Coolant leak?

[Biker Biggles]

I certainly wouldnt use it long term either,but as a temporary thing no worries.

[R1ffR4ff]

I've used tap water for pressure testing rads to find leaks for years.No problems.It's not in the system long enough to block any rad channels and in fact I have use a 50/50 mix of Tap water and White vinegar to flush really bad rads by taking them up to running temp with the mix in and leaving overnight.Then flushing with tap water to neutralize and then re-filling with coolant.

I have 30+ year old Rads on my CX500 that have been treated this way with no problems..


If ever you need to know when the thermostat starts opening so the user knows the coolant has begun to flow just start the bike from cold and place one hand on the right hand side rad coolant pipe.When the thermostat opens the pipe will start to get warm.

Take burn precautions if doing this.

[Toooldtodie]

Had same problem. Replaced with Delkevic radiator. Fit was excellent and even though replaced in summer was so good I couldn't get fan to kick in (which it does at 104+ Celsius so don't worry) as it didn't get hot enough.
More expensive than the Ebay post previously mentioned but I have 2 years trouble-free from the Delkevic one... oh, and get that fenda extenda.
The choice is yours. The rad covers are so expensive that it's almost cheaper to replace the holed rads it seems.

[HanksW7]

Cheers. Fitting the new rad tomorrow.

Follow on question, any types of coolant I should avoid? I picked up a bottle of the attached pic Xstream G48 at Halfords which I'll dilute with distilled water but I found a post somewhere that said to get silicate free coolant. Which I don't think this is. Any suggestions?


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[R1ffR4ff]

I made my own Rad cover out of an old 15" loudspeaker grill I had,




http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SoundLab-3...kAAOSw-CpX~2iv

£7.50

Just took the binding off and used some tin snips

[TicklinJock]

Looks like you are right about that G48 stuff having silicates.
Acting on recommendations on here, I used halford's OAT, the pink stuff, it's silicate free. I reckon its easier to see the level in the expansion bottle too.

[HanksW7]

Well that took longer than expected! Started at 5pm was eventually putting the faring back on in the dark 4 hours later.

First of all, the radiator is not an exact fit... you can see by the photos but spent an hour or so bending some of the connecting plates into shape. Also the little screws that slip on in a housing wouldnt slip on the new radiator (too thick) so had to grind those into shape too. Basically without a full garage and ability to grind, bend and weld this radiator would've been useless.

Eventually got everything reattached... switched the engine on and waited for the fan to come. And waited and waited. Thought the fan was bust but then it came on once engine got to 100 degrees Celsius. It seems that's the temperature it comes alive, as once it got to 99 it switched off again.

Another lesson was that I did have to take the seat and tank off to fill the overflow, was hoping I could fill straight through the road but no dice.

Anyway thankfully the ordeal is over. Would've been okay with a fitting part, and all because my horn came loose.


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