Water wetter is cool stuff. It's not basic chemistry, but not far past it. It creates a suspension of molecules in the water that are actually small enough [individually] to penetrate metal. It's a smaller molecule that basically has the same viscosity as water, so rather than floating or sinking, it spreads itself out equally between the water molecules. It doesn't actually mix with the water, it creates a suspension, and in doing so it not only increases water's contact surface area with every metal it touches, but even between the water molecules themselves.

Layman's terms: It physically lowered my temps by 6° with a broken radiator fan (on the same hot summer day at the dragstrip) according to my datalogger. It works.

The three things that antifreeze does is...

lower the boiling point and freezing point of water (Boyle's law keeps the the lowered boiling point from being a problem).
lubricate the seals of the moving parts in the coolant system
provide anti-corrosive protection to metal to prevent it from being oxidized by water.

It's better for performance reasons to run straight water because Boyle's law proves the boiling point would be higher under pressure than it would with an antifreeze mixture, but the seals on the water pump would wear very quickly, and anything iron would rust. Aluminum oxidizes, too. Water wetter & water alone actually doesn't provide the lubrication necessary for a mechanical water pump on the regular/daily... but it's awesome for track day. I add it to a 80/20 mix water/Antifreeze, keep it in a garage, and rock that shit all year 'round. I have noticed an increase of corrosion around the coolant inlet/outlets on the cast aluminum housings where the radiator hoses connect, but this isn't a problem for me because I disassemble and polish this engine every 30k miles. Because I'm insane.

 

i'm glad someone else went through the trouble of explaining all that for those who think water wetter/purple ice is a joke

 

No problem.

I can post pictures of polished aluminum parts before and after 4 years of exposure to that mixture. I can also provide pictures of the flippin' ridiculous re-polish I've got going on right now that isn't at all related to this thread. It's just fucking beautiful and I'd rather post that instead.

 

Aren't 30k rebuild just required for DSMs? :rick:

 

Yeah well... it starts from necessity, but then it turns into a labor of love. What they do between rebuilds is pretty hard to match. :loco:

 

that's why my Porsche required 30k mile timing belt changes, they stole the system from Mitsubishi!!