Playing hide & go seek with a coolant leak *AUGH!*

[mike-s]

I've been playing hide & go seek with a coolant leak on & off ever since i got the hairbrained idea to change my pipes over to the duck pipes (appropriate, given my bikes propensity to leaking water at the moment).

The leak is coming from the front-ish area of the motor, however i cant track down, wtf is causing it, namely as whenever i have removed the plastic to check, i cant find the leak, even when i tear around the neighbourhood in the daytime (trying to really raise the temp by running about in an extra high gear to normal) without plastics,headlight or indicators *muhaha*.

I have checked & confirmed that the radiator cap is ok, same goes for the radiator-> thermostat 7cm hose. the upper/lower radiator end caps look ok, as does the front of the radiator and all the overflow paraphenalia. The lower radiator hose & clamps are both brand bloody new and the steel hose that the lower radiator hose clamps onto is in pretty fair (not perfect, not "damn, it needs replacing" bad, kind of what you'd expect on a 18y/o bike).

As aside from the radiator itself, i don't believe there are any further bits of cooling kit around the front (not at least that i messed with even remotely at least when i changed the headers).

Aside from taking all of that friggin plastic off again, taking the radiator off & getting it leak/pressure tested & repaired if needed. Has anyone got any ideas? as frankly im frigging sick of this f-ing problem not going away.

Suggestions that i get a new bike will be met with a scowl as tempting as that option is due to frustration, i know it aint viable, at all, and that besides this issue, it's a top bike.

FugginJackedOffMike.

[Felix]

There is a special dye you can use I believe that dries a reddish colour, you stick it in and follow the red trail...

[bonester]

Might be an o-ring somewhere in the cooling system- had the same problem with my Superfour Honda recently- I'd fix one leak, then another would appear- ended up getting the shits, totally disassembling the bike and replacing EVERY o-ring in the cooling system. (6 of them I could find) Can still smell coolant when I ride but I haven't washed it since I fixed it-might have some residual coolant on it. Coolant isn't going down either. Often where you find pipes entering the head somewhere, or the engine block, there will be an o-ring inside the fitting which does the sealing. Your thermostat cover may have some o-rings too- the Honda has two in the thermo cover....
Not sure about GPXs, but my ZZRs have had a hose on the front of the engine (o-ringed to the block supposedly) that follows the path of the headers down- I have heard that these fail often (mine haven't) but are poor design to have a rubber hose in close contact of the heat of the headers....Maybe your problem lies there?

[bonester]

Oh and waterpump seals commonly fail on ZZRs...maybe GPXs too?

[mike-s]

The water pump is physically visible to the back left of the motor & thusly i can confirm it isnt leaking around there. I hadn't thought about o-rings though, great something else to have f*ck out on me.

Though i *have* replaced the ones that go into the headblock as you described in the past on an old motor of mine, it wasnt leaking but it was looking wonky enough that it was worthwhile doing while i had it all in peices.

thanks for the food for thought.

Oh and there is the possibility i punctured my radiator somehow as i did use a long & thin (but not sharp) object to straighten a few fins out when i had the radiator out.

Either way this bastards comin apart!!

[mike-s]

this evening i have discovered (but not fixed, had to leave for work) what was wrong.

When i went to change the manifolds i loosened a mounting bolt for the front steel radiator pipe to give me a bit of moving room. Either i didn't tighten that up correctly, or the darned seal broke on me after moving the pipe a tiny bit.

Either way theres a bit of water around there, so tomorrow when i get home i'll be draining the radiator and taking the pipe off for a bit of a look see & most likely gooping the outside with gasket stuff & slapping it back together.

man i feel like slapping myself around for how much anguish i've caused myself (and yes, "learning curve" applies here!).

[Phil]

the $18 million gpx just sprung a leak in one of the o rings in the cooling system last week. pain in the arse more than anything else.

[mike-s]

doh!!

[Smitty]

this evening i have discovered (but not fixed, had to leave for work) what was wrong.

When i went to change the manifolds i loosened a mounting bolt for the front steel radiator pipe to give me a bit of moving room. Either i didn't tighten that up correctly, or the darned seal broke on me after moving the pipe a tiny bit.

Either way theres a bit of water around there, so tomorrow when i get home i'll be draining the radiator and taking the pipe off for a bit of a look see & most likely gooping the outside with gasket stuff & slapping it back together.

man i feel like slapping myself around for how much anguish i've caused myself (and yes, "learning curve" applies here!).

mate
the pipe uses Orings to seal
they are Ok as long as you don't fiddle with the pipe
('coz they go hard with age)
and
you had to fiddle....

get some new orings and do ALL the connections to the block
cheap insurance..and no leaks
don't stuff around with Silastic or other goop

cheers

[mike-s]

yeah as i said, im suspecting i-ring failure. first thing im doing tomorrow morning is calling the bike shop to check if they've got the parts in stock.

I'm banking on the hope of them using standard sized o-rings for a lot of components & stuff taht fits later models fit the block for this bugger. I really cant do much other than hope that it's not all too badly shagged. But time shall tell 'eh?

[mike-s]

ok, thus far i can confirm that the o ring was stuffed. After much arsing about (and getting to bed at 3am last night!!) i got the o ring replaced and the bike 90% assembled. Now to put the last few bits of plastic on tomorrow morning.

Incidentally i just popped down to repco & bought a o ring kit, 11 pairs of o rings from 11m ID -> 25mmID for $7, so if anyone needs/wants to stock up on o rings, that'd be the place to go. For the same price i'd have gotten just the two o rings from kawa!

[mike-s]

did 100km of thrashing today, and can confirm that the GPX is no longer wetting the bed, thank christ!!