Does anyone have experience using Redline Water Wetter Supercoolant as an additive to the engine coolant system in their Mini? The manufacturer's claim about lowering operating temperatures is interesting.

 

I have used Water Wetter in all my cars, including my mini, for over 10 years.

Has worked very well but, didn't stop the coolant in the mini from turning BROWN. When I have the coolant flushed at my first 10K service, I'll ad it again.

 

Wetting agents are basically surfactants that decrease the surface tension of the water and allow it to "wet" the surface better. You use them all the time at home - they are called detergents. I doubt that a non-foaming wetting agent will have that great an effect on an internal combustion engine, since that surface tension only effects new contact with a surface. After the first hour, all the surfaces in that engine are about as wet as they are going to get. But hey, I've heard fuzzy dice add 5 bhp!


Why not try "deconstructed water," a favorite ingredient in upscale cosmetics?

 

I haven't used "Water Wetter" in my MINI but I used in my previous car. I believe it helped, but I think the single most dramatic way to improve your cooling system is to run all (or nearly all) water. Huge difference. Just make sure you change it out well before your first freeze.

 

Do not use just plain water or almost all plain water It will kill your water pump. Antifreeze, in addition to protecting your radiator from freezing, also lubricates the water pump. If you want to use water, you MUST add a lubicator and the water should be distilled.

 

I second that! Nearly all German cars require a specific type of antifreeze which has lubrication for the water pump. I have seen VW water pumps fail after only a few weeks of using the wrong coolant (Prestone). Pure water would be suicide for the water pump.

As far as the Water Wetter, it works very well. I have done controlled experiments with motorcycle engines and the Water Wetter reduced engine temperatures by 10 degrees or better. I have also run in my classic Mini for a few years and, although I haven’t done specific studies, I have found that it does appear to make a marked difference. But both motorcycles and classic Minis have similar problems – very limited cooling capacity. I would question whether a product such as Water Wetter would be necessary or beneficial in a modern car with excellent cooling capacity out of the box.

 

Many thanks for the comments. I did put some in the Mini, and believe that the coolant temp is a bit lower, based on what the Autometer water temp gauge has shown. Nothing dramatic, but noticable....

 

When we were road racing stock and near-stock cars (a VW GTI and Neon ACR), we used a coolant mixture of pure water plus Water Wetter. No overheating problems and probably cooler running, but hard to tell with the stock temp. guage. However, Water Wetter did not have much affect if used with 50% ethelene glycol antifreeze. Red Line said that the Water Wetter provided water pump lubrication. In any case we had no water pump problems.

 

There's one camp that would ask, why use any additive as long as your engine is running well?

 

What does dropping the engine temp by 10 degrees????

How does that affect defrost/heat in the winter?????

 

the difference should be minimal if at all. redlines argument involves boiling the water in a pan with wetter and without.

The problem is your coolant system is under pressure so the coolant won't boil.

i'd say net effect of water wetter is nil.

there oil is good tho

 

You are right. I should have stuck with "nearly all" water. Water Wetter has lubricants and protectants. See the web site for an excellent white paper on cooling. I believe there are additives for lubrication and anti-corosion that you could put into an otherwise all water system.

I should ask why anyone is considering Water Wetter in the first place.

If your engine isn't overheating, you don't need it.

If it is overheating, I'd offer two options. First, run more water in the system. Water is the benchmark for other liquid coolants. Second, if you are still overheating, try water wetter in addition to the water.

If you are overheating in normal driving (not road racing) then something else may be wrong that you need to have fixed.

If you simply want to lower the engine temp (think twice about this, the whole system is designed to operate at an exact temp), change the thermostat. Using better coolant wont do it. The thermostat will simply restrict the flow until it can return the temp to normal.

 

If the temp drop is very sever, then the thermostate will control a minimum. The idea of products like this is to improve the thermal conductivity of the interface. The fact that the coolent is a lower temp is because the radiator benefits more, relatively speaking, than the block, and that both temps are above the temp needed to fully open the thermostat. The issue is heat flow, and the temp gradients required to sustain the flow. If you have power adders, or older aluminum heads for example (the surface oxidizes and doesn't conduct heat as well), then the benefit of increased thermal conductivity will be realized. As mentioned above, the use of the increase water to coolent ratio increases the heat capacity of the water, and is very beneficial to increasing the heat dissipation capacity of the cooling system. The use of the surfactant improves the heat flow at the interface, and you can run more heat through the same cooling system. If you add so much capacity to the cooling system that the themostat won't open fully you've wasted money (too much capacity) just like if the cooling system won't run cool without overheating you've wasted money (cooked motor) from too little capacity.