long story short: 3 months ago i swapped my coolant for water wetter + distilled water. did a trackday @ willowsprings. everything was fine (and it was 90F that day). fast forward 3 months, I pull over to an overlook at while riding some canyon twisties in angeles natl' forest. hear a strange bubbling sound...wtf... it's coming from my bike. sounded like my coolant was boiling...bike temp was at 239F .....the following weekend, no bubbling sound....but again, 239F (the overheating indicator wasn't flashing). so i bought some engine ice, go the plastics off and checked the coolant. the water wetter mixture is now milky white and smelled like burnt clay. .. i noticed the left side hose clamp was loose, probably allowing some coolant to leak (the level was a few inches below the original coolant level).. ok, flush it a few times, fill w/ engine ice. bike doesnt get as hot/as quickly upon idling for a few minutes. everything seems good. i go riding the following week, got stuck behind traffic on some local twisties doing around 40-50mph...bike was running around 210+....(i was in first gear).even speeding up to 60-70, and it's still pushing 200F... on the hwy, can't seem to get lower than 178F (and that's cruising in 5th gear around 90mph). another observation to add (not sure if it's related), but the left side of my bike is covered w/ this red dust....the right side is clean for the most part. the stator cover has the red dusting that continues all over my lower frame/rearsets/swingarm/wheel....so it looks like it starts from around the radiator area and was blown away from the bike. the cooling fan still works when turning on the bike w/o starting it...no prob there. i'm really clueless as to what the problem is. i spend most of my time in first or 2nd b/c of all the tight roads around here....but it still shouldn't get that damn hot.... i never changed my stock air filter....or attempted to clean it (i know, im a lazy bastard when it comes to bike maintenance...). maybe the airflow is restricted...but still...that hot?!?/ any suggestions?
Did you pull the bleeder screw on the thermostat when you refilled it? even when bleeding it you shoud lean the bike both ways and squeeze the main hoses to get all the air out, you prolly had an air loc. if you start the bike up with the cap off and as it warms up it starts pushing water out before the t-stat opens up and you see the water flowing thru the radiator, you have air trapped somewhere.
didn't mess w/ the bleeder screw. I basically filled it to the brim, started it up, leaned it side to side pretty good. i could hear bubbles coming to the surface. did that until i couldn't hear anymore. each time, the coolant seemed to drop a little. (i assume bubbles trapped underneath were falsely raising the coolant level). kept starting her up, side to side etc until the level remained constant.
you mentioned milky white..... check to make sure there is no oil getting into your coolant system. maybe a head gasket issue? or something else.
i siphoned off some of the coolant from the radiator...it looks like the original consistency of the engine ice i put in it. what the red dust coming off my bike? i did use a red gasket sealant to be on the safe side when i swapped out my stator cover for a woodcraft... you think it's starting to burn?
any other ideas? the bike seems to be running lean, and i did see 239F on the temp gauge.... any suggestions on how to tell if the thermostat sensor is bad?
Is your fan kicking on around 220 degrees? This may be a long shot but my bike was overheating and it turned out just to be a blown fuse to the fan.
Thermostat /temp sensor both work off water temp, it there is air in the system it reads faulty. If the fuse is blown the fan won't come on at all.
I know its an old thread, but I just put water wetter in mine and now the thing is running super hot ('07 gsxr 1000). Where is the "bleeder screw" to release air? I have never had to do that before!
Cool. I guess i will drain the thing, drop in some suzy anti-freeze/mix, and check the fuse for the fan, and lean her to the left and right a few times when I fill her like the manual says.
+1 on the hose squeeze I have always done it and the one time I forgot I had the bike get hot. Did the hose squeeze and refilled and all was well. The only time I had a thermostat go bad I could only ride the bike about a mile or two before it warmed to the point the fan would come on. It was way quicker than I expected. Also I would like to point out 200 is not that hot for a engine, in truth its kind of the sweet spot.
my 600 runs 190s on the highway too, 200's to 210's in traffic, fans come on and it doesn't go over 230. has me worried all the time, but never given me problems.
a normal running temp is 170-180 ish, in traffic 220s is fine and about that time you should hear the fan cut on. If it goes past the 240 range then get a little concerned. If it is not boiling or dumping into your over flow then you are fine. If it is boiling over and running out then your thermostat is shot. I race and ride with just water and water wetter year round unless I hear its going to freeze, I will put a little antifreeze in there. The next best thing is to get red or orange Liquid performance, I used to go 100% but I know some people do half and half. My bike would run cooler with 100%. The red dust you are seeing is most likely coming from your brake pads. unless you just picked something up from the road. I know the vesrahs we race on put off allot of brake dust with usually a orangy red coloring. It will coat your headers wheels everything. ALSO, clean your damn air filter! lol If you have an aftermarket exhaust with a aftermarket air filter it will heat up more because of the lack of fuel from it leaning out.
