Heres one to have you talking maybe,,,
Did a search but couldn't find anything on this. Temps up here have been 36-38 lately, OLD GIRL (van) is strugling with heat, rising to 130deg, my vw man got me to try something. I was very reluctant to but a new motor was promised if it didn't work. Put a 20ltr container of water in the back with a small rubber hose gravity feed though a drip feed tap into the fan. The fan mists the water which is sucked through and blown out taking more heat with it than air will. Watched the temp drop from 120 when I turned it on down to 112 and then it never went above that. The amount of water was a dribble. Turned it off before the engine, only have tryed this once. Was not happy to do it but it worked, imput please.....

I tried exactly the same thing, with a flattened nozzle out of the tube to give a slight dispersion , nothing wrong with it & it does work well, practicalities of normal use (ie shut off /switch on while driving, have been theoretically worked out but I have not bothered to go further with it yet

I should add that I used a 2 litre bottle in the engine bay running on syphon & the 2 litres of water ran for ages

[Edited on 20-2-2004 by kombikim]

What about water injection? I've heard that it cools and cleans and gives better economy/performance.

Glad to hear someone has done it before. If it was viable, i was thinking of a 12v pump with a switch on the dash that is turned on when needed.I was amased at how little water was needed to lower the temp by eighteen degres. So thats one:thumb so far

yes water injection does, but it was more relevent in the '50's & '60s when carbon build up from the far inferior oils & fuels caused big problems ( removing the head for a decoke & valve grind was part of regular major servicing , it also gave a denser cooler charge, it was also simplistic in it's operation & could be mixed with metho allowing people to advance the timing & eliminating pinging, I used it in my highly modified Big Healey in the'70's & '80's, which would not run without it, these days however, it is expensive & computer rather than vacuum operated & primarily used in turbo engines, not really an option

I have 55ltrs on the drivers side under the floor used for the sink, was thinking I could duplicate it on the other side, then it would be below the engine. Not doing anything until I'm sure no damage would ocur.:jesus

I have a 55ltr tank under the floor on the drivers side for the sink, could put one on the other if I don't here of anything bad against it.:jesus

:jesus that is 55kg plus weight of tank to carry around in case you need it sometimes, it might be better to start off a bit smaller, the smal amount of water you are running through the cooling system can do no damage, it is really just like one of those wheel around the house air coolers , any moisture soon evaporates

Hi

You would have to be careful that the plugs leads didnt get wet, leading to shorting & missfiring.

1302Steve

As Kim say's in small amounts it's fine. If you start to flood water in there so it doesn't all evaporate it may also cause problems in the alternator (the fan blows air through this also).
:thumb

Thanks guys for the feedback on the water drip feed. seems to have fallen off todays posts while the wiff floged the computor and taken it into the AIR-CON bedroom.Andy,1302steve,kombikim

The results of this "Total-loss Evaporative Cooling System" are very interesting; it seems to make a very substantial difference.

The amount of heat which can be removed from the engine in this way (assuming, say 2 litres an hour....) is equivalent to the amount of heat to raise 2 kg of water from say 30C to 100C, plus a bit more to flash it off as steam, every hour.

Someone with an inquiring mind and a $2.00 calculator could work out how many kW this represents...can't be very many... and then we could see if this would be significant compared with the total heat output of the engine, which I guess is of the same order of magnitude as the power output, say 30 kW when cruising....

hth

ummmmm:jesus