I have been an engine builder for about 25 years. I live in Florida. I have ALOT of experience with water-wetter, So here ya go...
Water wetter and similar procducts do nothing to cool the engine. They are surfactants that break the surface tension of water, thus allowing 100% water - or a high % of water relative to antifreeze.
Anti-freeze is a poor product for cooling. Poor BTU transfer. Slow to heat, slow to cool. Water is the best. Problem is that water develops "nucleate boiling" which is basically the little bubbles you see in the bottom of the pan when you boil water before the water really gets to boiling. In your engine, the places where the bubble forms will create a hot spot, and not only won't cool, it will break down the metal in that area. WW allows the water to flow and fill these areas, and provide cooling without hot spots. Since water is the best liquid for heat transfer, it can now wick the heat away to the radiator, and then dispersed to the air.
If you live in an area wher you may encounter freezing, you'll need to add some antifreeze for freeze protection. The higher the A/F the less water, the less effective heat transfer. In an automobile, you need about 15% a/f to prevent the heater core from freezing up when using the a/c.
As far as "running cooler" well, you need to understand the mechanism of cooling an engine. We have thermostats that control the MINIMUM operating temps. WW won't cool the engine below that level. Sitting in traffic and the fan still comes on at the same temp as before, but you think it shouldn't? Wrong, the fan is thermostatically controlled, it should ALWAYS come on at the same temp regardless of what the cooling media is. What you WILL notice with WW and a high water % is that the engine is slower to come back up to the 'fan on" point, and the fan runs less during it's cycling time due to more efficient heat transfer. During regular riding down the road, by the time you've reached about 30 mph, you've met / exceeded the equivalent airflow that the fan can provide, so at theat point forward propulsion provides the air transfer.
One point everyone overlooks is that actually, the coolant, regardless of type, doesn't do the cooling. It does the TRANSFER of heat. that's all. Ambient air temps do the cooling. The hotter the ambient air, the less cooling available. For sake of arguement, let's say the cooling system can lose 50* of the coolant temp. If the ambient air temp goes up 20*, so does the the coolant's minimum temp. Remember that the thermostat controls that point most of the time - the only time we have an "issue" is when the rest of the system is overwhelmed and the temps start climbing above acceptable operating temps. This is where WW helps the system work more efficiently. Still, if the system is in poor condition or undersized for the application, even WW won't keep the temps in an acceptable temp range.
And to answer the obvoius question, Yes, I have WW and high % water / 15% AF in everything I own. HTH, Steve
