Redline Water Wetter - Thoughts?
 

Anyone used it? How'd it work? Any special rotary issues? Figure the RX8 could use all the cooling help it can get.

I put in some and have noticed the temp guage never even reach the mid point even when I turn on AC sitting in traffic in hot weather.
But it works best with a coolant mix that consists of more water than glycol since the way it works is it decreases the surface tension of water and let it have more contact with the radiator/let air bubbles boil off faster (it has no effect on glycol so more water, less glycol antifreeze = more effectiveness). I have 50/50 glycol/water mix since we get subzero temps in Canada. If you live in a warmer place you can put in a lot more water and have a more dramatic decrease in temp.

alrighty then, the car never heats up, ever! big rad, lots of oil coolers, nice and cool.
Put water wetter in an old car, works very well, keeps both my triumph spitfires cooler. Actually kept the car with the six cylinder 10-15 degrees cooler in the city. Good stuff, just not necessary on your 8.

Here is some comments on the product:

http://e30m3performance.com/myths/mo...ter_wetter.htm

Works well, and works well on rotaries. With the '8s idiot light temp gauge, you probably won't see a difference, but it's good stuff.

Dale

I have used Redline Water Wetter in my 2004 Yamaha YZ250F dirtbike, and it works wonders! I live in Vegas, so coolant in my cars and my bikes have to be top-notch. I HIGHLY reccomend Watter Wetter, use it on your RX-8 like i did, you will NOT regret it. It keeps your engine cool no matter how hot it gets.

I thought the temp gauge was an actual analog gauge. Seems that way to me, you sure you aren't refering to the oil gauge?

I just bought some and the temp guage doesn't reach the mid way point anymore.

Considering how hot the rotary gets, this seems like a good investment. Cost me $6.50 for a bottle at discount auto parts (the yellow auto store, whatever it's called)

My temp gauge never quite hits the mid point even with the additive.

Not sure what the temp gauge means anway...has anyone characterized the behavior of this thing? Dale referred to it as an idiot light, but I haven't seen any actual proof of this. I know the 3rd gen was famous for its nonlinear-to-the-point-of-useless gauge response to temp.

jds

ive used it in both my 8 and my computer and it works very well :)

so did you guys drain all the coolant out before you put the water wetter in or do you just put some in and mix them?

Only having test-driven an '8, I can't say for sure, but I had thought that someone discovered that the water temp gauge was an idiot light like the 3rd gen. I really hope is is a linear gauge - that temp gauge on the 3rd gen killed a LOT of motors, IMHO.

The oil pressure gauge isn't that big of a deal. On a rotary, either you have good oil pressure or you don't - if you have a problem, put a mechanical gauge on and do some testing. Low oil pressure isn't that common of a problem, really, or at least not that severe - there's not many points of failure for oil pressure.

Dale

OK. Here are some tests that I did regarding how well water wetter works. I am not that satisfied with the test that I did with water wetter so I will do one more. The conditions were not exactly the same and I also started with a warm car. Here are my graphs that I got from a CANScan...

I'll try again when the conditions are better but here are the graphs for now.

It looks like it actually hurt haha.. It took less time to heat up and more time to cool down.. thats not good :) Like I said though.. I'll give it one more shot, but if I get the same results the second time with same conditions, I am flushing my coolant haha.. :)

If it increases thermal transfer...I would expect it to heat up quicker, and to reach operating temp quicker....and cool down quicker. Seems to be what is happening in the graph....although the curves look very similar.

What are you doing when you graph. Mine runs at about 183 deg warm at idle, and loww RPM cruzing. I have to really drive it hard to get the temp up over 210deg?

IIRC water wetter works best if put in ALL WATER cooling system, something like 50/50 water wetter/water, for racing application at least.

When the car reached 210 degrees it was at an idle for the amount of time from when the temperature rose to when it started to fall (around 3 to 4 minutes).

The graph to me looks like it heated up faster to 210 and cooled down slower from 210... Anyone else have any comments?

I think you are right, Dave, but the rate of decrease may or may not show a significant difference. I think you have to do several more samples, trying to insure the conditions are about the same for each time. Unfortunately, you weren't able to do multiple samples for your baseline (ie. control group = without Water Wetter).

The slopes of the lines during heating and cooling look the same to me on that graph, the only difference that I can see is an offset in time which could be accounted for by the different start temperatures. Can you record data while driving? It would be a better test if you could put the engine under load (perhaps by driving up a hill) you would also need to record the outside ambient temperature for each test.

I watched mine on a drive into town today (40 min) and the temp was between 183 and 186 all the time. It doesn't hurt that the ambient temp was 10 deg C :D

It must be warm in San Dimas ..............

youre all missing the point of it, water wetter does not cool the water. it keeps it "wetter" by increasing the boiling point, so at those times when your car is running very hot and the water is inclined to turn to vapor it will not

Actually, I think it works by lowering the surface tension of water. This gives it the more favorable cooling properties.

could be. i wasnt given the technical explination, but was told that when its running through the engine and exposed to the extreme temps regular coolant can turn into vapor at times, and water wetter will stop this.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't raise the boiling point of water. Your coolant already does that. However because water wetter allows your cooling system to function more efficiently, it's effect would be to stop your radiator from getting as hot.

All you ever wanted to know about Water Wetter....but were afraid to ask :D