when you guys do mini installs and need to top off the radiator coolant what do you guys use? i'm going to guess the subaru oem coolant. but is there anything else and where do you get it from?

thanks
-brento

 

Distilled water for me. Unless of course you changed a radiator or some other major repair. If it's just a thermostat, or a turbo or something then distiller water is fine.
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distilled water and Water Wetter? More water than coolant will run cooler. Water Wetter will help also.

San

 

Yep, use Water Wetter and top off w/ more water than coolant to bring down temperatures.

Larry

 

word

 

Water Wetter is good in principle, yet I haven't seen any drop in water temps or a reduction in detonation/ability to tune leaner/hotter since putting it in my car.

Then again I don't run track days - so I can't comment on endurance type events. Suffice it to say it didn't make a bit of difference for me during commuting/drag/freeway runs.
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I've seen my stock temp gauge before and after the "water wetter"

After the needle is lower.

 

mini installs? when my mini acted weird, i added a mix of.....

oh, you mean mini subaru install...yeah, ilike water wetter but never used it on my suby yet. b

 

after the water wetter was added. A little, but every bit helps.

San

 

Really? My needle didn't move at all (although it would be hard to notice on that goofy little gauge). I base my data on logs from the UTEC.
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My needle moved down a little and based my data by my hand and foot. The engine cooled down a lot faster and foot well area dosn't get as hot in traffic. But that's if'y "proof".

I'd like to do back to back testing with my lasar thermometer, to get more proof. But I'm to lazy to drain, fill, drain.

 

You've got sensitive hands and feet.














Or so I've heard.

I believe my stock CTS and the logs I've collected - but YMMV of course.
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okay to clearify myself more along the lines as adding more than just water. pretty much almost drain the radiator like a system flush/radiator swap without all the flushing of the engine block and cycling of the fluids.

 

Guys, I used to road race bikes, back in the day w/ my F2, NSR, GSXR, etc... and I assure you water wetter works. It's quite evident on bike guages and is much more effective w/ the use of less if any coolant and more distilled water.

Larry AKA WRX151

 

During normal driving your temperature is almost certainly going to sit right at whatever our thermostats are set to (anyone know what that is, btw?). The cooling system is more than capable of maintaining that temperature, so that's where it's gonna sit. Adding Water Wetter just means that the cooling system is a little more capable of maintaining the t-stat temperature, so the t-stat might not be open as much but the coolant temperature will stay the same.

Along the same lines, an engine doesn't run cooler with more water than coolant, it just has more capacity to remove heat. Once again, assuming your coolant system is capable of doing its job (and from what I've seen Subaru's cooling systems are pretty much bullet-proof), then temperature is going to stabilize where the t-stat tells it to stabilize. Running all distilled water with a bit of Water Wetter or some other brand of water pump lubricant won't change that.

I'm arguing semantics here to some extent, but I think it's worth pointing out.

Pat Olsen
'97 Legacy 2.5GT sedan