i have water wetter/water in my race bike, its sitting out in my shop and the past few nights its gotten below freezing, can this be harmful to my engine, i've read where it can blow plugs out of the head.. crack the head, damage the radiator, any of this true.. im away on buisness or i would have drained it before i left.. anybody live in the cold that can shed some light on this??
yes it can freeze, and it will/ might bust something, head gasget, waterpump, ect.. have someone put an heater in front of it.
If it's not getting well below freezing for a long period of time then your bike should be ok. I have a detached garage, have hung a thermometer in it and haven't seen the temp below 40 degrees inside even though it has been as low as 20 degrees at night.
Its definately dangerous, but the bike can probably go for a couple of hours in temps around 30 f with the watter wetter in there. Not much lower or longer though.
Some bikes have a little valve deal in the head of the motor so that if they freeze over, these valves pop open before the case splits or the water pump breaks. My bike didnt start to freeze over (water wetter) until it went down to about 8 degrees. I was in the Bahamas on a cruise, my dad left my garage door open. 80 in bahamas, 8 at home... had to take the heads off the motor and replace those valve deallies. whatever u do DONT START IT until u know its thawed out.
For the record, I've seen racebikes freeze up while being towed to spring races. It's especially bad if you tow on an open trailer or in the bed of a truck. At the end of a season I drain the water out and put in a 50/50 mix of propylene glycol and water. I run the bike up to full operating temp to be sure there are no pockets of straight water in the motor. Come race season I flush and refill with water. Cost is about ten bucks in materials and an hour of work on each end of winter. In Chicago, you do it this way or buy a new motor....
I always kept a trouble light lit next to the motor to keep things above freezing and it always worked fine with the TN winters.
Does anyone just drain the system and leave it? I ask because that is what I have done for the past few years and it seems to work just fine. I am sure there may be some small pockets of water here and there but I am guessing it isn't an issue since my motor has survived 3 winters this way now.
got home this morning, it was about 20* outside, opened the radiator and nothing was frozen, i think im ok... i put some anti-freeze in it, will go out later today and let it run, make sure its not getting into my oil, thanks guys
Well I just went and checked my bike and found antifreeze in the bellypan I cannot find where its leaking from though. It hasn't been "very" cold here this winter in Alabama.
I do, but my motor is usually out of the frame, up in the heated basement on the bench for most of the winter.
