Red Line Oil's "Water Wetter"

[john daniel cowan <jdcowan@mail.telis.org>]

knowing from chemistry and physics classes of yesteryear that water is the
most efficient (common) coolant available, makes me wonder how well the 'all
oil coolant' plan for the dragon aerospace millennium engine
(http://dragonaero.com/) is going to work.  I have an RX-7, and know from
the history of racing these engines that the housing areas around the
sparkplugs would tend to crack under high horsepower loading, from
overheating, unless grooves were cut into the water jacket around the plug
areas, to increase the surface area available for heat transfer to the
coolant. I don't know what the heat transfer rate of oil is, but in the
normal rotary engine, over one third of the heat removed from internal areas
is via the oil itself.  
  Does anyone know how/if these guys are getting 400 hp at 2900 rpm out of
this engine. Some of their stats seem a bit nonlinear to normal
thermodynamic outputs. 


from the Redline Oil page; http://www.redlineoil.com/about.htm


The Water Wetter Story

 The most interesting Red Line success story is not a lubricant, but a
cooling system additive called "Water Wetter Super Coolant". In many race
cars powered by liquid- cooled engines, it's common to use straight water as
a coolant because it cools better than mixes of water and antifreeze. A more
efficient coolant means a smaller cooling system and less weight. But
"straight" water has downsides, too: corrosion of metals exposed to coolant
and lack of water pump seal lubrication. Typically, 1920s-era concoctions of
water-soluble oils or the addition of antifreeze have been used to address
those difficulties. 
  In the spring of 1989, Roy Howell began developing a cooling system
anticorrosive product for straight-water-coolant in racing applications. One
day, Howell was working on this project in his laboratory, testing the boil
characteristics of different formulas on hot plates. As he watched his row
of flasks simmering away, he noted the liquid in one flask did not appear to
be boiling. It was giving off heat faster than the hot plate could put the
heat in. 
  That summer, in a test at nearby Sears Point International Raceway, Howell
put this "stuff" into the cooling system of a high-powered sports racing
car. After ten laps, the driver came and reported to an astonished crew that
coolant temperature had dropped 30 degrees. Howell's new, anticorrosive
additive also
offered a significant improvement in heat transfer to the coolant. He
continued tweak the product's chemistry and evaluate its performance at race
tracks. Every time he tested, cooling system temperature dropped significantly. 
  At the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association (SEMA) trade show that
November, Red Line Oil introduced "Cooling System Rust and Corrosion
Inhibitor with Water Wetter." At the show, Tim Kerrigan gave away samples of
the product to racers. At first, the motor-sport community saw claims of
reduced temperature
from simply pouring pink crystals in the radiator as hucksterism. The racing
season of 1990 had most of those people eating the proverbial crow. Red Line
was flooded with accounts from racers who, confronted with high coolant
temperatures and detonation, tried that "funny pink stuff" as a last resort
and found coolant temperatures dropped dramatically. In some cases, this
reduction was so great, engines could be re-tuned for higher output, in
spite of hot weather. By 1991, Red Line was shipping this product several
truck loads each week.  In 1992 Roy Howell replaced the anticorrosive part
of the additive with a new, more
environmentally-friendly and long-lasting chemical formula that further
increased durability of water pump parts. This change also allowed the
product to be packaged in a more convenient, liquid form. To simplify
product identification, Red Line also changed the name of the company's most
successful offering to just "Water Wetter."  Once again, Red Line's racing
successes spilled over into road vehicles. By 1994, Water Wetter  was
gaining acceptance by performance car enthusiasts looking for a way to
reduce high coolant temperatures. Some Red Line dealers were ordering 400
cases at a time. It has become so much in demand that it is now one of the
few Red Line products that is mass-marketed.