Water Wetter and Sludge Buildup

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Has anyone else experienced water wetter causing a buildup of sludge/gunk in their cooling system?

I used Water wetter in my 2000 Crown Vic at around 5000 miles and when I went to change the coolant, it looked like it was 90k miles old... there was gunk EVERYWHERE and the hoses were almost clogged up.

I cleaned up as much of it as possible, flushing it and eventually filling with Prestone green.

I *thought* it was becuase I used Texaco anti-freeze but after reading about possible causes of water wetter causing the buildup - I HAD to ask.
 
quote:

Originally posted by metroplex:
Has anyone else experienced water wetter causing a buildup of sludge/gunk in their cooling system?

I used Water wetter in my 2000 Crown Vic at around 5000 miles and when I went to change the coolant, it looked like it was 90k miles old... there was gunk EVERYWHERE and the hoses were almost clogged up.

I cleaned up as much of it as possible, flushing it and eventually filling with Prestone green.

I *thought* it was becuase I used Texaco anti-freeze but after reading about possible causes of water wetter causing the buildup - I HAD to ask.


I thought water wetter was primarily for racing applications which could run water + water wetter and no antifreeze. Do they make one which blends with antifreeze?
 
It says right on their website it's good to mix with antifreeze too, although not as effective.
 
Yes according to them its good, but i heard someone else say WW gunked up their cooling system.

I had a lot of gunk for a new car and redline was the only "non-standard" thing I added.
 
It will not "gunk up" your coolant system. I ran it for two years with only watter and it never cause me any problems at all. I ran it one year with standard green coolant and also no problems. Coolant systems natural get "gunked up". Various gaskets in the engine do not seal to well when cold. You can easily get a little bit of "gunk" from a head gasket that leaks a bit when cold.

Ever notice how resovoirs get nasty looking over time?
 
I have noticed in my wife's car after two years of using WaterWetter in the cooling system, it turned the coolant into Black slime. I removed the over flow tank and slowly drained it and I saw the WaterWetter turned into slime. Don't waste your $$ on this product. I didn't notice any difference in the water temps. Just flush your coolant system every 30,000 miles and you won't have any problems.
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quote:

Originally posted by Boeing 757 Pilot:
I have noticed in my wife's car after two years of using WaterWetter in the cooling system, it turned the coolant into Black slime. I removed the over flow tank and slowly drained it and I saw the WaterWetter turned into slime. Don't waste your $$ on this product. I didn't notice any difference in the water temps. Just flush your coolant system every 30,000 miles and you won't have any problems.
cool.gif


Yep, in street applications, I see absolutely no point to using this product. Just use a 50/50 mix (distilled water, no tap...keep deposits down) of a top-quality name brand coolant. Just change the coolant and don't keep the same stuff in there forever (like most people do).

In racing applications, I think WaterWetter is a good product though.
 
I've added redline water wetter all at the same time to:

03 Nissan Sentra 30k miles..green antifreeze I notice the coolant reservoir tank got dark after 5k miles of use

92 Mitsubishi Mirage 117k miles. No discoloring of green antifreeze at all

96 Pontiac sunfire 107k miles, orange antifreeze, all is good and normal.

There was a UOA recently on the same exact car here as the 03 Nissan sentra that had a head gasket problem. Maybe if the head gasket is seeping it's dumping in the reservoir tank or the combustion products are discoloring the antifreeze when reacting to redline water wetter
dunno.gif
 
It is not the Water Wetter or everyone would have this problem if running Prestone or whatever you ise. I have run it in several cars for over ten years without issues. If your coolant is turning to slime, you have other issues that need to be fixed or you need to replace your coolant more often.
 
quote:

It is not the Water Wetter or everyone would have this problem if running Prestone or whatever you ise. I have run it in several cars for over ten years without issues. If your coolant is turning to slime, you have other issues that need to be fixed or you need to replace your coolant more often.

BS.

I ran Water Wetter with 50/50 distilled and Texaco - it sludged up within a year. I have ALWAYS serviced the coolant in under 18 months with fresh distilled and Texaco.

The car currently has less than 13k miles on it. How more often do you want me to service the coolant?

I Currently have distilled and Prestone - no sludging and I've since cleaned out my degas bottle.

Something caused it to sludge at an alarming rate. There was so much crap in the hoses that it looked like someone's artery clogged with cholesterol.
 
In the turbo Buick community(Grand Nationals etc.), when people started trying out water wetter years ago, there were many complaints of gunked up cooling systems. After searching for causes and cures, the change most people made, who keep up on the message boards, was switching to RMI-25. No more problems after the people switched away from water wetter to RMI-25.

I'm not saying water wetter is the cause of gunking up cooling systems. But at the very least, it doesn't prevent it like some products are able.
 
I agree with the comments about the need for water wetter in a street car. I'm just looking for that extra bit of cooling that I can squeeze out.

Our Ford 4.6/5.4 V8s have a major design flaw in that cylinders 7 and 8 do not get adequate cooling due to how the coolant is routed.

