What coolant to use?
- Thread starter Narcissus
- Start date
if you want to add something that "might" help cooling. a "wetter" should help. it is a surfactant that helps break surface tension of the water and can allow a better heat transfer between the coolant and the metal head/radiator..
Again.. Engine Ice is simply Propylene Glycol (they have to state this per Fed Regs on the MSDS) Save your $$ buy some Redline water wetter and add it per instructions to either ethylene glycol or Propylene glycol based coolant..
Not sure how "engine ice" got all this "street rep" in the bike community... but it really is nothing special... but it sure got some fancy marketing... (GM was one of the first to use Propylene glycol in the Vette as it ran at a steady temp of 220+ and Propylene glycol could not take the beating)
Again.. Engine Ice is simply Propylene Glycol (they have to state this per Fed Regs on the MSDS) Save your $$ buy some Redline water wetter and add it per instructions to either ethylene glycol or Propylene glycol based coolant..
Not sure how "engine ice" got all this "street rep" in the bike community... but it really is nothing special... but it sure got some fancy marketing... (GM was one of the first to use Propylene glycol in the Vette as it ran at a steady temp of 220+ and Propylene glycol could not take the beating)
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Propylene Glycol has better heat transfer abilities than Ethylene glycol. Neither will transfer heats as much as plain water. However most need to balance the need to prevent boilover and freezing. Mixing it to a ratio of 10-25% P-G coolant with water and the recommended amount of water wetter could be the real ticket for most.
I mainly went with Engine Ice because some organizations will allow it though tech when others are rejected. If I had ran into cooling problems, I would have drained a bit and added some distilled water to go from 50/50 to 25/70. I’ve ran small amounts of P-G (10-15%) and water wetter in race cars for years with great results. Never ran in for more than a few months. I think that was the problem with most cars using it. 3-5 years and it was causing problems.
water wetter uses very little (follow manufactures suggestions) and then a 50/50 mix of propylene glycol (using more coolant vs water does not work and can inhibit the cooling effect) ..
Also use either distilled water (easiest to get) or RO/DI water (reverse osmosis/di-ionized) slightly "cleaner" than distilled but not very common. Distilled is just fine..
RO/DI is NOT the same as the RO drinking water you get. Is used exclusively for marine aquariums or medical use.. (I have a marine tank and so a water processor)
I think more issues are from "air locks" that occur... gotta heat cycle the motor a couple times to make sure there are none.. The manual has a suggested method for eliminating air from system..
Also use either distilled water (easiest to get) or RO/DI water (reverse osmosis/di-ionized) slightly "cleaner" than distilled but not very common. Distilled is just fine..
RO/DI is NOT the same as the RO drinking water you get. Is used exclusively for marine aquariums or medical use.. (I have a marine tank and so a water processor)
I think more issues are from "air locks" that occur... gotta heat cycle the motor a couple times to make sure there are none.. The manual has a suggested method for eliminating air from system..
just re-read my post up there... Ethylene glycol could not take the beating...
Propylene glycol was used in the
Turned out that Propylene based coolant was easy to clean off a track surface where ethylene was not.. hence the rules allowing it in racing.. Ethylene based is impossible to get up off the track completely.. water or alcohol can lift it but the only thing we found to pull it completely up was fire... not good for the asphalt
Propylene glycol was used in the
vette
to stop overheating issues in the early 80's when Ethylene
based coolant broke down or boiled... Turned out that Propylene based coolant was easy to clean off a track surface where ethylene was not.. hence the rules allowing it in racing.. Ethylene based is impossible to get up off the track completely.. water or alcohol can lift it but the only thing we found to pull it completely up was fire... not good for the asphalt
here's the rub.... all motors have a thermostat.. it is designed to put the engine in a "range" of temps..
IF your fan is ALWAYS ON.. then yes, your motor could be running a few degrees cooler if you run straight water or h20 with a wetter.. if the fan is cycling... then your motor is running at the same temps..
not sure how a lot of the "My engine is running cooler" stuff starts.. You would need to take ambient temps, engine temps and then the length of time the fan runs at these identical ambient temps to determine if the motor is cooling better (shorter cycle would indicate fan is working more efficiently..
otherwise, no way to know if your motor is running cooler or not.. in fact you do not want cooler, you want stable at a specified temp.. higher engine temps produce more HP... if you could run your motor at 400 degrees, it would make more power.. (Ford built a 2L motor out of ceramic and quartz and made it run at 400+ degrees.. it produced almost twice as much usable power (had some serious reliability issues)
I've had large bore and small bore. Sport bikes and never had any problems with 50/50 coolant as long as you maintain it like your Maintance book tells you, and distilled water on track with some additive what rules allow. And that's in tx. And az. You can't go wrong with what factory book say. Hope this helps
Holy thread revival! 
i was thinking the same thing when i was looking at some of the names posting upHoly thread revival!
Just did a google search on "hayabusa coolant requirements" and this thread is the first result on the page.
I also don't even remember starting this thread. So after almost eleven years, I guess I'm helping... myself?
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