Will be doing a coolant change soon. Should I flush the system with distilled water or just drain and refill? It's a 15 bought new last year and has about 650 miles. Also, the coolant reservoir is by the rear shock. Should I just siphon the coolant out of it or remove it and drain it? Thanks
I have been using Maxima Coolanol with good results. If you have the time flushing the system with distilled water is a good idea......need to do this to mine in the spring. If it is not too much trouble I would remove the reservoir and rinse it out. If you can see it clearly and there does not appear to be any sediment or contamination in the bottle you can get by with just siphoning out what you can.
I was wondering the same but folks on this forum that know more than me said it's a good idea to change it and the brake fluid since the bike was assembled/filled over 3 years ago. I'll take their recommendations since it's an easy job. I think I'll just drain and refill the coolant instead of flushing it though.
Might as well do it but I wouldn't bother with the flush as it doesn't drain completely anyways so if you flush it with distilled water your end result is replacing coolent with distilled water,,. Just get the OEM coolent drain it and replace it with the same,,. Easy!!
My bike was a older with more miles so I did do the distilled water flush and replaced it with a 5 year Preston product formulated for aluminum engines, problem with that is the dealer topped off the coolent when they did the valve adjustment and probable used the OEM brand so I have a mix of the three, Distilled Water, Preston and OEM brand,,.
Engine Ice works great in my track bike. I flush it twice per year, as it offers no corrosion protection. It's expensive, but hell, when is a track bike inexpensive? I won't run it in my street bikes as I'm too lazy to change it that often, and I never push it hard enough to need the extra protection.
I'm with Lag. This is really easy to do. Do it often enough to where a flush is not necessary. Especially if it's cold where you are. The system holds so little it does bot take much water left behind to dilute that magical 50/50 ratio.
I've used engine ice and it worked fine...as did normal coolant. You really have to go to that Evan's brand coolant to see a coolant that's THAT much different than anything else....and that **** has it's own issues...it just has a high boiling point. Concrete has a high boiling point, too, so dont get sidetracked with just the boiling point. Look at how efficient coolants are with removing heat.
Its been a long time fellas. I was overseas for a good amount of time.
Has anyone tried starbrite starcool? I've heard lots of good things about this coolant overseas. Some went out of their way to import it. I just ordered one for a full reset on my bike.
Angelo, I looked at that coolant. I dont see a good reason to use it, or to not use it. It sounds like all the other PG based coolants.
On these newer bikes, the coolant isnt really controlling engine temperatures. Dont hear that wrong, you have to have some kind of coolant, but assuming that coolant is in place, your ecu is what controls temperature more so than the coolant itself.
It's not crazy expensive, and it looks like it will do a good job. So would the stuff Honda sells for its cars, or the other thousand possible coolants we could find. I'm not sure I would be comfortable leaving it in for 4 years. It's not that difficult to change, and it doesnt hold that much to where this would be much of an advangage.
RC is correct. Some track days require propylene glycol because it's non-toxic and less slick than ethylene glycol. Otherwise, it isn't any more "high performance" despite the claims by mfrs like Engine Ice. I run Prestone LowTox in my track bunny. 1/4 the cost of Engine Ice. Peak Sierra is the same thing.
That said, depending on where you live, there are ways to improve the thermal transfer efficiency of your coolant. Water has higher thermal conductivity than glycol. See here: https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/thermal-conductivity-liquids-d_1260.html Glycol is necessary mostly for anti-freeze. For me, because ambient temps here rarely dips below 20F, I have no need for -31F of protection 50% glycol offers in any of my vehicles, certainly not my motorcycles. So I run 40% EG in all my bikes and 40% PG in the GXSR track bunny. I probably could run 35% or even 30%, if I change the coolant more often, but I've got too many bikes and cars. Less than 30% is typically not recommended, because the corrosion protection gets too weak. I would definitely not want to use 100% distilled water, for the same reason you wouldn't want to drink it. Pure water is very aggressive and can actually be used as a excellent all-purpose cleaner. It is devoid of dissolved metals or minerals, so it is very hungry to pick up any that it touches, be that your guts or your engine.
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