I drained my engine of all fluids and then took it out of my bike. I tipped it on the side to drain water out of the water pump vent. I was using water and royal purple coolant treatment this season. Is there still enough water in the engine to cause problems if I leave it in the garage for the winter? It's an attached garage so ~10 F would be the lowest it sees by my guess.
No, but I don't like to store cooling systems dry. Fill it up with antifreeze and just remember to flush it good next spring.
What Trophy said. The seals really should have a little anti-freeze around them to keep them from drying out completely.
Maybe a silly question, but how do you force coolant into an engine that's sitting on blocks? I don't disagree adding some coolant is a good idea. For peace of mind if nothing else I guess.
Ah, missed that part. Don't know of a way around it, my bike-less engines also don't have any coolant in them. Just inspect the water pump when you reinstall.
Maybe I'm incorrect here, but there are lots of rubber seals on the bike that don't sit in a bath of coolant that don't dry out over the course of a couple months sitting. Why would the water pump seals do that?
Beats me. For me, filling the bike with antifreeze over the winter instead of draining it + letting it sit is just what I learned when I started, so it's what I've done ever since. As I sit here and think about it, there's probably no danger in letting it sit empty. But, I don't see a downside to filling it, either, so I continue to do so.
Antifreeze. I've seen too many lq motors stored dry that ended up with a bunch of white alum powdery crud in the water jackets. Antifreeze is an excellent preservative.
I don't like to use pure antifreeze, it can damage gaskets and seals.. Mix it 50/50 with distilled water and you are good most anywhere outside of the arctic.
The issue is not the seals drying out. The issue is corrosion in the dry engine block that is unprotected by the anti-corrosive agents in antifreeze. It's a good idea to flush a race motor with antifreeze before draining, to circulate the coolant. Not many people do it, and they get the white powder, which is aluminum oxide. That powder is gritty and will tear up seals. Flush the system with a hose in the spring to get rid of the Aluminum oxide before you fill and run with Water Wetter or whatever non-glycol coolant mix you prefer.
