Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

During consideration of which coolant I will run in the resurrection GPX750R, I got curious about the current regulations for race bikes in Australia.
Is mono- or poly-ethylene glycol still not allowed? Is plain water (ugh) the go?
I see that Motul's "Motocool Factory Line" race coolant is based on monoethyleneglycol, while Penrite's "10 Tenths Race Coolant" is still just an inhibitor package with no glycols.

I won't be using any race-spec fluids in the GPX as I won't be using it for race. Motul's yellow "Motocool Expert" coolant looks interesting for average road use as it has about three times the Reserve Alkalinity of the racy "Motocool Factory Line" product, judging by their technical sheets.
There is always the genuine Kawasaki coolant which is apparently the old Japanese green coolant which has phosphates but no silicates (the Japs have long had a downer on silicates), and seems to have worked adequately in the GPX for the last 30 years. Finding technical details about the OEM coolant is tricky.

... no glycol based coolants are allowed at race tracks
easy and simple rule.

Ford have a non glycol coolant for some of their engines (eg used on the first alloy headed 6 cyl engines)
cheap and easily available.

Smitty wrote:... no glycol based coolants are allowed at race tracks
easy and simple rule.

Ford have a non glycol coolant for some of their engines (eg used on the first alloy headed 6 cyl engines)
cheap and easily available.

These are NOT allowed in racing. Glycol based or not, you are not allowed any additive in racing in Australia. You are only allowed to run pure water. Please check the current MOMS, as it's all clearly stated in there.

Mister_T wrote:During consideration of which coolant I will run in the resurrection GPX750R, I got curious about the current regulations for race bikes in Australia.
Is mono- or poly-ethylene glycol still not allowed? Is plain water (ugh) the go?
I see that Motul's "Motocool Factory Line" race coolant is based on monoethyleneglycol, while Penrite's "10 Tenths Race Coolant" is still just an inhibitor package with no glycols.

I won't be using any race-spec fluids in the GPX as I won't be using it for race. Motul's yellow "Motocool Expert" coolant looks interesting for average road use as it has about three times the Reserve Alkalinity of the racy "Motocool Factory Line" product, judging by their technical sheets.
There is always the genuine Kawasaki coolant which is apparently the old Japanese green coolant which has phosphates but no silicates (the Japs have long had a downer on silicates), and seems to have worked adequately in the GPX for the last 30 years. Finding technical details about the OEM coolant is tricky.

To race, it needs to be plain water.

http://www.ma.org.au/fileadmin/user_upl ... 6_MoMS.pdf

Nelso wrote:To race, it needs to be plain water.

http://www.ma.org.au/fileadmin/user_upl ... 6_MoMS.pdf

Thankyou Nelso, that settles that.

What can racers do to minimize corrosion?
I guess you would drain the water after every event and maybe blow some low pressure air through the system to dry it out.
Does de-mineralised water cause less corrosion than distilled water?
Does anyone use a sacrificial anode within the cooling system?
I wonder whether there is a chemical process that can "plate" the cooling system, something like running a phosphated coolant between events.

I'll probably never race, I'm just curious how the corrosion problem is handled.

Run coolant on practice days and water at race meets if you're that concerned.
Flushing coolant is no more time consuming or difficult than changing oil anyway and trying to get away with running coolant at a race meet is really a statement that the competitor has no respect for other riders on the grid.
If water instead of coolant is your main concern then maybe you shouldn't race the bike as you are potentially risking infinitely more than a little corrosion.

Mister_T wrote:

Nelso wrote:To race, it needs to be plain water.

http://www.ma.org.au/fileadmin/user_upl ... 6_MoMS.pdf

Thankyou Nelso, that settles that.

What can racers do to minimize corrosion?
I guess you would drain the water after every event and maybe blow some low pressure air through the system to dry it out.
Does de-mineralised water cause less corrosion than distilled water?
Does anyone use a sacrificial anode within the cooling system?
I wonder whether there is a chemical process that can "plate" the cooling system, something like running a phosphated coolant between events.

I'll probably never race, I'm just curious how the corrosion problem is handled.

Demineralised water is heaps better than tap water. Some racers drain the system between meets, some just leave the water in all the time and some run coolant at track days and flush the system and fill with water for race meets. My ZX10 is running coolant at the moment as I don't plan on racing it this year and it will do a few track days, but my LC will be getting drained and left dry after running it on the weekend.