parepadarappa
New member
I was riding my 02 SXr on sunday on a nice powder covered forest road when I felt like I was losing power. Looked at my gauges and temp light flashing like crazy. I've seen that temp light before pushing it in the powder so I wasn't too worried at first really. I stopped and went to put some snow on the coolers and they were iced up....Odd I thought, then I popped the hood and my normally red head is now a nice earth tone brownish black..... Uh oh... The temp probe melted out and wires melted to the head... Uh oh again... After a tow back from my friend all is well, nobody froze to death in the frigid single digit temps. Anyhow, head is warped, havent pulled anything else yet but pistons are all intact, no scoring of the cylinders, everything still moves freely, so I think I may just need a new head and gaskets at this point. I havent checked the base gasket yet but my head gaskets didn't look like they were leaking at all, and my coolers are all intact as far as I can tell, because when it overheated I flipped it over to see if there was any green and there was none. Any one have any other ideas where the coolant may have gone? I think it has something to do with my pto cylinder because the head and the piston dome were both nice and clean aluminum, particularly on the intake side, almost like they had been washed off. Any help, including a good cheap head would be great. Thanks..
sleddineinar
VIP Member
Is your track studded? Either you threw a stud or something through a cooler, ruptured a hose or the head gasket leaked. Not much else can happen to coolant. Bummer though...
flatblack97
Member
I had a pinhole in my running board coolers on both sides and used to lose coolant mysteriously until I figured it out. About half way to the back of the sled on the running board coolers there is a steel mount for the skid, mated up against the aluminum cooler. Steel and aluminum don't get along and after 12 years it finally made a small hairline crack in the cooler on both sides. It would usually take about an hour of riding to get the light to turn on.
parepadarappa
New member
No studs. I'll check the coolers where you are talking. Thanks.
Cherrypicker
Member
I had this happen to me a few years back on my 97 SX700. Red head turned the color of a Hershey bar. My source of coolant loss was a stud punched a hole in the heat exchanger at the front of the tunnel.
You may not have to get a new head, I took mine to a machine shop and had them mill, I believe .005" off, new gaskets bolted her back together and has run great ever since.
You may want to do a pressure test, on the cooling system and see if you can locate the coolant leak, regardless keep an eye on the overflow for bubbles or coolant loss. I've had people tell me that the rings would be like spaghetti. Hasn't been my experience. If your cylinders look good, I'd do the head mill and bolt her back up.
You may not have to get a new head, I took mine to a machine shop and had them mill, I believe .005" off, new gaskets bolted her back together and has run great ever since.
You may want to do a pressure test, on the cooling system and see if you can locate the coolant leak, regardless keep an eye on the overflow for bubbles or coolant loss. I've had people tell me that the rings would be like spaghetti. Hasn't been my experience. If your cylinders look good, I'd do the head mill and bolt her back up.