I'll give RMI-25 a try. In the meantime, I have not found any sludging/gunking with my 1981 Ford T-bird with the Redline Water Wetter. I'm hesitant to try it in a newer car after seeing the cholesterol-like buildup in my hoses. maybe its a reaction between Ford's aluminum radiators and water wetter?
dunno.gif
 
quote:

Originally posted by dagmando:
It is not the Water Wetter or everyone would have this problem if running Prestone or whatever you ise. I have run it in several cars for over ten years without issues. If your coolant is turning to slime, you have other issues that need to be fixed or you need to replace your coolant more often.

I don't think you can reduce this to such a simple conclusion. There are dozens of different coolant formulations, used in hundreds of vehicle types, mixed a myriad of different ways. Obviously, WW isn't across-the-board motor poison and some folks use it very effectively. It's equally obvious from the number of complaints, and their diversity, that it causes problems under certain circumstances.

Again, I had this happen in a three month old car that hadn't even gotten dirty under the hood yet. I don't think I need to change coolant every three months, and I haven't had even a hint of a cooling system problem before or since the WW sludging incident. This is not absolute proof that the WW did it, but I've seen no other indication of any other cause.
 
Hey, that's "basically" the same scenario as my car.

When I added WW, it had under 5k miles (the car has under 13k miles right now... it's a 2000 Ford Crown Vic, 4.6 2V V8).

There's absolutely no excuse for such new coolant to have sludged up. I actually race the car now and with Prestone Green + Distilled, there's zero sludging. I change it every 6 months now to follow up and MAKE SURE its not a headgasket or other serious problem with the engine. From what I can see... it was the Water Wetter that caused the sludge buildup.

I have a few theories on WHY WW caused it...

It did not like the Ford materials in the cooling system... iron block, alum heads, alum radiator, brass/alum heater core. etc...

I have a theory why it did NOT sludge up my E-150 (300 I6) or the T-bird (302 V8)... the iron block, iron heads, and brass/copper radiators did not react negatively with the WW.

dunno.gif
 
I added it to the Toyota Red in my '03 Camry when the car was three months old. The coolant had been pristine up to that point. Within two weeks after adding RLWW, the cooling system was full of creamy looking sludgy stuff. It was in the overflow tank, and the radiator. I had it flushed and refilled with new Toyota Red, and again, it was clean. Not knowing when to stop, I decided to try again, this time with Royal Purple, Purple Ice, a product that advertises the same functionality. Surprise, no problem this time, and the stuff is still in there, some ten months later.

As to the necessity, I use it because in earlier forms the 1MZ-FE V-6 was known to run so hot in the heads that it would sometimes oxidize its oil, contributing to massive sludge problems. Considering the product's potential for enhancing local cooling effect, I view it as a form of "functional insurance."
 
quote:

Originally posted by JohnBrowning:
It will not "gunk up" your coolant system. I ran it for two years with only watter and it never cause me any problems at all. I ran it one year with standard green coolant and also no problems. Coolant systems natural get "gunked up". Various gaskets in the engine do not seal to well when cold. You can easily get a little bit of "gunk" from a head gasket that leaks a bit when cold.

Ever notice how resovoirs get nasty looking over time?


At least in my experience, they only get nasty when the coolant's not changed periodically (obviously discounting any water wetting additive use, I've never used any of them). We have had both '97 VW Jetta and a '97 Dodge Neon and I have changed the coolant every 2 years. Both cars are now 7 years old and the metal on the inside passages of the cooling system is just as bright as new and there's only a very very thin coating on the inside of the hoses, more of a coloration, really, that matches the color of the coolant (blue BASF G-48 and normal conventional US green, respectively). This is with two separate kinds of pre-OAT coolant too.

Unless that coolant has been in there for more than 3 years, I can't believe it should have sludged up on its own!

[ May 21, 2004, 10:57 AM: Message edited by: gatesj ]
 
By sludged up, I meant a large 3/4" ID hose was sludged to the point it had a 1/4" ID. It looked like a clogged artery. The coolant was less than a year old in a sub 10k mile car that was very very very well maintained. Only thing non-standard that I added was Water Wetter.
 
And you've probably got that yellow stuff that's supposed to be the cat's meow, right? If standard green and G-48 can both protect and keep a system like new for over 130k miles each (changed periodically) then the yellow stuff should be able to do it for at least a few months!

Is it possible it's a reaction between the WW and the new yellow coolant?
 
Maybe its a Ford thing but I have a lot of brown crud in my 302-powered F-150 (iron engine, aluminum radiator) on 50/50 distilled water and PepBoys green coolant.

The BMW has 80/20 distilled water and orange Prestone with WaterWetter and it looks clean. 50/50 coolant was not doing the job in the BMW, this new mixture is working fine. It used to overheat climbing steep hills, no more.
 
quote:

And you've probably got that yellow stuff that's supposed to be the cat's meow, right? If standard green and G-48 can both protect and keep a system like new for over 130k miles each (changed periodically) then the yellow stuff should be able to do it for at least a few months!

Is it possible it's a reaction between the WW and the new yellow coolant?

No, this was a 2000 Ford Crown Vic that had the fluid changed regularly every 12 months. It had less than 10k miles (and its got less than 15k miles as of right now) when it sludged up.

I always use Green anti-freeze + distilled in a 50/50 mixture.
 
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