I have searched and have not found a solid answer. Im building a ls vtec turbo em1 which is almost done just need to bolt everything up. Im a little confused on what kind of fluids i should use for coolant. I am aiming for 500whp daily driving in florida's heat. I have upgraded my cooling system to radiator, cap, fan. I dont know what type of coolant i should use. People say use distilled water and water wetter but then read that this is not good for a street car? What would be the best for my setup?

 

Its fine. You need good OEM Honda coolant or Toyota pre-mixed Coolant with some water wetter, and you're fine. Coolant is just one part of the equation. Better question is which radiator you have what fan you have, (making sure you have a proper thermostat) and how you're using it. pretty simple...

Good luck this summer.

 

The only issue I have heard about water wetter is for people that live in climates that have freezing temperatures. Obviously "coolant/anti-freeze" does it's thing to keep the water from freezing, but water wetter does not.

EDIT: Water + water wetter with no coolant/anti-freeze

 

In MI and further north, we don't really worry about that. it doesn't cause any adverse affects to the coolant, at least from my experience and others that use it in our area.

 

As we're on in this subject. I am in central Florida as well

Ok currently running a fluidyne rad,spal fan and oem thermo and switch

Also running Honda antifreeze, would adding water wetter be beneficial to me?


Ps
It is HOT

 

I run straight water + water wetter with a lil but of coolant in the summer. Integras have crappy airflow through the one opening in the bumper so it gets rather warm on the highway

 

distilled water and water wetter is the way to go. when the weather gets cold just drain it and add typical 50/50


We use it in every motor from street cars, race cars to street bikes and race bikes. nothing wrong with using it on the street, that's what it was actually designed for. comparing 50/50 ethylene glycol to water wetter you'll see at least a 20-30 degree drop with water wetter.

whoever told you not to use it on the street is an idiot lol

 

Always run an oem thermostat

 

You can run OEM or a high quality 180 degree unit. I've seen people run 160s but they are trying to bandage an overheating problem on an inadequate cooling system

I would personally run a 180 on a boosted motor. you can also buy a lower temp fan switch but any chipped ecu or standalone will allow you to control fan on/off temp directly.

 

I've been running the Honda 50/50 cut with water to make a 75% distilled water and 25% coolant mixture. Seems to be working great and the other day I checked out all of the coolant passages on the head, they are spotless!

 

Radiator efficiency and airflow are the most important things. Next is the fan you use. Standard coolant/water mix works just fine.

Your fan should only run in traffic and low speed driving. When the car is moving it should stay cool on it's own. If it doesn't you have an airflow problem or a **** radiator. If your making back to back high hp pulls on highway then the fan should kick on too

 

Water wetter WORKS, drops temps considerably over 50/50 coolant/water.

I settled on 80/20 water/coolant mix with a full bottle of water wetter.

I believe I decreased my cruising temps by about 25* on the highway by adding water wetter and descreasing the coolant percentage, which was the only time my car was running hot.

I also only run Honda type 2 coolant, the blue goodness

 

Thanks for the input guys. I have a half fluidyne radiator with a spal 13" fan with no shroud due to clearance and running it as a pusher with a relay. I have a spoon radiator cap, i just bought a Mishimoto thermostat because inline was out of stock on the spoon. Im running s300 so my tuner will set when to have the fan come on. Getting tuned by John Vega. Im thinking im going to get coolant from honda but what type of water wetter i should run and how much? Redline, Royal Purple, etc?

 

or should i just run distilled water and water wetter? I dont have to worry about freezing in Florida or would the honda coolant and wetter be better for my application? I never had a overheating problem i just want to be safe and do everything right the first time. I got my full race manifold coated, PTP lava turbo blanket and heat wrapped the dump and down to keep the under hood temps low as possible.

 

You just need one small bottle of water wetter with your OEM Honda coolant. there's no reason for the fans to be set with HONDATA. Let the the thermostat do its job by the mechanical spring.

 

Don't underestimate the importance of using the distilled water. Never put tap water in your motor, especially with the lime-laden super hard water we have here in Florida.

That stuff WILL leave incredible amounts of deposits in your cooling system.

IMO water only is fine for race cars, but on a street car there's no good reason not to run antifreeze as well. It also lubricates the water pump & raises the boiling point of the coolant.

Redline Water Wetter is good stuff.

 

Fan coming on earlier won't change how the thermostat does it's job. Also it will allow the fan to run longer after the thermostat closes this pulling more heat out of the coolant that's sitting in the radiator. So when the coolant wxchange between the motor and radiator occur the temps will stay lower overall.

 

hum...

i just use regular water in the spring + summer.

i have tiny 10x11 core radiator with 13 zirgo fan + diy shroud & a few air diversion plates for space inbetween FMIC & Rad.
Fan hardly needs to come on when i'm racing on the road course.

 

Not having a shroud is going to cause more problems than anything. My car barely sees 190 after repeated pulls. Water with full bottle of water wetter, civic half-sized aluminum radiator, OEM thermostat, OEM fan switch, OEM fan. FF turbo setup, so middle of IC is right in front of the radiator. 96-98 front end. The stock fan and shroud assembly did more for maintaining a good temp level than some off the shelf non shrouded 1200CFM S-blade fan did.

 

Redline is the only company that makes water wetter. it has a pump lubricant in it.

I say run nothing but distilled water and water wetter. it's what I run in all of my motors and I haven't had a single issue. it's the best way to achieve lower coolant temps.

you'll just have to swap it out for typical 50/50 when it gets cold

 

I've been running distilled water + wetter + Honda coolant since 2008 with a fluidyne half rad and Spal 12" puller and it dropped my coolant temps considerably, that was after taking advise from people on the site.
It's a very efficient set-up as in the winter on a long highway run it's nigh on impossible to get my heaters to run hot enough to warm the car.

 

Honda type 2 blue coolant is just neat in my opinion. I had it in my head for 20 years that coolant was either green or red, its neat to have ocean blue, and the coolant has very low (or possibly maybe even zero?) silicate materials to break down and leave sediment in your system. Its not very expensive either, and who doesnt love walking into Honda?

 

Shroud ONLY comes uti play when the fan is running. The car shouldn't need the fan to constantly run to keep it at normal operating temps. I don't run a shroud on my wide radiator and only have a 12"spal on one side of it and my car runs 185 when driving and 198-200 in traffic as it should and no higher than 205 at the tack when making 800hp pulls. I know. Thing or two about keeping the engine cool. Airflow airflow airflow

 

yea the radiator fan should only come on when stuck in traffic, a slow speed low airflow situation, or under high load. I have a 14" spal fan that has a built in duct around the blades along with a shroud and it will cool the coolant from 220-180 in only a few minutes. sounds like a jet taking off but it works

if your fan stays on most of the time it's indicative of an inadequate cooling system i.e. small radiator. going thicker on the core doesn't do much as it will still heat soak. it would require a wider, taller radiator. one with more surface area.

 

Redline - Water Wetter

Royal Purple - Purple Ice

DEI Radiator Relief

Hy-Per Lube super coolant

All can be used, but Redline has shown to have the most consistent results.