Question about cooling system

95rxl650

Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2012
Messages
321
Age
61
Location
Georgian Bay, Ontario
After all the work I've been doing on this "new to me" SRX 700, I finally got it out for a test run yesterday. No snow except a fresh 4-6 inches and a little pack from a week ago.
I let it warm up for 5 minutes and crept out of town to the county roads and started some runs down the hard pack. Carbides and studs cutting through the whole time.
A couple quick runs up to about 80mph and I pulled into a buddies place. Exchangers were steaming as expected from the powder around his yard, but a minute later I noticed the upper and lower hoses were barely warm to the touch yet the rail was hot and running board exchangers were barely warm after a couple minutes sitting. My buddy took it for about 5 minutes and upon his return, it was the same. 5 minutes home, same thing.
No warning lights, runs nice although maybe a little rich. Have to turn the fuel screws back in from 1-1/4 to 1-1/8 and see.
Does this seem normal? It's been along time since I had a sled and never an SRX, but I thought it would all have been hot.
I was in and out of powder the whole time.
5 minutes warming up and the exchangers on the boards are just starting to get warm on one end and the pto side exchanger gets warmer faster.

I did have the carbs in and out a few times, but lost just a few drops of coolant each time. The coolant in the carb lines was emptied each time.
 

SRX are fuel screws not air screws. before the slide air, after the slide fuel.

As far as the coolant system, if it's full of coolant and both running board exchangers are warming up and you can see it circulating in the bottle then you should be good. You can try bleeding from the rear exchanger to see if you get any air. If you dont see it circulating in the bottle when warm you could have a bad thermostat or worse something wrong in the water pump.
 
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Vmax540 said:
So, the screws are after on flatslides ? I'm stuck in the roundslide era..... sorry.
not all of them. the machz racks are air screws. depends on the sled. Im pretty sure all the yamaha triples are fuel but I havent seen them all.
 
So my cooling system doesnt seem to be normal in your opinions??
Reverse is quickly making to the top of my list. :o|
Dragging the sled 20 feet over gravel to the shop is out of the question.
When it warms up a few degree's I'll run it with the cap off, jack the back and open the bleeder screw to be sure.
It seemed before I drained the carbs of coolant that the exchangers were warming up alot faster. Yesterday was the first time I noticed the hoses were not hot. Just warm like radiant heat from the rail.
 
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Fired it up with the rear in the air and can see coolant moving immediately in the bottle. Let it warm for about 7 minutes and the pto side exchanger was getting warm. The mag side was just slightly warm.
I opened the bleed screw at the rear after shutting it off and I got about a 4 inch high jet of coolant coming out. 3 seconds and I closed it up. No air.

Before I started it, I could see coolant in the hole of the rear bleed. I could NOT see coolant on the rail bleed.
I havent opened the rail since shutting it off in fear of drawing air in. I feel the sled should be raised in the front before opening that one.
Also, the coolant in the bottle was moving in a circular motion and as reved the rpm's up to 3000 it would spit a few drops out the fill hole.
Is that too much movement?
Should the coolant be moving freely at a cold start? To me, this seems like a thermostat problem. Is it common to have to replace the t-stats in these things?
I have no excessive pressure in the system so I'm trying to convince myself it's not a head gasket. No loss of coolant or overheating light.
Sorry fella's, but it's been awhile. lol

EDIT: I just raised the front and opened the bleed screw on the rail by the ON/OFF flow switch. No coolant is flowing out and none is visible in the hole. :dunno:
 
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although that is called a bleed screw in the manual the only way to get any coolant out of it is to partially pull out the knob for your carb heaters. I have never bled through there and never had problems. I only bleed from the rear exchanger. It doesnt sound to me like you have any problems with your coolant system.
 
I just tried it all again. No air, but same thing at the carb control. You might be right about having to pull that partially out to get coolant there. Although I didnt read that in the service manual.
Maybe just me being paranoid. lol
On to adjusting the toe. Dang thing will yank me off trail the way it is.
Other than that and cleaning the clutches, I think this ol' girl is ready for some snow. If we get any around here. :letitsnow
Much appreciate the input. Sometimes you just need to hear an opinion. ;)!
 
It shouldnt be that hard to bleed the coolant, Ive had my srx apart atleast 10 times, and each time i would fill the coolant,start the sled up with the cap off and monitor the level until it got nice and warm,add as needed put cap on and go for a rip. And no they werent all burndowns why ive had it apart so much, LOL!! went from stock to ported to bigbore, then i started screwing things up, cold seized a few times before i learned my lesson on WARMING IT UP GOOD!!!! LOL!!!
 
Hopefully it's good to go. If it isnt, oh well. I am. lol
On another note, the inside jam nut on the pto side for alignment is a biatch to get at without taking the center manifold off. :o|
But alignment is done. It was toed out about an inch to far on both sides. No wonder it went down the road like a snake.
 


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