Pushing coolant out

kinger

kinger

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Does anybody's sled push out coolant till both resivours are about empty (when cold) then stop? Mine does it every year, never add or anything but once a year I top it off with about a 1-2 cups then the first ride it blows it out and stops at that point. I have no idea if its normal or something to be concerned about. I would think head gasket but it runs perfect CR, leakdown everything is spot on.

I noticed that when the sled is running and warm the main tank with the pressure cap does fill back up but once cold it settles to the bottom of the tank and sometimes I just see a little in the outlet where the tube connects to the t stat.

Had it out yesterday for 28 miles and I forgot how damn fast it was! My god these things should be illegal LOL Where is the "got boost" smiley when you need one.

:jump:
 
HP makes heat, more HP makes more heat. Being boosted, the coolant is expanding more then stock.
Same reason that I can't keep my Apex temps under control and need to add a rear heat exchanger this year...
 
That makes sense I guess, never throught of it that way. I have a temp gauge and it never runs above 180 when cruising only when idling. I have the rear heat exchanger to.

Cool that makes me feel better just figured with two tanks on there it would be enough but maybe not.
 
Try buying a new rad cap they tend to faill when they get hot. 180 temp seems a little high, mine always runs 162-165* and may climb to 177- 178 when going real slow on low snow conditions.
 
Blowing coolant out is NOT right. The overflow bottle should allow for expansion of the hot coolant, thats what it's for. It's worth a chance on the radiator cap that could be the problem, at least I hope so for your sake. If that don't fix it you will be pulling the head. Good compression does not guarantee no problems. Combustion pressures are MUCH higher than leak down tests and compression tests. Try the cap first GOOD LUCK. :flag:
 
I second that, pushing coolant is not good.


On a healty engine, I can pull a run on dyno at 300+hp with reservoir cap OPEN and not blow anything.
 
Guys,
An engine that is pushing coolant because of a problem won't STOP pushing coolant once the coolant temp normalizes, it will continue but that is not what we are talking about here. What Kinger is referring to is the level in the tank rising up to a point because of corresponding thermal expansion due to additional heat and then stopping. If the tank is full to begin with, then this rising pushes the coolant out slightly, not continually pouring out.
ALL engine coolant expands, it's physics. The amount depends on the amount of heat being tranfered to it... The stock overflow is sized for 150 HP and the subsequent coolant system heat that generates.

Mulot30th,
You also aren't running 180+ deg coolant temp on the dyno at 300HP and likely don't have the completely heat soaked thermal expansion we are describing here. A 10 second dyno pull is far cry...

I do not have an engine health issue but I have to run my cold coolant level low in the main reservoir tank to compensate for the rate of coolant thermal expansion to prevent pushing coolant into the overflow tank . If I run it at a low cold level to begin with, it NEVER overflows.
Also, with the sled NOT up to temp (cold) I can run the sled around the house once with the coolant cap off before it gets hot without overflowing too.

The last thing you want to do is have someone tearing an engine down to look for a ghost.
 
I have the same problem, i thought maybe a bad head gasket and wondered where my coolant was going because i was topping it up all the time. I have my overflow tube pointed so i can see if i blow coolant, it will run down the plactics at my right knee, if i fill it up and run it hard it will blow out until the coolant is low in the overflow bottle. I know now that i have been filling it up too much.
 
Mine does the same thing now for 8 years. If you fill up the overflow to the full mark it will blow it out the overflow tube till it reaches the bottom of the tank and stay at that level for the rest of the season.
 
Hold On, Your all right to a point.
If we are talking about a RX 1 Then yes you will most likely have to drop the level in the plastic tank where the Rad cap is. If your talking about a APEX then Yamaha installed a second tank to give us the ability to catch that overflow and draw it back in when the engine cools. You can also add a second tank to a RX 1 to solve that problem. It will allow you to run a full tank all the time. :flag:
 
You might also consider, if you remove your head, running my RX1 cooling kit. It does a more effective job of pulling heat from the cylinder head.
MB is right though when you heat the coolant it expands and I supose you have to say that's a good thing. I would run that kit and add a APEX second tank. That will fix it UNLESS you have other issues.............. :flag:
 
I am running a apex with the second tank already. What mbarry is saying is that, the 2nd tank is not large enough for the extra expansion going on in the engine. He is also correct and that I'm talking a heat soaked engine not a quick dyno pull.

Once it gets down to the bottom of the second tank cold it usually stays there and is darn near full when running.

Sure hope I dont have a issue. Last year I did 1800 miles and never added so I dont think its a head gasket issue. Oil was nice and clean too.
 
Greg,

I think we agree a leaky head gasket will push coolant even when the coolant isn't hot enough yet to expect that kind of thermal expansion. It might push with throttle and load and keep pushing...

kinger said:
Once it gets down to the bottom of the second tank cold it usually stays there and is darn near full when running.
Click to expand...
Kinger, the second tank should start out completely empty and dry, it's not a reservoir... The primary coolant reservoir (with cap) should be at the min level we speak of when cold and then you should never see coolant overflowing the second overflow tank that way.
Head gaskets compression leaks usually continue to push coolant out as long as the engine is building running and building compression...
 
mbarryracing said:
Guys,
An engine that is pushing coolant because of a problem won't STOP pushing coolant once it normalizes, it will continue but that is not what we are talking about here. What Kinger is referring to is the level rising up to a point because of corresponding thermal expansion to additional heat and then stopping. If the reservoir is full to begin with, then this rising pushes the coolant out slightly, not pouring out until the system is empty.
ALL engine coolant expands, it's physics. The amount depends on the amount of heat being tranfered to it... The stock overflow is sized for 150 HP and the subsequent coolant system heat that generates.

Mulot30th,
You also aren't running 180+ deg coolant temp on the dyno at 300HP and likely don't have the completely heat soaked thermal expansion we are describing here. A 10 second dyno pull is far cry...

I do not have an engine health issue but I have to run my cold coolant level low in the main reservoir to compensate for the rate of coolant thermal expansion that I see to prevent dripping out the overflow tube . If I run it at a low cold level to begin with, it NEVER overflows.
Also, with the sled NOT up to temp (cold) I can run the sled around the house once with the coolant cap off before it gets hot without overflowing too.

The last thing you want to do is have someone tearing an engine down to look for a ghost.
Click to expand...


BUT when there is HG problem, it will push ALL coolant out on dyno run... I also saw that happen.

Dyno runs are done right around 165-170 degrees to simulate real world running conditions... (at least that is what we usually do) and no... they are not 10 seconds runs, but more like 25-30 second runs WOT.


I alos saw a sled that had blown HG that when expansion tank was very low, would only 'inflate' coolant so much but not push it out... but it would push it out if filled any more than bottom of tank.
 
mulot30th said:
BUT when there is HG problem, it will push ALL coolant out on dyno run... I also saw that happen.

Dyno runs are done right around 165-170 degrees to simulate real world running conditions... (at least that is what we usually do) and no... they are not 10 seconds runs, but more like 25-30 second runs WOT.


I alos saw a sled that had blown HG that when expansion tank was very low, would only 'inflate' coolant so much but not push it out... but it would push it out if filled any more than bottom of tank.
Click to expand...
Mulot,
That is not a typical dyno run, heck 80% of the boosted riders don't run their sled at WOT for that long... regardless the point is even after all that heat it still isn't pushing coolant during.

Sounds like a smart head gasket leak that knows when to stop leaking when the tank is full enough? LOL! that doesn't sound typical because every boosted Apex I know of does this, but weird things do happen...
 
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