The Ford Barn

Jim/GA · 05-18-2026, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeepguy1948

My car lives in a heated garage (and it rarely gets below freezing here) so freezing is not an issue.
De ionized water, got it.
Would Water Wetter be the last piece of the puzzle?

Many people swear by it. I have not tried it. Maybe I will go buy a bottle and see what happens.

It is hard to do a controlled experiment, where you run a course without it and then run the same course with it, all the while recording the coolant temperature while you drive. If the air temperature is lower on another day, you will run cooler.

On a lot of these additives, the buyer THINKS there is an improvement because they just spent the money EXPECTING an improvement. Kind of like the Placebo Effect.

The engineer in me really wants to do a controlled experiment somehow.

Jim/GA · 05-18-2026, 01:00 PM

If you are going to run straight water in your cooling system, you will want to also run a "Water Pump Lubricant and Rust Inhibitor" additive. There are many out there. I use NAPA MAC-1300. Dump in the whole bottle and forget about it. It's the rust prevention you need.

Even if it does not freeze there, drain, flush, and refill the system once a year to keep it clean.

If you grease the water pump fitting closest to the engine, go easy on it, like 1/2 pump every 1,000 miles. It all goes into the radiator eventually.

montanafordman · 05-18-2026, 11:16 PM

I had foaming issues with Prestone - but I have had good results with Oreilly branded conventional green antifreeze for older vehicles.

Don't over think this... Should there be some sort of anti-rust additive? Yes... I think everything mentioned already takes care of the corrosion prevention but antifreeze has that and will prevent the head or block from freeze cracks if your car will ever be in freezing temperatures.

I'm sure they used pond water and some bootleg moonshine back in the day and got around just fine.

Dodge · 05-19-2026, 01:02 AM

We ran water wetter for a good 25-30 yrs. in our race car engines just using the water wetter and distilled water. I don't know if it made any difference in the tempurature
but there was never any rust in the engine block just a kind of pinkish/white coating.

05-18-2026, 01:00 PM	#22
Jim/GA Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Young Harris, GA Posts: 2,093	Re: Coolant If you are going to run straight water in your cooling system, you will want to also run a "Water Pump Lubricant and Rust Inhibitor" additive. There are many out there. I use NAPA MAC-1300. Dump in the whole bottle and forget about it. It's the rust prevention you need. Even if it does not freeze there, drain, flush, and refill the system once a year to keep it clean. If you grease the water pump fitting closest to the engine, go easy on it, like 1/2 pump every 1,000 miles. It all goes into the radiator eventually. __________________ Jim Cannon Former MAFCA Technical Director "Have a Model A day!"

05-18-2026, 11:16 PM	#23
montanafordman Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Meridian, ID Posts: 604	Re: Coolant I had foaming issues with Prestone - but I have had good results with Oreilly branded conventional green antifreeze for older vehicles. Don't over think this... Should there be some sort of anti-rust additive? Yes... I think everything mentioned already takes care of the corrosion prevention but antifreeze has that and will prevent the head or block from freeze cracks if your car will ever be in freezing temperatures. I'm sure they used pond water and some bootleg moonshine back in the day and got around just fine. __________________ Aaron in T̶a̶c̶o̶m̶a̶ Meridian, Idaho (although still a Montana hillbilly at heart ) 1931 Coupe 1931 slant window sedan

05-19-2026, 01:02 AM	#24
Dodge Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Sonoma, CA. Posts: 1,633	Re: Coolant We ran water wetter for a good 25-30 yrs. in our race car engines just using the water wetter and distilled water. I don't know if it made any difference in the tempurature but there was never any rust in the engine block just a kind of pinkish/white coating.