Evans vs Engine Ice vs Watter Wetter hot weather

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Want to hear opinions what to use on my old 88 BMW 325is everything working is it should running 180 degree thermostat just want to have the best cooling.Ilive in Puerto Rico during summer temeperature is unforgiving plus I have a lead foot and the inevitable traffic jams every now and then.

I used Red Line water wetter before on my old 240sx/sr20det car with great result but want to see if there is something better.
 
Just curious to see if there is something even better than Red Line. Like any OCD car freak looking always for the ultimate (blank) for my car.
 
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
I use Water Wetter mainly for the added water pump lubrication they advertise.


The only part on the SE-R that I live in fear of is the water pump due to the pain in the patoot that it is to replace. Somehow it has survived all these years and now you have reminded me to do something I have meant to do and simply forgotten. Thanks.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
Why not normal coolant (old green coolant)?

Can't have that. There wouldn't be any reason to ask (censored) questions on bitog..
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I avoid those products when I can use antifreeze (which has surface tension recducers and water pump seal lubes built in). Not too familiar with the RP Purple Ice product nor the Evans product, but I've used Water Wetter before and a) noticed absolutely zero improvement over ordinary coolant, and b) it turned to brown goo in the cooling system after about a year.

I would definitely use either one in a racing vehicle where glycol antifreeze is prohibited... but not in a street car.
 
I thought those products were mainly water pump lube for racers who use straight water, plus the poster above who said it turned into brown goop..

Regular coolant, regular flush & fill, a thermostat every few years and no need for that stuff
 
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Not too familiar with the RP Purple Ice product


He was thinking of using "Engine Ice", an actual coolant product (like Be Cool's/Motul's coolant), NOT an additive, like RP's Purple Ice.

Of course, everyone's response is going to be the same anyway, just letting you know it was NOT Purple Ice he was going to use.
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The only thing that can make a vehicle run cooler is a bigger radiator (more surface area). Even if water wetter allows more heat to be picked up in the engine it won't help heat rejection. Specific heat of the coolant or more flow from a larger water pump won't help.

Believe it or don't believe it.
 
Evans coolant is $89 AUD for 3.78L.

You need to use 4 to 6 litres (or more) of Evans prefluid mix to flush out the water in the cooling system.

For Holden commodore with a 12L capacity system and flushing premix around $370 plus labour say $150

If you get water in system drain and do it all over again which includes if the thermostat water pump or hose etc replacement it will be over $520 each time minimum just for replacing the Evans coolant.

This amount doesn't include the cost of replacement part and labour.

If money is object proceed with the joy of Love.
 
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i used water wetter once and noticed few months after some gunk floating inside the expansion tank. deffo something fishy going on there.
 
Originally Posted By: Al
The only thing that can make a vehicle run cooler is a bigger radiator (more surface area). Even if water wetter allows more heat to be picked up in the engine it won't help heat rejection. Specific heat of the coolant or more flow from a larger water pump won't help.

Believe it or don't believe it.


Significantly increasing the proportion of straight water in the mix does indeed improve cooling capacity, because the specific heat of water is higher than that of glycol coolant.

I changed a former vehicle over to a very low percentage of glycol coolant in order to control its tendency to overheat when towing, and when operating in temps above ~110F, which are very common here in AZ. I added Water Wetter to assure corrosion control and lube/conditioning. I only ran _just_ enough glycol to prevent freezing in the A/C evaporator. This strategy effectively controlled the overheat issue.

If I wasn't experiencing limited overheating tendencies, or wasn't on a racetrack which prohibits glycols, I would definitely not screw around with additizing standard coolant+water.
 
Originally Posted By: slybunda
i used water wetter once and noticed few months after some gunk floating inside the expansion tank. deffo something fishy going on there.


Water Wetter acts as a cleaning agent as well. Lots of people run into the same issue. It's cleaning out gunk that was already there.
 
I'd be somewhat concerned about using "water wetter" and that sort of thing.

The cooling system in the E30 and E36 is not perfect, but it can surely work to the extremes of temperature. Big things are ensuring you have the correct thermostat, water pump is serviceable and hoses are in good nic.

Then the fan clutch. If it isn't locking up when standing on a hot day, (i.e. you can stop it with a newspaper very easily, and it takes a while to start spinning again), you've got a problem. Depending on the clutch installed, you may or may not get significant fan noise from standing in traffic in hot weather.

My other suggestion is double-checking the electric auxiliary fan is working, disconnect the wiring connector from that radiator switch, and jumper it (Per these instructions).
You may wish to use some hot (near boiling) water to double-check whether the switch even works, they're pretty cheap to replace, too.

In my E36, the Owner's Manual recommends a 60:40 mix of water to coolant (or was it vice-versa?). Either way, having a higher mixture of water is perfectly fine, especially if you are using distilled water in the cooling system.
Just remember to use a multimeter to check for electrolysis (Per this guide on "Doug's Domain") and flush the coolant every one to two years.

Back in February, during the height of the Australian summer, I drove my E36 from the Northwest of Australia down to our capital city here in WA. About 500km/310mi. of the drive occurred in heat that I knew was more than 46º (115ºF), probably exceeding even 50ºC (120ºF). The cabin was stuffed to the ceiling with my stuff, so she was a heavy car. A/C was running, and eventually set to Recirculated. Eventually, I did reduce my speed to about 80km/h, as I was concerned about the hot road surface and the tires.

The only issue I noted was, despite a continuous accelerator position, there was a slight bogging and surging every so often. I attribute this to ECU perhaps not having programming to deal with the sensory input from this excruciatingly hot weather, or attempting to trim the fuel based on input from the O2 sensors. In any case, there was no overheating and no loss of coolant. The electrical auxiliary fan did not go to high speed when I made stops every hour or so just to stretch my legs (etc).

The next day, I finished the last 400km or so of the trip in very mild weather. The car ran better than ever.

All this with a completely stock E36 cooling system; aside from the Aluminium HEPU water pump and aluminium thermostat housing. Car uses a 92ºC (197.6ºF) thermostat, stock 91º/99º radiator temperature sensor.
 
Don't use water wetter type products in an engine with temperature controlled via a thermostat.

The surfactant concept only works (and that's debatable) when the system is out of control...and following on from Al's point...if it lowers the coolant temperature for the same water mass flow, then it's shifting LESS heat.

Both Redline and RP claim that they lower the coolant temperature by preventing nucleate boiling. Nucleate boiling just happens to be one of the most efficient means of removing heat from metal surfaces, so by their own admission, these products (again, when used on out of control systems) REDUCE the amount of heat shifted.
 
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