Never said it was a disaster, but did occur.
Water Wetter
- Thread starter jerseyguy123
- Start date
To me looks like a disaster
Well if it’s an imaginary problem then an imaginary additive works just as well.
I’m 99.44% sure that I’m not having a psychedelic flashback, so not imagining the results of using water wetter:
1st, no one is going to use it unless they are are already having overheating issues.
It will drop the temperature by 5-10 F when the user is using 100% water. That was my experience. Often just a slight drop in temperature is enough to give the engine needed relief.
But for people using an antifreeze mix, the temperature reduction is less. And to the credit of water wetter’s manufacturer, RedLine, they point this out. But even “less” is better than “zero”
There are many racing organizations that forbid the use of antifreeze. For those cars, often running on the edge of overheating, water wetter is a valuable tool.
But for most street applications, the stock cooling system is adequate and in no danger of overheating with normal use
Z
I used this in my Mazda Rx-7 racecar. Many tracks don't allow the usage of coolant in case of coolant loss or vehicle damage. It doesn't provide freeze protection. There is a green product similar to water wetter sold at Walmart. There are a few comparison tests out there from various magazines
Its an excellent product primarily for racers but also perfectly applicable to certain types street vehicles.
In the tuner community when you run hotter than stock due to more power, one trick is to thin out your mix with more distilled water and also one bottle of Redline water wetter.
You never run it pure ( would be silly expensive too).
Have used it many times on my aftermarket supercharged 350Zs (yes plural) that made 130-150 hp above stock while using the stock raditor in summertime.
Now the stock radiator on a Nissan 350Z was pretty good from the factory with plenty of cooling reserve even during hard running in a southern summer, but when you are 120-150 hp above stock and drive the vehicle hard the radiator will meet its limits.
Redline Water Wetter, works primarily by reducing surface tension (which means = less bubbles therefore better contact with the internal surfaces of the radiators, which means improved heat exchange) and also because fewer bubbles reduce caviation at the water pump.
No need for it in wintertime and/or on newer and/or stock vehicles (unless radiators are old and tired in a hot southern summer)
But otherwise there is really no downside other than reduced longevity of your coolant mix since it displaces a tiny amount of coolant and therefore its reserve of additives.
But this is trivial and the kind of gear heads you would use it dont cut corners on delaying fluid fills anyway.
Source: I am both a Chemist and former amateur racer.
In the tuner community when you run hotter than stock due to more power, one trick is to thin out your mix with more distilled water and also one bottle of Redline water wetter.
You never run it pure ( would be silly expensive too).
Have used it many times on my aftermarket supercharged 350Zs (yes plural) that made 130-150 hp above stock while using the stock raditor in summertime.
Now the stock radiator on a Nissan 350Z was pretty good from the factory with plenty of cooling reserve even during hard running in a southern summer, but when you are 120-150 hp above stock and drive the vehicle hard the radiator will meet its limits.
Redline Water Wetter, works primarily by reducing surface tension (which means = less bubbles therefore better contact with the internal surfaces of the radiators, which means improved heat exchange) and also because fewer bubbles reduce caviation at the water pump.
No need for it in wintertime and/or on newer and/or stock vehicles (unless radiators are old and tired in a hot southern summer)
But otherwise there is really no downside other than reduced longevity of your coolant mix since it displaces a tiny amount of coolant and therefore its reserve of additives.
But this is trivial and the kind of gear heads you would use it dont cut corners on delaying fluid fills anyway.
Source: I am both a Chemist and former amateur racer.
Last edited:
self deleted since it was a bit snarky to someone who posted w/o knowledge.
Always wonder how an additive like this changes the set point of the thermostat.
The only downside here is spending money on something that won’t make a bit of difference.
Whoa there, thermostats set the low point, not the high point. It’s the out of normal range high temp that is being impacted. Or are you just trolling….. ?
Defenetly I can say that the engine warms up faster, so the snake oil is doing something tangible.
You said right.
Did you add it to the coolant mix, or to plain water?
If heat transfer is improved it should cause the engine to heat up less fast. Or do you mean the coolant? Besides that the speed at which an engine heats up is highly influenced by the environment. There is no way you could ever test this without taking ambient into consideration.
Like I said so much imagination on this topic and conflation between temperature and heat transfer.
Only if the system is out of bounds. A normally functioning system has the operating temperature set by the thermostat. There is zero evidence the system discussed in this thread is out of control.
You do not have to be a scientist for understand it.
The temp indicator goes up faster in the morning with similar ambient temperature and this started after 2-3 days after i added WW in the reservoir tank
Any cooling system, normally functioning or not, only has the low temp set by the thermostat.
The high temp is set by the cooling system capacity. Which is a combination of the radiator size and efficiency, the water pump, and of course the heat that is produced in the engine.
A thermostat has absolutely nothing to do with the high temperature.
Z
SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
Those products , like "water wetter" etc... were created for the racing industry and not really for street driven totally "stock-oem" engines. A waste of money for street vehicles that have no issues. Certainly NOT the fix anyone needs if their cooling system is on the blink.