Lets see, so everyone says you need the special GM tabs in the Caddy cooling system.

Everyone also says you need some antifreeze in there to lube it all up.

I know Red Line Synthetic Water Wetter is Great Stuff.

So lets see

4 litres 50/50 premix antifreeze.
1/2 litre of Water Wetter
3 GM Cooling system Tabs
Then fill with regular water.
Burp it
Install 180 Thermostat
Then Drive it.

Well the cocktail works.

Car goes up to operating temp and just stays there. Does not go over at all even when ideling for 30min.

------------------
85GT 5spd MSD Everything,4.9 With Nitrous. www.captfiero.com

quote so everyone says you need the special GM tabs in the Caddy cooling system.

Not everybody. I've never used them. 50/50 glycol/water and never a problem. The Water Wetter does work, I've used it on other vehicles.

So how much pure water was used to top off the system? That will bring your total mixutre below 50/50.
Personally, I use Ogre's method of adding 2 gallons of pure antifreeze, the topping off with plain water. That gives you a bit more than 50% antifreeze, but you don't have to buy premix and you don't have to try to account for any water left in the system after flushing.

I've never tried the water wetter, but I've heard good things about it.

Water Wetter works best with PURE water in a cooling system. Having a 50/50 mix is not that important in the summer. Pure water is a better coolant than Antifreeze any day of the week. I only put just enough antifreeze. (1 gallon premix or 1/2 gallon pure) into the car to lubricate the water pump and add to the anti corrosive properties.

Water Wetter also has anti corrosive and lubricants in it, but I add the antifreeze just to be on the safe side.

As a side note. If you don't live in a climate extreme zone. Temps over 100F in the summer or below 15F in the winter most people are better off with a 25% antifreeze mix.

Ive used water wetter as well... it works great. i always run it now. but it seems to be most effective on the highway or bascially when you've got alot of high revs going... and the wind is blowing in there too of course. But i always have it in my car. Im told the tabs work too and won't clog the system but ive seen mixed reviews on that. right now my 4.9 cooling system is running ok... i don't detect any leaks at all so far. i Think i need a new radiator though... well see. And i need to get a proper mixture in there. i have more glycol in there then i do water... which is bad... but the winters up here are pretty bad... so when i store the car i want to make sure it doesn't all freeze over. Or does that mostly matter only when the car is being driven in the winter?

------------------

"Anti Freeze" also significantly raises the boiling point of the coolant mix. This is a very important factor, especially in summer. Water Wetter does not have that property. This is above the effect of the 15-16 PSI that most cooling systems run at. The pressure cap plus the "antifreeze" can raise boil point to over 270*F.

------------------
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurasic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave (It's also at the top of every forum page...)

I've heard that the GM tabs are for porosity in the aluminum block. If that's the case some blocks may need them and some don't.

I also used the tablets, as one of my head gasket kept weeping (yes I had the head and deck checked and 3 different head gaskets with no luck, but the tabs did work).

Tim

As I underrstand it...

The GM tabs are Bar's HDC pellet stop leak product. GM was throwing them in allot of vehicles. I've been told they stopped doing that. If the cooling system is put together correctly... You shouldn't need them.

Some people claim that Bar's and other products will plug up a cooling system. My experience with them is this will only happen when the system was majorly screwed up to start with. (What is also why many are leaking to start with...)

As with everything there is an exception...

There are also radiators in service now that have very small passages thru the tubes. The tubes in them are very thin and/or they actually have multiple channels thru them. I wouldn't use any sealer with one of these. I haven't tried sealer on one and frankly I wouldn't take the chance. If you've got one of these in a vehicle you want to make bloody sure you stay on top of coolant changes... If you don't it won't be long before they plug solid.

[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 06-11-2005).]