Redline Water Wetter and Royal Purple Purple Ice

[Jaybird]

Water Wetter is simply a soap surfactant.
It has no corrosion inhibitor.

Engine Ice is simply a pre-mixed dionized water with propylene glycol solution...at about $34 a gal.

Actually, if you use ethylene or propylene glycol solutions, that should serve as a surface tension reducer in itself. Water wetter would be overkill.

 

[1maniac]

I'll say what has already been said. They are great and work as promised when ran with 100% water.

They do NOT work well when added to a 50/50 mix of antifreeze.

This is the majority opinion on every BMW board I belong to.

 

[Ken2]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jaybird:
Water Wetter is simply a soap surfactant.
It has no corrosion inhibitor.

---

"WaterWetter® will provide the proper corrosion inhibition
for all common cooling system metals, including
aluminum, cast iron, steel, copper, brass, and
lead."
http://www.redlineoil.com/whitePaper/17.pdf

adreed24,
You 1990 radiator is likely partly filled with sediment. A removal and "rod out" is probably due.


Ken

 

[Shannow]

Smokey Yunick used to use ivory soap as the surfactant in his cooling in the early days.

 

[theguru]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ken2:

adreed24,
You 1990 radiator is likely partly filled with sediment. A removal and "rod out" is probably due.
Ken

---

I agree. A good cleanout will make much more difference that WW. If cooling is still a problem upgrade the radiator to a multi-core. Also check the belts, thermostat, fan, cap and pump.

 

[DLazok]

quote:

---

Originally posted by adreed24:
I have heard of these 2 products and I was wondering if they really help to keep engines cooler.

I have a 1990 Trans Am GTA, with the 5.7 liter engine and I was thinking about adding something to it, to help keep it cooler in the summer months.

Anyone have any opinions, good or bad, on the Water Wetter and Purple Ice?

Thanks in advance!

---

ADREED24-

I first started using Redline WaterWetter when I was stock car racing in 1990's. Since Glycol is a safety hazard on track, we were all checked to insure there was NO EG in our systems. Only pure water. The water wetter delivered consistantly better cooling under racing conditions. I think it is wonderful. I also don't use it with any type of coolant. Just plain H2O. When winter comes to the L.A. area, and I plan on going to the mountains, I water the grass with my H2O/Redline then fill up on 50/50 EG until April. Then back to H20+RL_WW.
IT WORKS, DON'T MIX IT.

Dave

 

[Mr Nice]

100% water with Redline Water Wetter is ONLY for a race car....NOT a street car.

I tried WW in my 1990 5.0 Mustang and 1996 Corvette - it didn't reduce water temps at all and it left black gunk at the bottom of the overflow tank.

Save your money.

 

[purelux]

Seeing as you leave an open unknown variable the complaint is nearly baseless. Sounds like he didn't use distilled like it says on the bottle. Thats like saying my friends finish looks like [censored] on his car i won't use that wax. But I have no idea how old the car is, where it was kept, driven or how long the wax was on.

 

[moosestang]

Ditto on the scum when used with the ford gold coolant, but it will turn back into a liquid when hot. I won't be putting it or the gold coolant back in my car next time.

 

[bigmike]

I know it must suck to have WW sludge your coolant, but I used it in my GM truck with Dexcool and never had a problem with it. It's been in for over a year.

 

[Kaboomba]

From my experience with Purple Ice: It brought coolant temps down by 5-10F under WOT (wide-open thermostat) conditions in a car with a very clean, well-tended cooling system and NAPA antifreeze (made by prestone or PEAK?).

For lowering coolant temps while not losing boilover and antifreeze protection you could run 35/65 ethylene glycol/water plus some type of WW. This has worked well for me.

 

[vxcalais]

they are an expensive version of soap, something to break the surface tension etc.

 

[Joel_SHOEMARK]

Originally Posted By: vxcalais
they are an expensive version of soap, something to break the surface tension etc.


Soap that wont foam.

 

[jonny-b]

A mentioned earlier in this tread(and since I have actually used it myself, as well as Purple Ice and WW), you should try Motormax.
I found a link here: http://autorepair.about.com/cs/productreviews/fr/aafpr110202.htm

The difference from MotorMax and Purple Ice/WaterWetter, is that MotorMax seem to work in a normal car, and will reduce operating temperature.

 

[440Magnum]

I've had it scum up in plain old conventional green antifreeze... years before there even WAS a DexCool.

As everyone has said, 1) it works when used without antifreeze, both to inhibit corrosion and to improve heat transfer to the coolant. 2) there's absolutely NO reason to use it with an antifreeze, because antifreezes already have surface-tension reducers in their forumlations, and 3) it forms scum in most antifreezes.

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: jonny-b
A mentioned earlier in this tread(and since I have actually used it myself, as well as Purple Ice and WW), you should try Motormax.
I found a link here: http://autorepair.about.com/cs/productreviews/fr/aafpr110202.htm

The difference from MotorMax and Purple Ice/WaterWetter, is that MotorMax seem to work in a normal car, and will reduce operating temperature.



How can anythin, other than changing to a lower temperature thermostat, reduce the operating temperature assuming that the cooling system has enough capacity and is in good working order? Answer: it can't.

 

[azsynthetic]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum


How can anythin, other than changing to a lower temperature thermostat, reduce the operating temperature assuming that the cooling system has enough capacity and is in good working order? Answer: it can't.



Yes it can by improving the heat transfer property of the coolant. This is done by reducing or eliminating bubbles or vapor barrier that form on hot metal surfaces. If you place an actual temperature gauge on your coolant you will see a temperature reduction with Water Wetter. Now whether a 5,10 or 20 degrees reduction is going to make a different or not with your vehicle is another matter. Here in Phoenix, any reduction in coolant temperature is a bonus when you are stuck in traffic with 125 degrees outside temperature and the A/C on max setting.

 

[Shannow]

I can understand it reducing metal temperature, but not running lower than the thermostat operating temperature.

 

[azsynthetic]

The thermostat sets the temperature at which the coolant is pumped to the radiator and not the actual temperature of the coolant. The Water Wetter helps the radiator remove the heat more efficiently and hence the coolant returns to the engine is cooler. This benefit is more pronounce in high output race engine and in the summer where you have the A/C condenser blowing hot air into the radiator.

 

[mechanicx]

I have my doubts that WW cools metal any better than straight water does with a high pressure cap, but it doesn't matter anyway. If I were going to run straight water, which I would never do on a street car, I'd use a real inhibitor pack like Pencool 3000 or FleetGuard DCA-2 or DCA-4. These have surfactants as well and are proven inhibitor packs.