coolant change questions

[quackk]

Hi folks

Planning on doing a coolant change this wkend and have got a couple of questions.... trying to remember what was done a couple years back on the twofiddy, but wanna make sure im on the right track..

- Ive got a bottle of castrol antifreeze/antiboil concentrate stuff.... this ok to use? not 100% sure about it being silicate free and if there is a cars coolant product vs bikes coolant product issue.. the product seems to be pretty generic (passes a bunch of standards). Will be mixing it 50/50 with demineralised water
- when flushing the system, do i need to bother with a flushing compound? or regular tap water be ok to flush?
- the manual talks about draining coolant, filling her up with, putting drain bolts back on, warming the bike up, drain, repeat x2 or 3 times before doing the final steps.. is there a quicker way to go about this? i was thinking of simply draining coolant, put one bolt back on (one drain bolt open), putting a hose in either raditor or coolant reserve tank... and turning on the tap letting water run out of the open drain hole until existing green stuff gone, then onto final steps.... not sure if this is toooo much of a short cut lol..
- do i need to go as far as removing the reserve tank and givin that a clean out?

Thanks in advance..

[Wattie]

personally, when doing the racebike, (it needs water only for racing) i pull the cap off, the bottom hose and let it all run out. then stick the hose in the rad cap and put some tap water through.
then i stick the hose in the bottom hose of the bike and put water up there (normally it comes out the rad cap. then i stick it in the water punp hole (where you removed the hose from) and pump tap water throught there untill the water coming out is clean.
refit bottom hose
then pour the amount of coolant you require ( bit extra never hurts ) into the radiator, then fill the rest with demineralised water.

then pour some water/coolant mx into the overflow bottle to the "cold" line. start the bike up and let it warm up. once its warm and the fan etc cuts in. (could take a while) then turn it off, using a rag over the rad cap (steam burns) then check level at the cap, top up if needed, then check overflow is between the hot and cold marks.

then get out and ride the sucker

[quackk]

cheers for that wattie !

[oldman]

[quote="Wattie"].
then pour the amount of coolant you require ( bit extra never hurts ) into the radiator, then fill the rest with demineralised water.

To much coolant, (more than a 50/50 ratio) can cause overheating. There are some special coolants that can go less than 50/50 so read the instructions on the coolant bottle. Most coolants are designed for at least half water. Most pro racers use straight water as it cools much better than coolant. Cheers.

[quackk]

hi folks.. feeling like a massive n00b here but need help on this one..
got a question with refilling with new coolant..
manual says 2.6 litres... however i filled in only approx 1.5 litres and the radiator is overflowing. im guessing there is still water in the system from the final flush ?

my question is.. i have premixed 50/50 coolant and used this to refill.. but if i can only do 1.5 litres.,. and balance 0.9 litres in there is still water.. im assuming this will dilute the mix into something less than 50/50...? is this right? not sure if ive missed something on a pretty basic task ...

[Wattie]

you'll never get all the water out...

if you've taken the bottom hose off to drain it, thats the best you can do.

I wonder if kawasaki include the water in the overflow?

[Wattie]

.
then pour the amount of coolant you require ( bit extra never hurts ) into the radiator, then fill the rest with demineralised water.

To much coolant, (more than a 50/50 ratio) can cause overheating. There are some special coolants that can go less than 50/50 so read the instructions on the coolant bottle. Most coolants are designed for at least half water. Most pro racers use straight water as it cools much better than coolant. Cheers.

You may be right on the "too much coolant" thin, but i have never experienced it personally.

But pro racers only use water because you arent allowed to run anything with glycol in it on the track, as if spilt its mega slippery.

Also water wont cool an engine as well as it has nothing to lubricate the water pump etc. Glycol is slippery because it is a lubricant for the water.

Lubrication lessens the heat build up. its not just the water making things cool.

[woteva]

On my ZX6R '98 there is a coolant drain bolt. It's on the left side of the motor.
What model/year is your bike ??

[quackk]

06 636...im not worried about how to go about draining the coolant.. my concern is re-filling it up...
with all the water thats still in there that u cant get out.. how do you correctly re-fill coolant while maintaining 50/50 mix??

[Wattie]

you could get all technical and add 450ml of the concentrate to the radiator. that would be 50% of the 900ml left in the bottom of the engine.

honestly mate, i wouldnt stress out on it.

its got enough coolant in to do its job.

[quackk]

i know im being anal about making sure the system has the right mix in it - just dont want to be creating heating problems in the bike

[oldman]

But pro racers only use water because you arent allowed to run anything with glycol in it on the track, as if spilt its mega slippery.
Also water wont cool an engine as well as it has nothing to lubricate the water pump etc. Glycol is slippery because it is a lubricant for the water.
Lubrication lessens the heat build up. its not just the water making things cool.

The water pump is not lubricated by the coolant. the water pump has sealed bearings. Coolant expands considerably when hot and water does not, coolant has a boiling point much higher than water, (water boils at 212 degrees F at sea level or 100 degrees C at sea level). Coolant was first used a long time ago and it was called anti freeze. We used to use it only in the winter as the ethyl glycol would expand and overflow out of the cap in the summer due to no water tanks to collect the overflow. The auto manufactors then realized that ethyl glycol also prevented the engine block from rusting and started recommending coolant, (or anti freeze) year round. The reason coolant does not cool as well as water is that it expands and its density becomes much less than water, less density less ability to absorb calories of heat.
A 50/50 mixture is about the max you can go without causing less cooling in the motor. The unfortunate thing about running higher percentages of "coolant", (anti freeze) is that the engine tempurature will increase but it will not reflect it on the guage because the ethyl glycol is not absorbing all the heat it should. Anyway I don't want to get in a debate about this as I don't give a shit what you do with your anti freeze mixture, just don't drink it as it tastes sweet but is poison.
When flushing a system it is very hard to get all the old shit out. Just do it once a year and it will be just fine.

[oldman]

By the way before ethyl glycol we used methanol as an anti freeze. The trouble with methanol is that it not only expanded when hot but had a tendency to boil out of the system over a period of time. I tried to drink it once and it made me crazy and very sick. (More examples of genetic cleasing I guess, or evolution as one member stated)
Upon further research a 50/50 mixture of ethyl glycol and water decreases the cooling ability of the mixture by 20% over pure water at a temperature of 36 degrees F. (about 2-3 dgrees C). To compensate for this the coolant flow has to be increased as well as coolant volume capacity to compensate for this deficency. The pressurized radiator cap increases the boiling tempurature of both the water and the coolant, but being that the coolant expands as it gets hotter and liquids cannot be compressed, the radiator cap allows an overflow which is routed to the tank. when the coolant cools the aforementioned coolant water mixture is sucked back into the cooling system. Aren't you glad you asked.