Electric Lizard

Before I spring for a center radiator for my 2001 C2, I thought that I might give Water Wetter a shot. Does anyone have any experience with this product?

flyenby

I dont know how well it will work in your 996, but I use in my chevy truck, toyota truck and I noticed a difference...

frank320

Not on the track. Go for the 3rd radiator if you intent to or already track the car.

WCE

I threw in a couple of bottles (you need two for their recommended concentration) to boost the "lifetime" coolant, which was slightly low anyway. The car didn't run hot before or after, but I figured it couldn't hurt. May be snake oil, even their promoted temp drop with a normal 50/50 antifreeze mix is not that much.

On the other hand, the third radiator is a real fix if your car runs hot!

AlexT

water wetter works by keeping the water from bubling and have dry spots in the engine's coolant track. The dry spots will get super heated and cause small cracks over time. It does not lower your coolant temp. 3rd radiator does that.

Boston Duce

My experince is WW in long-life coolants is that is reacts in a short time to form a black sludge in the recovery tank.

I've had this happen to both Ford and Honda long-life (5 year drain intervals) coolant. And no, it was not a leaking head gasket.

My guess is the new coolant chemistry is not friendly to WW. Porsche coolant certainly qualifies for a "long-life" designation.

It's effects are diminished by antifreeze anyway, so I've stopped using it.

Regards
BD

The_Phantom

I've used Watter Wetter in both of my Porsches and it has made a slight but noticeable difference in both. It's probably worth trying.

Gretch

I have it in my Supercharged 89 GT, I have not experienced any ill effects after a couple of seasons.....I don't know if it is snake oil or not......

1999Porsche911

The fact is, that no matter what you use in your radiator and engine, the liquid will always eventually become the same temperature when all other things are equal. It takes air movement past the radiators to cool the coolant once it warms up. I don't care if you have 10 radiators, if your car is sitting idling, the engine temperature will eventually get up to where it would if you only had only one radiator. Driving around town in stop and go does decrease the temperature slightly, if you have more radiators, but not much. The effective cooling of the radiators do not come in until you start moving faster than 40 MPH (with a center radiator) and higher without, or if your fans are operating on high at any speed or standstill.

Now, for a short while, having more fluid in the cooling system wil keep the engine cooler than it would with a lesser amount of fluid, but as your driving continues, it will reach engine temperature and do no more to cool the engine than before the amount of coolant was increased. Therefore, a 3rd radiator does little to reduce engine temperature driving around town, but dramatically helps at highway speed due to more air passing over the radiator and removing the heat from the coolant. An the track, I question tthe claimed benefit of a slightly cooler engine being against the addition of more weight from the 3rd radiator. Air movement si the answer. Especially with the 3.4 engine.

There is no benefit, whatsoever, in using Water Wetter or other snake oils, but there are buyers for everything, I guess Some liquids will remove more heat from the engine, but it will always lose it's ability to do so once the liquid reaches engine temperature.

Patrick

Uh, no. Even with little air flow, a third radiator will radiate heat, and that will result in a lower engine temperature. Likely the engine will still overheat without fans, but your statement is still wrong. With 10, there would be no problem unless you covered them up. Also, the characteristics if the fluid in the radiator will have an effect on how much heat is transferred. I'm not saying that I believe WW is better, just saying that all things aren't equal.

1999Porsche911

My comment about 10 radiators specifically said the car was idling. Therefore, there is no air movement. Extensive tests on the 3.4 engine with and without the third radiator is where I got my facts from. The bumper design of the 996 does not allow enough air past the radiators at low speeds. The center radiator helps, but only slightly if you are moving at speed less than 40 mph. Only by increasing the air volume passing over the radiators either by obtaining speeds of 60 mph or more or by turning the fans on high speed, do you get any significant cooling effect. My car now maintains 194 - 198 degrees F and any speed even when idling in 100F temps due only because I force air over the radiators using the fans. I have only 2 radiators.

The only difference the 3rd radiator made was to maintain a cooler engine temperature longer due to the increase volume of coolant that needed to heat up. But once heated, there was little to no benefit unless you hit the open road.

PorschePRH

man i am glad i didn't get that 01 instead of the 03 that i have now. the temps are so high here in houston, and the 03 never runs hot under any condition...

bet

1999Porsche911,

I would like some more information on your use of the fan speed for cooling. Do you have it set to automatically kick on, or do you have a temp switch that activates it, or do you have switch on the dash? Any information you can provide would greatly be appreciated. Since this is slighly OT of this thread, if you want to PM or email please feel free. Thanks.

1999Porsche911

You have a PM.

LVDell

Ping me as well if you don't mind. Thought about adding the 3rd rad, but increasing fan useage would be worth it in my opinion so I don't have to install the 3rd rad.