Water-wetter

bobpo

bobpo

Well-known member
I've only read about this product. Does it work as indicated or is it a waste of money or does a standard 50/50 water/anti-freeze work in a new restoration?
 
I live where it is warm and ust Purple Ice (which I personally like better then Water Wetter) and Distilled Water. Controls corrosion and keeps things clean and cool.

Just my opinion,

Chris
 
Water wetter ? Absolute a waste of money just my two cents , and don't ask me how I know.
 
Water Wetter is addvertised to lower your water temperature from previous running without the product. Some say that it does and some say it's fiction. It has to have something in it that reacts with the metal in your water jackets. I hope it is a non destructive reaction. For running in Ohio, the 50/50 is probably the safest bet. It increases the boiling point of the coolant and has additives for corrosion prevention.
 
I run 50/50 mix, Wetter Water, and R/O water and a small can of Prestone water pump lube just for poops and grins. Makes the coolant 'white-ish'. No foam. I have the standard 1930 radiator and baffle. Water level has steadied up right at the bottom of the curved baffle. Flow from the head is 'impressive' pouring into the top-o-radiator. The Quail and it's base is happy and well gasketed down.

Temp is 160 to 165 deg F. without a thermostat. No problems just as Henry and the boys figured back in the Model "A" days. I dropped 5 deg. F with WetterWater. You decide.

BTW The Liquid Cooled Aluminum/Magnesium Rotex Aeroplane Engines on Homebuilt aerocraft do not cool with a water base coolant. So I don't think there is anything in WetterWater to react to the metal. Either a noble metal [Bronze] or a not so noble metal [black iron, steal, zinc].

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According to a radiator shop owner who has been in business over 38 years, Water Wetter is a waste of money. He said its designed for aluminum engines and will do nothing for the cast iron blocks .
 
Run 80% water and 20% 50/50 that is ALL You need. The anti freeze will prevent any rust or corrosion. don't need to add anything else at all. It will also help with rust in the block
 
rotorwrench said:
Water Wetter is addvertised to lower your water temperature from previous running without the product. Some say that it does and some say it's fiction. It has to have something in it that reacts with the metal in your water jackets. I hope it is a non destructive reaction. For running in Ohio, the 50/50 is probably the safest bet. It increases the boiling point of the coolant and has additives for corrosion prevention.
Click to expand...

Both water Wetter and Purple Ice have Anti Corrosive agents in them, which is a good thing. Both products also have stuff in it that reduces the surface tension of the water (Detergent) which also is a good thing. This promotes heat transfer from the thing you are trying to transfer heat from to the coolant (the block and head) and from the coolant to the thing you are tring to transfer heat into (the radiator tubes).

If your cooling system is in good condition, you may not need the heat transfer inhancers but you do need the anti corrosive agents. The coolant is exposed to air and will eventually pick up oxygen and start to corrode stuff.

Personally, I think Purple Ice works better with Distilled Water if you are NOT having to use Anti-Freeze.

I do not like Anti-Freeze in the older engines unless you have to run it because if you would pick up an internal leak (head gaskets?) and coolant does get into the oil, Anti-Freeze is MUCH harder on bearings and such then plain water.

Using water pump lube is also a good idea.

My opinion,

Chris
 
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The prime function of Water Wetter is not an anti-corrosive, but to enable water to "stick" to the sleeves. A hot spot in a cylinder can cause water to vaporise off the sleeve, thus causing the hot spot to become a trouble spot. The wetter is designed to keep the water on the sleeve and doing what it does best. It's not expensive, so why would you not use it? Better safe than sorry.
 
At one time I had a problem with overheating, was told to use just plain water and a can of rust prohibitor,......NO MORE OVER HEATING..Just be sure and put anti-freeze in for the winter!
 
I worked with several PhD chemists who designed coolants for a major oil company. Although CWPASADENA is correct that WW is essentially a surfactant that breaks down the surface tension of the water allowing the water to "touch" the tiny nooks and crevices that otherwise might go without coolant because of surface tension, they didn't think it could be significantly effective because of the large heat-rejecting area already available and doing its job. I suppose the rougher the casting, the better it would work. But the difference between the cooling rates of water/antifreeze versus water/antifreeze/water wetter would be small, if any when compared to the cooling rate already designed into the system. Bassman's comment, I believe, pertains to heavy-duty diesel engines, but I'm not convinced a Model A could generate enough power to make enough heat to boil the coolant on the jacket side of the cylinder, at least not to the point of damage. I've seen displays of erroded diesel cylinder liners that had holes in them on the thrust side from boiling and subsequent cavitation at the cylinder wall. Not a pretty sight, and a very expensive fix. In those cases, because of the mechanism of failure, Water Wetter probably would have had no effect anyway. But if you think it helps and you like it, then use it. $0.02.
 
