Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General COOLING SYSTEM ARGUMENT

COOLING SYSTEM ARGUMENT


At a recent get-together, Contour Enthusiast, �??Y�?�, brought up the subject of the use of �??Water Wetter�?� in his car coolant system. He stated that, after pouring the additive into his coolant system, he re-started his engine and watched his coolant temperature gauge decrease a significant amount, proving that the additive worked, and that it had a decidedly beneficial result.

Contour Enthusiast, �??X�?�, stated that, in no way, could this possibly be true.

Then Biker Enthusiast. �??Z�?�, stated that her Triumph four-cylinder 600cc had been seriously overheating, and that, after using the additive in her bike, her cooling system problems were solved, further proving that Contour Enthusiast, �??Y�?�, must indeed be correct.

At this point, a two-to-one stand-off seemed to exist and the subject was simply dropped

Who was correct, partially correct, or incorrect, and (most importantly) WHY?

I�??m going to try to post this question on two different sites, to see which site comes up with the best answers and explanations.

P.S. The Water Wetter site makes for an interesting read.

It definitely helped some in my car to keep it from getting hot as quick, but it still gets hot quickly (done coolant changes and lower temp thermostat, but low speed cooling fan never turns on ).

Yeah, according to the Snap On scanner tool...

Where that needle is, is when the car engine hits 212°F, and that triggers the Low Fan on. Never actually began overheating

People hafta remember that with the Zetecs

Only my high speed fan turns on and only once it's going into the red. My low speed fan kicked on ONCE, i was in neutral with ebrake pulled in a parking lot talkin to some1 and it came on when the needle was about at the M. I haven't really ran the scanner and let it idle to see the temps, I don't like it letting it get that high.

X - 2Y = X

X is right.


Water Wetter or the like "aides" in the cooling ability of water (not antifreeze mind you!)

However it's effects are minimal and really only "noticed" under heavy heat inducing situations. Like WOT runs or especially "boosted" WOT runs for instance.


It will help the water absorb more heat energy. That is a fact.

However not remotely close to what was stated by Y. Especially at idle or moderate load.


Yes I use water wetter.

I put about half of a bottle into my contour. This was before I knew that my sending unit was terribly off. It REALLY helps for me. My cooling fan only turns on if im sitting for a fair amount of time. Normally if Im going arround town as long as the car is moving at about 35MPH its between the R and the M. But if I sit for a while it goes up to the L and the fan kicks on for about 15 seconds. Its a nice relief to know that I dont have to run the AC, I hate running the AC with a stick, the drive gets a little more rough.

water wetter was recently added after my annual radiator flush and i noticed that the needle sat just a hair to the left of the middle of the gauge where as before it would sit directly in the middle. this is a consistant change. not a huge difference but a difference none the less.

Ummmmm�?��?��?�. Please re-read my original post. Two questions have been posed. I believe that the two answers provide the fundamental basis of the inner workings of an automotive cooling system. In this case, only DemonSVT actually made an attempt to answer the first question, and then failed to go on to fully justify his choice of who was correct (the �??WHY�?�). Seeking out the explanation to this question is important to me because it seems a lot of people have some serious misconceptions about how these systems are supposed to work. This problem has stimulated quite a bit of discussion around my household, and I think it should be further pursued.

Alan Coles, our man from Halifax, made many good points. I never realized glycol was outlawed on road tracks, proving the old adage,�?�Every man is my superior, in that I may learn from him.�?� As for Alan�??s second-last paragraph, I think �??Y�?��??s argument was meant to reflect a permanent drop on his temp gauge, but this was a thoughtful analysis, none the less. There�??s no doubt that both these CEG�??rs have done some reading, perhaps on http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/redtech3.htm.

So how about another shot at the answers? Please don�??t make me think that you were the person sitting next to me on that recent airline flight (You really WEREN�??T listening to the stewardess when she was pointing out the emergency exits, were you?)

This discussion does not center on the relative usefulness of water wetter, but more on the mechanics of the syetem.