Help...Coolant boiling over during rides...

HighEndGixxer · Mar 22, 2009

Hey everyone... Okay i've had my bike since Jan of this year and from those who have replyed to some of my other post know that i've been experiencing a few problems starting hot and it's probably cause my stator is not charging... anyways... Everytime I ride my bike the coolant over flow's from the resivoir. When I first bought the bike I noticed that the return line was disconnected and pluged. So i re-installed the resivoir hose and filled up the tank and radiator... Now when I go for rides I notice that the coolant will over flow after I shut it down. The temp on my guage reads normal.. when i ride it stays in the 162-170 range. It only get's over those numbers when I idle for more than a min. I looked in the book and it says the thermostat opens between 166-173.3F

I want to know what is considered normal opperating temp. When you guys ride what does your temp normaly stay at??? If the thermostat opens at 166-173 then riding around with a temp of 162, does that mean that my thermostat is closed while i ride and would cause the pressure in radiator to be grater than 15.6 psi and cause it to over flow in the tank??? I tried to disconnect the return hose and plug it back up and noticed that it would then leak from the radiator cap if I was over 180+

I saw somewhere on here with someone who had similar problems with the cooling system but cant find that thread anymore.... I would like everyone's oppinion on this subject. It sucks that there seems to be a problem after another with this bike and I really like this bike. It's def starting to grow on me.

I'm thinking of removing my radiator and taking it to a radiator shop so they could flush it out and clean out the tank. Maybe my tank is getting clogged and keeping it from cooling properly. It just doesn't make sense to me cause my temp seems to be okay but my coolant always boils over. I constantly have to add water or coolant eveytime I ride. I recently replaced my spark plugs with the stock plugs. I read that the wrong heat range could cause over heating. I'm running the right heat range so I dont think it would be the plugs. I also replaced the radiator cap with one from my 300zx since it was the same style and it produced the same results.

I would like any info you guys can think of or suggestions to fix this problem. Thanks again and sorry for the long post. Hope to hear from you all.

Simon :cheers

Hotboy · Mar 22, 2009

I would flush my whole system and fill with radiator fluid thats good for aluminum engines and put some Water Wetter in there its pink and keeps your engine from getting hot. before I put that in I would come to a stoplight and the thing would jump to 202 FAST!!!! Now it runs around 170.

radium · Mar 22, 2009

How full are you filling the reservoir and does it have a cap on it? Many times the temp in the radiator will rise right after you shut it off, I guess just due to the heat not having anywhere to go all of a sudden, but it should not be enough to overflow the reservoir unless it was too full to begin with.

Mine will stay in the 165-180 range if moving, but will quickly climb up over 200 in traffic, I have hit 230 once.

Chocolate_Rain · Mar 22, 2009

You filled the coolant back up, did you bleed out the air from the radiator? Take the cap off and start the bike. Let it run for a few minutes with it off to allow air to escape. Turn off, check level in the radiator, add more fluid if needed, and sstart bike again and bleed some more. I do this about 3-4 times to make sure all the air is out of the system.

NiksRAD · Mar 22, 2009

Hotboy said:
I would flush my whole system and fill with radiator fluid thats good for aluminum engines and put some Water Wetter in there its pink and keeps your engine from getting hot. before I put that in I would come to a stoplight and the thing would jump to 202 FAST!!!! Now it runs around 170.

How much of the Water Wetter did you use? The directions seem to only call for a couple cap fulls for our size application.

I switched to it about a month ago and I run about 170 while I'm moving, but it still jumps up pretty quick if i'm stopped in traffic. I wonder if I should add more WW to the mix?

THE SRADIATOR · Mar 22, 2009

The cap and/or the thermostat are suspect here!

HighEndGixxer · Mar 22, 2009

Black_Rain said:
You filled the coolant back up, did you bleed out the air from the radiator? Take the cap off and start the bike. Let it run for a few minutes with it off to allow air to escape. Turn off, check level in the radiator, add more fluid if needed, and sstart bike again and bleed some more. I do this about 3-4 times to make sure all the air is out of the system.

well the first few times the resivoir was somewhat full and would end up filling it up after rides. so i took some out and put left enough for the cold level. but the next time i would go ride i would check the radiator level and it would be low again. I would always have to fill it. And if i dont fill it between rides the next time I would check the radiator it would be half way empty. I dont think I have a problem with my head gasket since I dont get smoke out the tail pipe. I know that the reason it empty's is that it just flows into the resivoir tank. Is that normal to some point??? when it cools down shouldn't it fill the radiator back up from the resivoir??