In our group touring around French Lick....you know it was on the warm side there...I had along with me a high quality infrared non contact thermometer. at one stop after a good uphill run we stopped and left the engines running and I quickly took temp readings. at the TOP portion of the radiator fins. all were at 160 - 170 except 2 cars. one ran distilled water & 50/50 antifreeze, the other used distilled water and water wetter. they BOTH read 140 degrees. you decide. Personally I use distilled water and a can of pump lube/anti-rust.
 
As noted above, if WW makes you feel good, use it. But to determine whether it was the reason the two cars with it ran cooler, you'd have to compare cars with distilled water + WW against cars with only distilled water - no antifreeze, or add the same concentration of antifreeze to the WW cars. The antifreeze is a variable in only one set of cars, and it displaces half the water. I know the bottom line is that the WW cars did, in fact, run cooler, but the higher temps found in the others may be from the antifreeze effect, not the lack of WW. Sounds like a good test for John to run at the Model A Times! Sorry for being so nerdy.
 
I guess I am more in tune with distilled water with Water Wetter or Purple Ice for a coolant as most of you. I also run Vintage Road Race Cars and they will NOT let us run Antifreeze because it is too hard to clean up if someone has a failure and dumps all their coolant on the track. The corner workers tell us Anti Freeze is harder to clean up then engine oil.

Some or these old Vintage Race Cars are border line when it comes to cooling, especially on a hot day so we try to do every thing we can to keep them cool, therefore, I run Distilled Water with Purple Ice. Most if not all our Vintage Race Engines have aluminum components and we feel Distilled Water along with the anti-corrosive agents in Purple Ice keeps corrosion in check and the surface tension reducers help with the transfer of heat. Please understand, if we can get even a few percent improvement in heat transfer, that is a victory. Every little bit helps.

I buy Purple Ice by the case and always have it on hand as well as Distilled Water so it is no big deal to put it in my old Fords.

I have used both but I like Purple Ice better then Water Wetter. Purple Ice seems to stay in solution better.

I DO NOT think Water Wetter or Purple Ice will signifficantly help the cooling of a Model A ford if everything is in good condition but it certainly will not hurt. If you are NOT going to run Anti Freeze or Distilled Water with Water Wetter or Purple Ice, at least run Distilled Water and a good water pump lubricant that also has anti- corrosive stuff in it.

Again, All of this is just my opinion from being in the "Business" for more then 50 Years.

Chris
 
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Water can absorb more heat per cubic centermeter than an an equal amount of antifreeze. Remember the topic of "specific heat" in high school chem? If overheating is a problem, dump the antifreeze and try just water. Water is what the engineers who designed the Model A cooling system assumed people would be using in the summer, not a modern coolant that does not have nearly the same heat absorbing capacity as water. Plus modern antifreeze is designed for pressurized systems with coolant recovery capabilities. So stop wasting money and poisoning dogs and cats in the summer. Run water with a rust inhibitor if you must. Save the antifreeze for winter.
 
I've seen it lower temps on the gauge

I run it during the summer and see the results on the Rex gauge. With distilled water I can run in 100 degree weather without overheating.
 
Good discussion. From a technical paper: "The heat exchange capacity of the EG (ethylene glycol)/water solutions is reduced with increasing EG content. Water remains the better heat exchange fluid compared to any mixture of EG and water. A compromise between the required freezing protection and heat exchange efficiency has to be made. The viscosity of the cooling fluid is also a factor in evaluating the overall heat exchange efficiency. Lower viscosity (better fluidity) will aid heat transport". From this, sounds like distilled water is best (with added rust and foam inhibitors, of course), anything else is either worse or magic. There's lots more, but I can hear the zzzzzzz's already.
 
My temperature gauge measures the temp at the goose neck. It was indicating 190 degrees today. Is that too high. Using plain water.

Thanks for any reply.
 
I had a new core put in my original radiator on the 31 coupe about 2 years ago. Using just water and a can of rust preventive from Napa my radiator runs about 165 to 175 degrees even on the hottest of days and that's checked by one of those digital temp gauges where you just point at what you want to check.

Before I put the new Snyder's high compression head on the Model B block I made sure to rod all the water jackets out in the block the best I could.
 
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