Coolant Booster / Does it work?

[Rhinopolis]

I decided to add some AMSoil "Dominator" coolant booster to my stock FOMOCO coolant. I did some datalogging before adding the coolant booster, and I am attempting to measure worthwhile changes via the Cobb AP. For what it's worth, I have the X37 uprated turbo and I am running an E30 tune. All logs were recorded after driving the car for 20 minutes and to ensure a proper warm up, and my car has a little over 6400 miles on the odo.

The directions say to add 1 ounce of coolant booster for every quart of coolant, and after you add the coolant booster then you are supposed to run the car for 10 minutes with the heater on full blast. I opted to drive it for 10 minutes with the heater on full blast.

I drove the car (prior to adding the coolant booster) yesterday between 10am and 11am and when humidity levels were showing online in my area to be at 70%. I made three logs, and I am specifically looking at outside ambient and coolant temps.

Log 1 was recorded for 1 minute at a constant 60 mph while in 6th gear. Outside ambient according to the AP was 88.5 F and coolant temps stayed constant at 185.5 F

Log 2 was recorded for 1 minute at a constant 90 mph while in 6th gear. Outside ambient was recorded at 90.3 F and coolant temps started at 191.2 F and stabilized to 192 F even.

Log 3 was recorded and started in 2cd gear at 40 mph, and then I did a full throttle blast until 5th gear and 120 mph. Outside ambient was recorded as consistent throughout the pull at 88.7 F, and the peak coolant temp realized during that pull was 207.9 F

It took a little longer than I wanted for the coolant to cool enough for me to add the coolant booster and then cycle the car for 10 minutes with the heater on full blast, and I was not able to duplicate my test yesterday.

The car has sat over night, and I am showing that conditions today are similar and I will be duplicating my test at between 10am and 11am CST today. I'll share results and we can see if this product has any benefit according to how I am testing.

 

[Rhinopolis]

Not sure if I am an anomaly, or if something else is at play such as the product doesn't work. My results from my testing and after adding the coolant booster show no benefit or change whatsoever.

Take my results from above and before adding the coolant booster, and I achieved the exact same results (plus or minus a 1/10 or so of a unit) as above. I read reviews online and there were people claiming to see a noticeable change, but so far I haven't seen that.

Perhaps it's takes a little time to cycle through, and I will keep an eye on coolant temps. If I suspect that the product has "started working", I will duplicate the original test as close to original ambient temps as possible.

If anyone else wants to try a competitive product such as Mishimoto's Liquid Chill, perhaps you can duplicate my testing methods and we'll have a base sample to compare results against.

 

[M-Sport fan]

Most of these products (and there are MANY of them on the market!) only have any effect/result when used in either a mostly water (like > 75%), or ALL water (100%) scenario, despite what the manufacturers of them claim.

 

[Rhinopolis]

I've never tried a product like this out before, and I was hoping to see at least some measurable reduction in coolant temps. Oh well, and now I know ...lol

 

[M-Sport fan]

As long as they do not cause gelling/gumming of the Ford coolant (like the regular gas engine, pink color, like the Red Line Water Wetter does in GM's Dex Cool solutions, ironically, the blue color diesel WW does NOT cause this gumming up of the Dex Cool solution), they cannot hurt, and even though they might not show any actual temp reductions in data logged numbers, they still might help prevent cavitation in the water pump, and damaging 'hot spots' in coolant passages around the combustion chambers.

So maybe NOT a total waste.

 

[madsedan]

When I used to track M3's the only substantial lower of operating temp due to a change in system or fluid came with drastic changes. A new waterpump with more aggressive impeller, an aluminum readiator, only distilled water, etc.
But the hot set up for us, no pun intended, involved an aluminum aftermarket radiator and running distilled water with a couple bottles of Water Wetter, no antifreeze. Of course in the winter you'd need to do a drain and fill with 50/50 mix of water and antifreeze. But in the summer in the midwest that set-up worked so well we removed the fan clutch and only ran a single electric fan and it ran cooler than the factory set-up.

Keep in mind though, that all these coolant aditives are going to do is drop the temps a couple degrees and that won't mean crap to your car. In order for it to be substantial and positively effect the motor you need about a 10% drop in head or oil temps. Does anyone make a lower temp fan switch and thermostat combo for these cars?

 

[Rhinopolis]

When I used to track M3's the only substantial lower of operating temp due to a change in system or fluid came with drastic changes. A new waterpump with more aggressive impeller, an aluminum readiator, only distilled water, etc.
But the hot set up for us, no pun intended, involved an aluminum aftermarket radiator and running distilled water with a couple bottles of Water Wetter, no antifreeze. Of course in the winter you'd need to do a drain and fill with 50/50 mix of water and antifreeze. But in the summer in the midwest that set-up worked so well we removed the fan clutch and only ran a single electric fan and it ran cooler than the factory set-up.

Keep in mind though, that all these coolant aditives are going to do is drop the temps a couple degrees and that won't mean crap to your car. In order for it to be substantial and positively effect the motor you need about a 10% drop in head or oil temps. Does anyone make a lower temp fan switch and thermostat combo for these cars?

I'm learning, and would you mind explaining what this combo would do? Mishimoto offers a radiator, but it strikes me as a PITA to install and I'm trying to avoid a costly and time heavy cooling system upgrade. In the end, there might not be a shortcut to cooler temps tough.

