Severian

I just replaced the oil cooler gasket and refilled the cooling system with straight distilled water in order to insure there are no leaks before adding any anti-freeze.

I live in LA and would like to go without anti-freeze and just use Red Line's Water Wetter and distilled water.

Does anyone see a problem with using Water Wetter and distilled water in a NA daily driver?

Thanks in advance...

M758

I use water wetter and distilled water in my 944 race car. Works good, but 10% coolant might be best to ensure all the parts get enough lube.

sydneyman

i think anti-freeze is good for anti-corrosion as well. i'd throw a little in there if i were you... just in case. jmho

Severian

Red Line claims that Water Wetter has rust and corrosion protection that allows for use of straight water.

And that it cleans and lubricates water pump seals.

Do I really need anti-freeze?

schwank

In my experience when I drained the water wetter mixture from the radiator after each year of racing, it definitely has some funk in it. I don't believe it has all of the same additives as coolant might, however we can't run coolant on the race track.

For a street car, I personally would run some coolant still.

kingston944

Antifreeze also achieves boiling point elevation of the water. I would use antifreeze.

KuHL 951

Water Wetter is a decent product but does not provide sufficient corrosion inhibitors and anti-cavitation agents to run alone with distilled water. Distilled water itself can be really aggressive to some metals as it leaches out minerals and metals to reach equilibrium in any environment. It's always best to add at least 15-20% coolant IMO plus you get the benefit of an elevated boiling point. For a dedicated track car you usually have no choice unless your track allows certain coolants like Evans waterless products.

Evans Coolants

plumbum

I agree with the masses...I use to use it in my race bike but it did have odd deposets when I changed it....It did let the engine run cooler but for the street i would mix it in with antifreeze and distilled water.

onspeed

boiling point elevation from adding ethyl glycol to water isn't nearly as drastic as the freezing point depression. hence the reason it's referred to as anti-freeze. a 50/50 mix only has a higher boiling point by like 10 deg F and also has a heat capacity lower than that of pure water. I don't see anything wrong with water + water wetter... in fact if i'm not mistaken, most track guys are running w/o antifreeze...

edit - boiling point elevation is the result of a pressurized cooling system.

KuHL 951

Leave it in there a few years like most conventional coolants and see what it looks like. DW and WW is not a good choice for everyday street use and I'll leave it at that. Problem is when you find your HG's starting to rot near the water jackets from lack of sufficient corrosion inhibitors it's a bit late. Most tracks don't allow ethylene glycol due to possible leaks, not because it doesn't work well.

onspeed

I was under the impression after reading the bottle for water wetter that it contained corrosion inhibitors...

that said, I run a normal 50/50 ethylene glycol/water mix.

M758

It does contain some corrosion inhibtors, but it is not as effective as coolant. For a track distilled water and water wetter is a good idea. You want maxium cooling and coolant is often not allowed in rac cars. Never run just distilled water. For the past 10 years I have run water + water wetter in my race car. It has worked fine, but it harder on the system than coolant. Fine for track car that sees lots of maintence. Not as good for street cars.

I just change out the coolant in my 944 Turbo Street car and when 50% coolant plus a bottle of water wetter. That is street car so 50/50 makes sense. If it was track/street car I might go with 25% coolant and water wetter to get a little better cooling at the track. I went with 50/50 to make sure i don't need to worry about frezzing temps. Despite living in warm place it can get down to freezing here and I have to watch that on my race car. I did have it freze one day a few years back and was lucky that only the lower radiator hose popped. No other damage.

Severian

Alright, I didn't want to use anti-freeze, but everyone seems to think it makes sense.

I know the anti-freeze needs to be phosphate free and aluminum friendly, but could I get some recommendations on what anti-freeze to use without causing a war?

Thanks...

pkt1213

Pink Audi/VW is what I always ran. Not cheap but if you're not using much of it should be well within reason.

One of my buddies worked the parts counter and sold it to me for cost so I didn't mind at all.

onspeed

Dex-cool. As long as you don't have any air pockets in your coolant system and there's no non-dexcool in the system, it'll be fine. Either of those and it tends to form a sludge.

GM guys hate dex-cool. Lot of them run just regular green coolant with no issues... better safe than sorry though.