Coolant Gremlins

[stnick]

I'm still chasing my coolant mystery. I have 25K miles on the clock and ride hard every weekend. Our rides are a mixture of tight twisties in 2nd and 3rd gear at 7-9k rpm. Then we hit the extremely fast sweepers about 20 miles of 4th and 5th up to the stutter often. I'm a maintenance conscious 50 year old original owner of this bike. My problem occurred earlier this summer when we stopped at a favorite store at the end of the high speed sweepers and my bike spit up about an ounce of coolant from the overflow tube on the coolant bottle. The temp hand never hit the half way mark.I've tried a few things but nothing serious. I recently replaced the radiator, fan, thermostat, radiator cap and added engine ice. Remember, my bike never gets hot. I don't sit in traffic and seldom commute to work. Today was my first ride since I replaced all the parts and the exact same thing is happening. I really thought it would be the radiator cap not holding pressure.
I burp the system then run through a couple of heat cycles in the garage and let it sit overnight and notice the coolant bottle level will have gone down some and I top it off to the line. It holds the level at the line but for some reason it overflows slightly after a good run. WTF?

Nick

 

[Mr Bogus]

my guess is you may be overfilling the thing.. check the coolant level with the motor cold.. it should be at the "minimum" mark..

 

[stnick]

I got a little wordy in my description... sorry about that. I do tap up to the minimum mark on the bottle after running through a couple of heat cycles and letting the bike sit overnight. It's not overfilled, it's just pushing coolant into the bottle for some reason. probably going to be due to and exhaust leak into my coolant. ( not good )
I read another post from 2008 regarding someone seeing bubbles in the bottle when at operating temperature. I get those bubbles! Also, my oil is fine, not milky and I have no external leaks on the engine. My only leak is from the bottle overflow. I noticed some small residue sticking to the side of the bottle and to the top of the radiator cap. I rolled it between my fingers and it was like the residue from a pencil eraser... picture the little fibers after you erase.
I like the idea of finding someone with a sniffer and sticking the thing in my coolant bottle and checking for exhaust gases.

Nick

 

[omslaw]

What type of oil are you running? Conventional or Synthetic?

If the latter, you may never notice the coolant in the oil. https://www.hayabusa.org/forum/general-bike-related-topics/83883-pics-my-cracked-head.html

I chased a coolant leak for over 3 years until I finally found the crack in the head. Anyway, I am running Mobil 1 fully synth oil - I NEVER noticed the classic, bubbly "milkshake" oil. Instead, the Mobil 1 would turn dark brown...almost black...very quickly.

Something to look at if you're running synth...

 

[stnick]

I wasn't aware that synthetic oil wouldn't "milkshake" when water was added... the old "dino" oil sure would wouldn't it. I can remember pulling the dip stick on my 67 goat and it looking like I had used it as a paint stirrer!
I run Amsoil with an OEM Suzuki filter in the Busa.

Thanks for thinking.

Nick

 

[jwcfbd]

It is completely normal. When the coolant heats up it is going to expand and when it does it has to go somewhere. If it exceeds the pressure set by the radiator cap it will then go overboard into the bottle. As the engine and coolant cool back down it will cause the system to form a slight vacuum which will then suck the coolant back into the radiator from the bottle.

 

[dadofthree]

Not sure you have a problem reading your first post brother. You are basically running the piss errrrrrrrrr... coolant out of her and I think that comes under normal.

 

[Mr Bogus]

I got a little wordy in my description... sorry about that. I do tap up to the minimum mark on the bottle after running through a couple of heat cycles and letting the bike sit overnight. It's not overfilled, it's just pushing coolant into the bottle for some reason. probably going to be due to and exhaust leak into my coolant. ( not good )
I read another post from 2008 regarding someone seeing bubbles in the bottle when at operating temperature. I get those bubbles! Also, my oil is fine, not milky and I have no external leaks on the engine. My only leak is from the bottle overflow. I noticed some small residue sticking to the side of the bottle and to the top of the radiator cap. I rolled it between my fingers and it was like the residue from a pencil eraser... picture the little fibers after you erase.
I like the idea of finding someone with a sniffer and sticking the thing in my coolant bottle and checking for exhaust gases.

Nick

sniffing for HC does a great job.. (seriously overheated motors can produce a false HC reading however)

If all you are noting is a bubble or 2 and the level going up, that is ok..

As the coolant expands it is going to run back to the tank..

if you have a continuous stream of bubbles, then you have a problem..

No coolant loss, no overheating, occasional bubble out of tube are all acceptable..

 

[Tufbusa]

Went through the very same senero with GregBob's bike!

Head Gasket!

 

[omslaw]

I wasn't aware that synthetic oil wouldn't "milkshake" when water was added... the old "dino" oil sure would wouldn't it. I can remember pulling the dip stick on my 67 goat and it looking like I had used it as a paint stirrer!
I run Amsoil with an OEM Suzuki filter in the Busa.

Thanks for thinking.

Nick

I didn't know, either. But I was losing coolant. I could smell it in the exhaust..and I also knew it was pooling up in the #2 cylinder.

So I did a little unscientific test... Took a couple plastic Solo cups, put dino oil in one and Mobil 1 in the other. Then took a bit of Engine Ice (coolant I'm running), added it to both cups then mixed it up. The dino oil looked like a milkshake...the Mobil 1 turned almost black...no foaming at all. Other than looking like "used" oil...there was no obvious indication of coolant in it.

 

[carlsbadbusa]

interesting???

 

[Mr Bogus]

I didn't know, either. But I was losing coolant. I could smell it in the exhaust..and I also knew it was pooling up in the #2 cylinder.

So I did a little unscientific test... Took a couple plastic Solo cups, put dino oil in one and Mobil 1 in the other. Then took a bit of Engine Ice (coolant I'm running), added it to both cups then mixed it up. The dino oil looked like a milkshake...the Mobil 1 turned almost black...no foaming at all. Other than looking like "used" oil...there was no obvious indication of coolant in it.

interesting... never tried that before..