 

[M-Sport fan]

I am hoping that someone comes out with an even higher cooling capacity radiator for these cars (than the Mishimoto) in the near future, for all of the bother that installing one would take.

But, given the lack of room available in our engine bays/front clips for anyone to work with, that may not even be possible.

 

[madsedan]

A lower temp fan switch used in conjunction with a lower temp thermostat would open up the coolant and turn on the fan at a lower temp. If you did this and threw in a 50/50 distilled/antifreeze mix and a bottle of cooler additive it should do all you need. Keep the car running 10-15 degrees cooler, whatever the thermostat is set for.

If none of the tuners sell those parts than its possible we don't need them and our cars like to run in a 190-210 range, totally normal BTW, and we don't need to worry about the cooling system for the motor.


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[Rhinopolis]

I have seen a thermostat (I believe Mishimoto offers one) that opens at a lower temp, but I have not checked in to the pros and cons. Most likely I will drain out my coolant, flush the system, and then refill it with deionized water plus water wetter.

It doesn't freeze in Houston, and I can drain this out and refill with fresh mix once a year. Any potential problems with doing this that I am not thinking about?

 

[airjor13]

I flushed the coolant today, super easy overall it's very straightforward and only took about 30 mins. I feel like changing the coolant every 30-40k miles does tons of good for the car.

 

[M-Sport fan]

A lower temp fan switch used in conjunction with a lower temp thermostat would open up the coolant and turn on the fan at a lower temp. If you did this and threw in a 50/50 distilled/antifreeze mix and a bottle of cooler additive it should do all you need. Keep the car running 10-15 degrees cooler, whatever the thermostat is set for.

If none of the tuners sell those parts than its possible we don't need them and our cars like to run in a 190-210 range, totally normal BTW, and we don't need to worry about the cooling system for the motor.

I am very surprised that this has not been done already by the tuners/shops which specialize in BIG turbo, high boost kits/tunes, especially for the customers who live where it never drops below 105*F in the summer, and using the huge ICs which block so much of the radiator.

Maybe you are correct, and these engines just do not make as much power (BIG loss of thermodynamic efficiency maybe?) IF they run even a little bit too cool?? Russell? anyone?

 

[CanadianGuy]

I flushed the coolant today, super easy overall it's very straightforward and only took about 30 mins. I feel like changing the coolant every 30-40k miles does tons of good for the car.

I have not checked. But is it a drain plug style or rip lower hose style to drain?

 

[airjor13]

I have not checked. But is it a drain plug style or rip lower hose style to drain?

Just pull open the reservoir tank cap, pull the lower radiator hose, and pour distilled water into the reservoir until what's coming out turns from orange to clear! Took about 1.5 gal of distilled water to flush everything out for me.

 

[RAAMaudio]

Not sure it is mentioned and no time to read the whole thread but this is how to maximize your current cooling setup.

All year:
Use the highest percentage of distilled water you can run to protect the car in the lowest temperatures you expect to see, 50/50 is not required in most places in the US.
Add 2 bottles of water wetter.

Summer only or where it never freezes:
Distilled water and 2 bottles of water wetter.

Water is a better cooling agent than antifreeze so you want to run as much of it as you can.

 

[M-Sport fan]

^^^This is probably all that more essential if one is running one of the GINORMUS BT type ICs (and then an aftermarket oil cooler in front of that!) which block most/all of the radiator.

I guess two bottles of Water Wetter supply enough of the corrosion/electrolysis resistance needed for our small capacity cooling systems?

 

[RAAMaudio]

This cost quite a bit and took a lot of time to do but I have no cooling issues at all

Fully ducted air inlet.
Mishimotor Celica GT radiator(huge task to install)
Top of IC to bumper beam sealed, sides and bottom of IC sealed.
IC lowered approx 2"
Oil cooler offset to the left as far as it would go, 40% flows past the other coolers instead of through them, fittings on one end so no hoses blocking air flow.
Velocity stack for intake offset so not in front of coolers
Core support highly modded to flow as much air out the back of the coolers instead of being blocked.
Grill opened up of course.
Cooler fins cleaned and straightened regularly.

 

[airjor13]

I am all about the merits of running straight distilled water for cooling performance but someone lecture me, doesn't water have a boiling point of only 100*c and coolants have a higher boiling point. Does 2 bottles of water wetter help bridge the difference in boiling point?

 

[airjor13]

I believe Motorcraft Orange had a boiling point of over 130* C, I was running roughly 30% distilled water and the rest MC Orange before yesterday and after switching back to only MC Orange after a good system flush I noticed cooling performance is noticeably improved during hard driving with A/C on, 95* ambient temp, BT, I have not seen coolant temps on the AP over 210* F. Before running 30% distilled water, I have seen 230+

 

[M-Sport fan]

I am all about the merits of running straight distilled water for cooling performance but someone lecture me, doesn't water have a boiling point of only 100*c and coolants have a higher boiling point. Does 2 bottles of water wetter help bridge the difference in boiling point?

It supposedly prevents the localized boiling, and resultant hot spots and cavitation which could cause even more problems than a steady, even throughout all of the engine coolant passages, high coolant temp.

Water is also supposed to disapate the higher heat it carries much quicker than a 50/50, or any coolant mixture could, once it hits the radiator (in theory at least).

The lower boiling point of straight water is also why some racers using it go for a higher psi/bar rated radiator, or reservoir cap than stock, or what would be used for a mix.