From what i've got from a couple you your reply's is that you guys run 170+ I'm usually around 162-165 sometimes at 159. Does that mean that my thermostat is being kept closed and keeping my coolant from circulating and causing the temp and pressure in the radiator to rise and cause it to fill up the resivoir???

I'll definately try and bleed out the system a few times to get all of the air out and see if that helps... Thanks

Thanks for your reply's and comments

simon

Chocolate_Rain · Mar 22, 2009

The radiator and entire cooling system is always full of coolant. The reservoir, which is also the overflow tank, provides more coolant when needed. This usually happens when there is air in the system and the air escapes out of the cap, leaving more room for liquid.

What was used to block the return line? May need to flush the whole system, check the upper and lower lines for blockage, and check the thermostat for correct operation.

HighEndGixxer · Mar 22, 2009

Black_Rain said:
The radiator and entire cooling system is always full of coolant. The reservoir, which is also the overflow tank, provides more coolant when needed. This usually happens when there is air in the system and the air escapes out of the cap, leaving more room for liquid.

What was used to block the return line? May need to flush the whole system, check the upper and lower lines for blockage, and check the thermostat for correct operation.

it was plugged with a rubber cap around the nipple that comes off the top of radiator.

So how does the coolant from the overflow tank get back into the radiator??? the hose in the over flow tank doesn't go all the way down the tank to syphone the coolant back into the radiator??

The overflow tank should be filled to the cold mark right?? that means when it gets hot it will add coolant to the over flow and get up to the hot level. So.. when it cools down the coolant should go down to the cold level and refill the radiator right??? correct me if i'm wrong... But i'm still confused in how it does that if the hose doesn't go all the way down to the water to suck it back in???:scratch

njfirefighter2119 · Mar 23, 2009

if your heating up quick i would say change your t stat and flush your system with water(even better is distilled water) and then fill it with engine ice or something of that nature... thats what i have in my bike and i no longer over heat when in traffic....plus it raises the boiling point to 250+

HighEndGixxer · Mar 23, 2009

njfirefighter2119 said:
if your heating up quick i would say change your t stat and flush your system with water(even better is distilled water) and then fill it with engine ice or something of that nature... thats what i have in my bike and i no longer over heat when in traffic....plus it raises the boiling point to 250+

My temp never goes anywhere near over heating... That's why i dont understand why it would boil over. My riding temp stays between 162-170. Also the bike doesn't get hot quick, it gradualy get's up to temp. I definately will flush out my coolant and use that water wetter everyone's recomending and see if i get the same results.

Has anyone upgraded their radiator to aluminum one's??? Do they have aftermarket radiator kits for our bikes??

Thanks for everyone's suggestions and comments it's much appreciated... I'll keep you guys posted with my result :cheers

radium · Mar 23, 2009

HighEndGixxer said:
it was plugged with a rubber cap around the nipple that comes off the top of radiator.

So how does the coolant from the overflow tank get back into the radiator??? the hose in the over flow tank doesn't go all the way down the tank to syphone the coolant back into the radiator??

The overflow tank should be filled to the cold mark right?? that means when it gets hot it will add coolant to the over flow and get up to the hot level. So.. when it cools down the coolant should go down to the cold level and refill the radiator right??? correct me if i'm wrong... But i'm still confused in how it does that if the hose doesn't go all the way down to the water to suck it back in???:scratch

You should have two tubes coming off of your reservoir, the one connecting to the overflow of the radiator should go to the bottom of the reservoir and the tube at the top should just go down to the bottom of the bike. I would say it sounds like the tubes are swapped except that it would cause the coolant in your reservoir to just run out as soon as you filled it.

Is it possible that the bottom nipple on the reservoir is closed and your radiator overflow is going to the top of the reservoir? That would cause your radiator to suck air back in after it cooled back down.

Hotboy · Mar 23, 2009

I hope that when you are checking and filling your radiator your not filling it with water? I put almost a whole bottle of water wetter in mines and dont run hot for nothing sitting in traffic on a hot day the worst i hit was 193 last summer.

GSXR-Freak · Mar 23, 2009

Sounds to me like you might not have a thermostat at all in there.
Or maybe it was drilled out.

Also, your Rad Cap might be wore out. (like said above).

Replace both and see how it works.

John

Help...Coolant boiling over during rides...

HighEndGixxer

Hotboy

radium

Chocolate_Rain

NiksRAD

THE SRADIATOR

HighEndGixxer

Chocolate_Rain

HighEndGixxer

njfirefighter2119

HighEndGixxer

radium

Hotboy

GSXR-Freak

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