water wetter

31chevy

31chevy

Well-known member
Hi Barners, has anyone out there used a product called "water wetter" it is supposed to keep a car running up to 30 degrees cooler.? I would appreciate any comments.
Thank you
Gary.
 
Temperature control on a flathead requires:
A clean radiator and engine internals
good water pumps
a proper engine tune

Water wetter helps but 30 degrees is a long stretch

The latest Henry joke I heard: He invented a machine that was good at boiling water and then he discovered he could power his cars with it too.


 
I run water wetter and water in the 50. It runs a little cooler than antifreeze mix, but like it was said above, 30 degree is a reeeeeel stretch. Maybe 5-10 degree here in the HOT Texas sun.
 
I just did a check and found that it lowered the temp 8-10 degrees in a plain water system for me. No foaming either.
 
I run water wetter in my 50. I think the main advantage is that it seems to reduce cavitation in certain areas of the block and eliminates hot spots. About 10 degrees sounds about right to me also.
 
Gary a Ford engine that runs in the 190 range may see a few degrees of cooling improvement with a wetting agent but may not be noticeable. I prefer a product called Purple Ice but are similar products. There are hot spots in the old Ford engines. These are areas where small bubbles form on the interior surface of the block similar to the bubbles you would see in boiling water to make tea. These insulate the metal surface from the coolant and heat isn't tranfered from the metal to the coolant very good in these areas. There are 2 spots that are visible with a laser pointed heat thermometer. In the center of the head between the 2 center cylinders and at the rear of the heads. On my 33 phaeton when we started on the cooling project over 10 years ago I could drive it 8 to 10 miles at 55 mph on a hot day and it would spit out at least a gallon of water. We set up a fan in front of the radiator and ran the engine in the range of 25 or 30 MPH and recorded the temperatures at various spots on the engine and radiator ever 5 minutes. The temperature continued to raise, the radiator cap was left off and when it got up to 212 bubbles about 1/8" in diameter were visiable. As the temperature went up the bubbles got larger and in about 25 minutes the temperature went to 228 and at 229, the bubbles about 3/4" it spit at least a gallon of water out. After years of testing and experiance with several thousand old Fords some of this could have been a slight compression leak also. I ran it on the road 6 or 8 times with the same results each time. Ran it with the fan and the cap off 6 or 8 time with the same results. I thought of a problem Ford was having with their diesel engines with pin holes in the block from these small bubbles that contained oxygen. This occured if their additive M-16 wasn't added in the water and without the additive the warrantee was void and some Ford dealers didn't know it. Some hot customers were stuck with $10 to $12,000.00 bills. I could see the hot spots at the center and rear of the heads. Went to a local supplier of oils and additives and asked if they had M-16 which they didn't but said they had a product called Purple Ice that a few contractors said helped in cooling some of their equipment. I read the bottle and almost 2 bottles were required for 22 quarts so I went back, put the 2 quarts in and started the same test. I recorded the reading and watched the temperature go to 217 then 218 and I thought to myself "that was a waste of $18.00". Then the temperature sat at 218 for about 15 minutes and started slowly comming down to 207 and stayed there. I could see the hot spots come down in temperature as the surface was treated and the heat went into the water from the heads. Up in this high temperature range you will could a 20 degree drop. There is a tech sheet which I saw later for P.I. on www.royalpurple.com which shows the exact results I got. From the 207 which was to hot for me we developed improved impellers that brought the temperature in the 170 range. I never tried plain water, everyone of my cars and lots of friends plus several thousand of Skips customers use 2 gallons of perminant anti-freeze, 2 bottles of P.I. and a large bottle of barrs stop leak. All have had a large improvment in cooling and run down in the normal range if they followed his instructions in stock Fords and don't have a compression leak. I drive any of my old Fords anytime and don't worry if it's over 100 degrees out and they never get over 185 tops unless I would get stuck in heavy traffic for over 10 minutes. I get moving and in less than a mile it's back in the normal range. A WORKING 4 lb pressure cap or Skips 3 lb pressure valve is also required to keep the radiator filled and not let the water flow out the over flow. These have 22 quart systems and when it's a gallon or 4 plus quarts low it's close to 20% low. More water and more water flow equals a cooler engine when driving. When driving you get more air through the radiator cooling the water. At slow RPMs and idle the fan is marginal and not good for long periods of low RPMs like heavy traffic and parades. I don't have any experiance with electric fans as I never had a need for one. It would take a big fan which draws high amps and a 6 volt generator don't supply that kind of power at low RPMs. G.M.
 
You really need a shroud to cure the overheating in a parade or heavy traffic. My 39 has a crank mounted fan and the shroud really works great.
 
flatjack9 is right a full shroud is the way to go the fan will pull from all corners of the radiator for max cooling. Harold central coast Ca.
 
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