I reasoned it might be best suited to a race car that is rebuilt regularly.

From your post I suspect you've used this product Simon, so can I ask, have you stripped down and inspected for the build up after a few years? If not, did you notice a reduction in its benefits after a decent period of time?

 

[barks944]

I think it comes down to the age old argument of "If it aint broke, don't fix it".

 

[ChasR]

I still think it's a good idea to use it if you don't have any coolant in your system (but then why would people do that?), as water pumps don't take too kindly to running with a lack of lubrication.

 

[Hilux]

as water pumps don't take too kindly to running with a lack of lubrication.

Water pumps have a sealed bearing on the driven pulley side, the impellor simply drives the water around. The water wetter helps keep the seals etc conditioned thats all.

Water wetter is a known and tested product (in cars) that increases the heat transfer properties of water so it removes heat from source more efficiently than water/coolant. With a good clean system it will reduce overall water temperatures quite markedly I understand from other forums users and experiences I have heard and read about.

 

[ChasR]

Ah, I thought the Porsche pumps were like the older school pumps hence the need to be changing them every other cambelt change.

 

[944 man]

I have Pete and I noticed a significant improvement. Not stripped though. Alex: my point was that empirical evidence gained observing a water CPU cooler cant be expected to apply to a car cooling system.