still losing coolant

super1c

super1c

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Freeland & Otsego lake, MI
A couple rides back i posted about losing about a 1/4 of coolant from bottle. Refilled and seemed ok. Last 2 rides it seems to be going down again. Checked engine no leaking anywhere, water pump weep hole dry. Checked piston wash and plugs, still fine on the rich side. When engine hot coolant level on high side, when cools goes below cold line. Top off before riding. Im suspecting coolant bottle is getting to high and overflowing. No overheating at all. Do i still suspect maybe head gasket even though wash is good? My other viper has never been touched or toped off. I never touched this one till inital time i noticed it low. Any thoughts?
 

check the cap on the bottle..maybe it is evaporating thru there.My sxr600 was losing some and it was the head gasket..plugs turned different color and piston wash showed it.If your plugs and wash are good..then getting out somewhere somehow..check your heating exchangers for a tiny leak.Bring your sled inside a building,melt all snow off it and let it sit a while in a new location and see if there is any coolant dripping on the floor then.
 
How many miles on the sled?

There are 2 seals for the water pump that go bad over time and start to leak internally. You would never see a coolant loss other then your coolant jug getting low.

If you find this to be your problem, the best thing to do is take the motor out. You would have to stand on your head in the belly pan to replace those seals with the motor still in.
 
tom..have you stood on your head replacing them seals..lol..yes if the oil seal behind the mechanical seal is leaking,perhaps coolant will get thru to cases.But one should make sure exchangers don't have a small pin hole somewhere first.Taking out the motor sucks and standing on your head can only make matter worse... :rofl:
 
Just rolled 5000 this year. Im sure about plug and piston wash being good. I do know that their was coolant on end of overflow hose the first time it happened. If it is water pump seal how do i tell, leak test? Or could it be as simple as i keep filling up and it overflows as engine gets hot. It always seems to be about a 1/4 down maybe a bit more. Im going to go over it again but im pretty sure i dont have a external leak.
 
if it was leaking at the pump externally,it would come out of the weep hole and drop down into the belly of sled..but go over everything good.If the center of plug starts to go white/greyish..then coolant is coming thru into cylinder.That's what mine was doing..Now my plugs are back to the brown cardboard color after I changed head gaskets.You don't want coolant going into the cylinders and or cases to much.This would probably work on some of the crank bearings and creat rust in them and then failure later on.
 
thinking out loud

Heres what im thinking..... coolant goes down about a 1/4 inch about every 150 miles or so. When engine is hot coolant bottle is full, meaning near overflow level. I did find coolant splater under overflow tube with airbox out. No signs of external leakin. I do have a nasty idle hang on long runs but no external air leak. I checked spraying engine down while running. So im thinking more that it could be a very small head gasket leak. Would that also give me a idle hang after long runs? Last thought was it does seem to be a bit smokey at start up, couldnt really say its whiter than normal but it fits to a leaky head gasket. What do you guys think? A small leak might not show up on piston wash? Im leaning twoards gasket.
 
I was down on coolant every now and then and it turned out to be a head gasket. A compression test confirmed it. I was 120, 120, 90.
 
Easiest way to find out is take the PV's out and look for milky oil on them.
 
maybe just maybe the cooling running through the carbs have a very small leak? and it mixing so well through the carb it burns it? could be reason your idle hang's up? just a thought......and coolant only expands till its hot, so after that time pressure is lost, on a small leak it will not show till you cool right down and start over, had this happen on a rear hose i forgot the clamp! lol and couldn't find the leak till i started it on the stand and gave it a hard warm up!!
 
some more info

Went over sled again, no coolant anywhere except a little splatter under overflow tube. When i did release the cap it was still under pressure and a puff of air came out. Pulled PV and the oil wasnt milky but it was a dirty dishwater brown and thick So not sure on that DX. Comp was good 115, 120, 120 cold with throttle open. I did read a easy way to check for HG leaks using a comp guage adapter but cant find it anywhere with search so any help with that would be good. Ive rulled out exhchangers and external leaks. Level never changes just sitting. Also checked head bolt torque and that was all good. So im thinking just pull head and change gasket and see what happens. If i do what is your guys opionion on OEM gasket vs the opti cool. Not piped anymore but the opticool cant hurt. All thoughts welcome. Thanks guys. chris
 
Not yet but i did think of that. Just didnt think it could be that easy of a fix, LOL. My thought on that was how did the air get there in the first place? Other than having the carbs off no work has been done that would lnvolve cooling system. I did have it on its side a couple of times, HMMM. I will do that for sure now and see what i get. Only problem now is i dont know if i will be able to test as its 40 deg here and what snow we have is melting fast. I dont have a day off from work till wed.
 
I also had it on it's side with the rad cap not on properly. Also, I took the head off because of a milky PV and forgot to drain the coolant before taking the head off (doh). I loose about 1 inch every 300 miles as I have air pockets in the system. Tried bleeding, etc. and still loose some fluid now and then.
 
I had a pinched head gasket with the milky PV so I replaced the gasket and put it all back together. Coolant drops about an inch every 200 miles as I still have air pockets in the exchanger.
 
Well it turns out it was the headgasket. When draining coolant i noticed it was a dirty green color not nice and bright green. Then when i got the gasket off you could see where oil residue was leaching into coolant jackets. I dont think any coolant was getting into cylinders because they looked good. So it was pressurizing the coolant system and forcing it out the overflow tube. So changed the gasket, filled the coolant, and bleed the system. Fired it up and ran it till all exchangers were nice and hot. No overflow and no rise in level of coolant. Before it would go up an inch or 2 right away. So i think i got it. I did go with the opticool so we will see how it works out. Putting it away for the summer now. Thanks for the help. Chris
 
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