Water Wetter Experience

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?

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...

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

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!

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.

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

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.

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......

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

You have a PM.

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.

I had the same problem with overheating in the track. I was running 220-225 F. I did some research and found out that it is very important to have the right concentration of water/coolant. Mine was around 60/40 coolant/water. I removed 2 quarts of the mixture and added distilled water and wetter water. Last weekend on the track I was running 15-20 F cooler. I don't know if it was the wetter water or just the water but it did work

If you were able to run at the track in your 3.4 with engine temps of only 200F or less, then it either was a very cool day, your gauge is screwed up, you read the gauge wrong, it was a downhill track, or you were not driving the car for more than 30 minutes. The 3.4 cannot operate at that temperature on hot days without fans running. Be sure that you are interpreting your gauge correctly. You are at 205 degrees if the needle is touching the left side of the 0 in 180. If you hook up your scanner, your see the actual temperature.

Before the wetter water addition and the reduction of collant concetration, I was running around 220, it was half way after the 3rd line and before the 250 red line. That was with ambient 90 F at Blackhawk. Last weekend it was running at 2/3 between the 2nd line (180 F) and the 3rd line with 80 F ambient at Gingerman. It never got to the 3rd line. I have seen the needle above the 3rd line at Gingerman in April with 60 F ambient. So it did make a difference. But as I said before, I had over 60% coolant before so I believe that this is what made most of the difference.

If your needle was covering the right side of the 0 in 180, your engine temp was 215 -220F By the time you get to the next line, you are above 230.

If the 2nd line is 180 and the red line (4th) is 250 then the 3rd should be 215. In anycase by your numbers, I was running 240 before and 220 now. So it is a significant reduction. I was always nervous about my temp and now I'm very happy with the results of my coolant chemistry... Why do you want to spoil my "great achievement"? Why?

You did achieve something. You lowered your temp. I don't know why you were running so hot to begin with, but maybe you were low on coolant or had some air in the system. If what you say is true as far as where your gauge was, your were pretty extreme with the engine temp. The line after the 180 line is upwards of 230F. You could have baked a small roast on the manifokd.

Dell, you got a PM.

I have a supercharge '01 996 and just added a very small amount of water wetter to cure a flashing low coolant light. My car was also running a little warmer than I would like at that time. Even with the small amount, my car is running cooler and the light is no longer flashing.

Thanks. PM received.

The most likely reason your temp light was flashing was due either to air in the system or low coolant level. It had nothing to do with the coolant temperature. By adding ANY liquid to the cooling system would have stopped the light from flashing. A low coolant level will make your engine run hotter and by topping it off, you simply brought the amount of coolant in the system back to where it should be. If it sounds too good to be true...it always is.

Thanks for all the great info. Mr. 911 it seems that you have been thinking about 996 cooling. I've got a 01 996 that runs on the "0" in Houston summertime stop and go. At a DE this past June in College Station (over 100DegF at radiator level, 30 min runs) it didn't get much above that, if at all. Couple of questions: 1. I suppose that, if I were concerned about the DE temps, the 3rd rad would indeed help. Agreed? 2. How best to independently check the coolant temp. I have a laser thermometer that I use for cooking (it's digital, so it must be accurate!). Could I point this at a part of the engine for a decent reading? 3. Assuming that the dash gauge is accurate, should I even be concerned about the temps I'm seeing? 4. Do you have some info regarding altering fan speed? Don't the fans come on with the AC? Thanks again.

Lizard: One thing you can use to get the accurate reading of the temp is a scanner. Then compare the various needle positions on you gauge to what the scanner says and place it in memory. The 996 gauge is consistant, but misleading, making people think the engine is cooler than it is. One of the things that decreases the performance of the engine is heat, and the hotter the engine, the hotter the intake. The computer also will retard timing as the engine temperature increases, further robbing you of power. Will running DE's with engine temperature of 225 - 230 distroy the car? Unlikely, but it will take it's toll in the long run because your oil temperature is also higher. If you are one of those that run 0w40 at the track when it's 100 degrees, you might consider going with a heavier oil when you run that hot. Yes, the fans turn on high when the air conditioner is turned on. The immediate result is a drop in engine temperature, but that is short lived as the heat created by running the compressor will eventually out weigh the fan's cooling benefits and you'll be right back to the high temps. Turning the fans on without running the air will reduce engine temps as much as 20%. Having a third radiator also helps at speed.