Water Wetter and Sludge Buildup

Pablo · May 21, 2004

Redline Water wetter caused an oil slick on top of the coolant in my wife's 1996 Volvo 850 in 1998.

After 3 flushes, new coolant and a new plastic coolant reservior all is well. Learned my lesson. I believe there was indeed some reaction with the coolant. The car does NOT have a head gasket leak or other mechanical problem and WE are not the the first to observe this phenomena.

I think WW with pure water for racing would be fine. It's not necessary with coolant in street cars and indeed can be detrimental....I saw nothing from Redline on this over the years (havn't checked lately) and the replies to my email where along the lines of they never heard of this, and something is wrong with my car, etc....

Thatwouldbegreat · Jun 1, 2004

First, I'm a huge fan of Redline and use all their products. I think that they make excellent products. But I had to quit using Water Wetter.

I ran Water Wetter with 50% Havoline DexCool and 50% Distilled water afer thoroughly flushing the system many times.

I did this in 4 vehicles:

1989 Subaru GL-10 Turbo... water pump failures , followed by Sludge and Head Gasket failure... Engine replaced

1990 Acura Integra ...Water Pump Failure followed by Sludge and Cam Bearing failure.... Engine replaced

1984 Mercedes 300D ... Water Pump Failure

1986 BMW 325e ... Head Gasket Failure

5th Vehicle

1993 VW Passat GLX VR6 .... VW G11 coolant and WW... no problem

No more Water Wetter for me!

I have to wonder if the Water Wetter and the DexCool are a terrible combination.

I wanted to do the best maintenance, and instead I learned a hard and quite expensive lesson.

I had many many more water pump, bearing, and head gasket failures in 18 months than I had in the previous 35 years.

VaderSS · Jun 2, 2004

quote:

Yep, in street applications, I see absolutely no point to using this product.

No point is reducing temps in heavy stop and go driving?

Can't speak of WW alone, as I have always run it with RMI-25, but I've had no problems from that combo.

boxcartommie22 · Jun 2, 2004

i called dave at redline and asked him about this he said that with spome antifreezes water wetter forms a precipates of reaction to some coolants..this will be at the top when the liquids sits and its not oil or sludge

Bobert · Jun 2, 2004

This is the brown residue that forms in the reservoir using Water Wetter with G12. Here is the original link: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=404822

Thatwouldbegreat · Jun 2, 2004

Sadly, that looks all too familiar.

quote:

Originally posted by Bobert:
This is the brown residue that forms in the reservoir using Water Wetter with G12. Here is the original link: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=404822

Bill Morris · Jun 2, 2004

I always wondered about that brown sludge that forms from the Water Wetter. I'ved used in a fairly low mileage vehicle and seems no Problem it works well. I was just wondering if that's from the age of the radiator hose that is worn and the Water Wetter has some effect that the brown sludge and odor comes from. When it was used on the same vehicle with 100k miles that brown sludge and odor began to form but wasn't present when the vehicle had a low mileage reading.

ekpolk · Jun 2, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Morris:
I always wondered about that brown sludge that forms from the Water Wetter. I'ved used in a fairly low mileage vehicle and seems no Problem it works well. I was just wondering if that's from the age of the radiator hose that is worn and the Water Wetter has some effect that the brown sludge and odor comes from. When it was used on the same vehicle with 100k miles that brown sludge and odor began to form but wasn't present when the vehicle had a low mileage reading.

Bill:

See my posts above. RLWW "sludged" in my nearly-new 2003 Camry. After a complete flush and refill with new batch of Toyota Red, no sludging. Metroplex also described a similar experience.

Bill Morris · Jun 2, 2004

Might be...I guess second thoughts of what Water Wetter might had cause with all. Yea might have something in that causes some chain reaction. Yea just straight distilled and coolant and regular intervals....Will Agreee...

metroplex · Jun 2, 2004

I wouldn't say it was precipitate or sludge that formed on the surface of the mixture... in my Crown Vic - it CLOGGED up the hoses near the coolant bottle and formed a thick gunky layer on the walls of the coolant bottle.

It looked like I neglected the cooling system for 100k miles but it had less than 10k miles in reality!

Pablo · Jun 2, 2004

The sludge the formed in my 850 Volvo was very much like oil. It stayed on top of the coolant reservoir, I supposed like that picture....

RavenTai · Jun 4, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by Bobert:
This is the brown residue that forms in the reservoir using Water Wetter with G12. Here is the original link: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=404822

if you read that link it apears that that oil residue is most likely from a bad oil cooler/heater

ekpolk · Jun 4, 2004

It might be in some applications, but that still does not account for what happened in my engine. The cooling oflo bottle and radiator quickly developed a gray-ish slime. Once the coolant containing RLWW was removed and flushed, the problem was gone. My car was nearly new at the time, and has showed no other cooling symptoms since.

metroplex · Jun 4, 2004

ekpolk: The same thing happened with me. There was intense sludging/clogging in the hoses and buildup of slime/gunk in the coolant bottle. Ever since I got rid of the WW mixture, it's been in "good" shape.

mf150 · Jul 16, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by metroplex:
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?

Major design problem on cylinder 7 and 8???

metroplex · Jul 16, 2004

Yep, there's no flow for the coolant port near cylinders 7 and 8. Look closely at your intake manifold design. On the coolant port directly above Cylinder 8, it's flat (no port leading to a hose or anything).

It's a well known problem and there's a way to get around it, but it's easier to perform this mod with the motor/heads out of the car.

mf150 · Jul 17, 2004

could this have something to do with the overheating protocall inherently built in the triton/4.6L engines?

I will check into this claim further. I have some schematics of the 4.6L engine at home. I have never heard of any problems comming from not enough flow to cylinder 7 or 8.

thanks for pointing out a point of interest for me.

Ryan_V · Jan 18, 2011

I'm having the same brown silt type gunk being created.

I started with a completely clean coolant system, new water pump, hoses everything..

1 bottle water wetter, Toyota red coolant and the rest distilled water.

2 yrs of daily driving I now have what's is getting worse, a brown silty residue. It had collected and turn'd hard in the bottom of the overflow bottle, and the over flow also smells of chemical.

I did 2 exhaust gas/coolant tests and passed both times.

I'm going to drain it, flush it and NOT use water wetter this time and see what happens, but my guess is that this [censored] is not just in the overflow bottle, but who knows where else this stuf has built up.

Luckly it hasn't stopped the thermostat from working properly.

Maybe I'll call Redline and talk to them about this.

Ryan_V · Jan 18, 2011

I just spoke with a guy from Redline and he confirmed that the additives in Water wetter when mixed with certain types of Anti freeze can cause certain reactions.

I'm willing to bet Toytoa Red/Water wetter don't get along for a daily driven car for too long when not flushed out regularly

Ive daily driven this car for 2 yrs with this coolant mix and it has continually gotten murkier with the brown stuff.

Water Wetter and Sludge Buildup

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