Re: CRX: Purple Ice...Water Wetter

[Lee & Tracy Grimes]

Title: Message

Don't just remove the thermostat as you can cause even more heat problems, a common issue for racers.  When in the system, the thermostat adds some back pressure that slows the flow.  If you remove the backpressure and speed up the flow, the water spends less quality cooling time in the radiator so the water that goes back into the engine is hotter.  The car can actually run hotter if you don't give the water enough time to cool in the radiator.  The usual racer trick if needed is to gut a thermostat then put the shell in the system to add some resistance to flow.  I have not tried this as my Hondas have always raced cool.   I think you are really on the right track with the Purple Ice/Water Wetter step first.  This should impreove the heat transfer efficiency without having any downsides. This summer and last winter we raced a Mazda RX7 in 12 and 24 hour endurance races and I learned a bit about coolant since rotaries run much, much hotter than piston engines.  The 12 hour ran in the heat of June and we were the only rotary team to finish as the others all boiled over but we spent much of the daylight race hours driving watching the water temp, short shifting and not drafting so we had a steady fresh air supply to the big aluminum race radiator.  Apparantly water is a better transferer of heat than is ethylene glycol (anti-freeze) so the 50/50 mix that most people suggest is actually good to reduce freeze issues but does not transfer heat that well at all.  They say a 75-90% water/ 10-25% glycol mix will do a better job of actually cooling.  The glycol does have some rust inhibitors and water pump lubricants in it so you need some measure of it present.   Finally, I am putting a 2-row Accord radiator in the latest CRX racecar because the 14:1 compression and 9,000 rpm on the D16A6 is certainly going to run hotter than my previous race engines.  It is a very tight fit and I haven't finished making all the brackets but I know someone who is having good success with this radiator in his high stressed CRX racer.  This is an engine I can't affored to melt down.   Lee ----- Original Message ----- From: George Freeman To: 'David Miller' ; 'Lee & Tracy Grimes' ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, January 05, 2003 9:49 PM Subject: RE: CRX: Purple Ice...Water Wetter Hmm, didn't think about that one.  Any downsides?     -George -----Original Message----- From: David Miller [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, January 05, 2003 9:40 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Lee & Tracy Grimes; George Freeman; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: CRX: Purple Ice...Water Wetter Have you considered removing the thermostat?   David -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sun 1/5/2003 8:43 AM To: Lee & Tracy Grimes; George Freeman; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Subject: Re: CRX: Purple Ice...Water Wetter Lee, I rarely have had heat issues with stock Hondas in the past since like you said they run cool compared to other cars.  My challenge is the shaved head/higher compression on the D16Z6 is creating a hotter running motor than stock which has lots of power during the first few minutes of running, then slowly starts losing ponies as it warms up (radiator & coolant are new BTW).  Here in FL the heat factor is more dramatic in the summer so I'm willing to try this stuff and see what happens.  Little Beast is becoming very fun to drive as I slowly chip away at each issue one by one (ignition, timing, cooling, etc.). -George > That stuff sounds like Red Line's Water Wetter.  I've used it for years in > the racecars and put it in the van that tended to run hot when towing.   I > don't think I've run it in a street Honda but luckily they run so cool > anyway. That is something we can be very happy about, rarely ever do you see > or hear of a Honda overheating and if so it is usually a blatent problem and > not a design issue. > > Lee > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "George Freeman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > CRX content:  Just got a bottle of "Purple Ice" and plan to put it in > > soon.  Apparently, you have to drain the coolant out so there's only 15% > > left, then add just water and the Purple Ice additive (it breaks down > > all the H2O molecular friction, transferring heat from the block much > > more efficiently). > > > > > > George > > >