Painless quick easy coolant bleeding

[justinator]

Talking to the mechanic at my local dealer, I had mentioned how the sidewinder is a pain to bleed the air out of cooling system. He pointed me to their vacuum filler they use on everything. It pulls a vacuum on entire system and then the vacuum draws the coolant into the system and your done. No trapped air, no parking in all kinds of weird positions, no topping off over and over again till all air pockets are out etc. I purchased one off of amazon and used it today to flush and fill the cooling system on a piece of logging equipment. It worked flawlessly. Hook it up to a compressor and in a few minutes system was vacuumed. Left it be a while to make sure it held vacuum proving I had no leaks on system. Then proceeded to refill the 15 gallon system. Let the machine do 4 complete heat cycles to full operating temp with cool down. Didnt have to top off or add so much as an ounce of coolant. The dealer said theyve used it on many sidewinders and once its full its good to go. Its pretty inexpensive and super simple to use. Great addition to the toolbox if you do alot of your own repairs. Here is the link
https://www.amazon.com/OEMTOOLS-24444-Cooling-System-Refiller/dp/B01BW39HJS

 

[sab2022]

Might be good for the ATV's too. The ATV needs "burping" after coolant drainage (raising front end end), BUT you never know until you run it

Thanks

 

[RobX-1]

I recently purchased the same coolant system refiller to flush the coolant in my 08 Apex. There are other variations/similar airvac kits out there but really like the OEMTOOLS one. The 31mm adapter fits great in the coolant reservoir opening of my Apex but I did have to use a hose pinch-off tool on the coolant hose running from the mouth of coolant reservoir to the overfill tank. I also ended up purchasing one of these Liquivac to be able to get as much of the old coolant out of the system:

justinator is right about it being easy and simple to use. Before refilling with coolant, I first refilled with just water and then ran sled up to operating temps before draining again so as to a get a good flush of the old coolant out before refilling with the proper mixture. I've always wanted one of these coolant system refiller kits to be able to flush the coolant in my vehicles rather than paying a shop to do it. Heck, using it one time on a vehicle will practically pay for itself. I was just worried it might not work on in my sled application (ie. not having the small enough adapter to fit our reservoir) but the OEMTOOLS also comes with a universal adapter; although with it, I was concerned it might be too tall and not allow a tight fit to be able to draw a vacuum but the 31mm adapter worked great. It does recommend having the bucket containing your coolant mixture at the same height of the airvac unit and I also ensured the rear of the sled was lower than the front but with the kit drawing a vacuum like it does, am not sure that was needed. Definitely makes changing your coolant a breeze.

 

[yamamarc]

Awsome thanks for sharing Justin!!

Here is a kit available in Canada for us north of the border

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B085THXC12/ref=cm_sw_r_fm_apa_glt_i_2MPWKTCGGBS1SB2Q63GC

 

[fatchance]

I was planning on going this route for next seasons maintenance. Got tired of @icking with it this year! I used every trick I could and it still was being a pita.

 

[justinator]

Worth the $70, the universal adapter will fit just about anything out there so no worries if there isnt an included adapter for your application. Dont need much of a compressor either to pull the vacuum. I used a small kobalt one from lowes and was able to pull 25 in of vacuum on a 9.0 liter deere motor so sled shoukd be fine lol

 

[justinator]

How to videos on youtube as well, not that its hard to figure out but Id rather watch than read!

 

[Motorhead]

I can surely attest to the Sidewinders being a pain with air trapped in the cooling system!

This method with a vacuum coolant system re-filler, surely seems like an easy way to do the job right, the first time.

My sled was an overheating bit** for a couple of years since new! Once I finally purged all the air from the cooling system, it was a different sled! Much more normal now. This rig would have saved me lots of grief.
Good info, Thanks!!

 

[justinator]

I can surely attest to the Sidewinders being a pain with air trapped in the cooling system!

This method with a vacuum coolant system re-filler, surely seems like an easy way to do the job right, the first time.

My sled was an overheating bit** for a couple of years since new! Once I finally purged all the air from the cooling system, it was a different sled! Much more normal now. This rig would have saved me lots of grief.
Good info, Thanks!!

absolutely, when bled correctly it actually takes a pretty long time for the sled to get to operating temp just idling and it will be pretty stable on the trails. Still dont know why they didnt put a bleeder on the rear exchanger????

 

[Sledroll]

absolutely, when bled correctly it actually takes a pretty long time for the sled to get to operating temp just idling and it will be pretty stable on the trails. Still dont know why they didnt put a bleeder on the rear exchanger????

My sled must have been properly bled as I rode 2 years without scratchers , and no over heating .
By the way Justinator , Do you know how unbelievably expensive those bleeders must be ????
It's like they are trying to keep the dealer busy by making the process more difficult !

 

[Motorhead]

absolutely, when bled correctly it actually takes a pretty long time for the sled to get to operating temp just idling and it will be pretty stable on the trails. Still dont know why they didnt put a bleeder on the rear exchanger????

Oh yeah, I wondered the same about that old Yamaha method of bleeding the cooling system, along with a few other things! But then again, I realize if It didn’t have that Yamacat DNA bread into it, it wouldn’t ride or handle as well as it does, and that is much needed on these monsters!

 

[Mototown]

absolutely, when bled correctly it actually takes a pretty long time for the sled to get to operating temp just idling and it will be pretty stable on the trails. Still dont know why they didnt put a bleeder on the rear exchanger????

Did you test the anti freeze that came out of your sled with a antifreeze tester ? Just going to 50/50 mix or a reading of -30 to -40 f on the tester will improve your overheating problems.as the original antifreeze in the sled will read off the scale on the tester. Sled should be in the 165 -167 f most of the time after mixture change.

 

[justinator]

Did you test the anti freeze that came out of your sled with a antifreeze tester ? Just going to 50/50 mix or a reading of -30 to -40 f on the tester will improve your overheating problems.as the original antifreeze in the sled will read off the scale on the tester. Sled should be in the 165 -167 f most of the time after mixture change.

Ive never overheated , sled runs cool. I was just stating that sleds with air pockets have unstable temps that jump around alot and warm up fairly quickly at idle. Properly bled systems are stable.

 

[Motorhead]

Did you test the anti freeze that came out of your sled with a antifreeze tester ? Just going to 50/50 mix or a reading of -30 to -40 f on the tester will improve your overheating problems.as the original antifreeze in the sled will read off the scale on the tester. Sled should be in the 165 -167 f most of the time after mixture change.

That was where I started after hearing that my era Yamacats may have came from the factory with pure anti-freeze, but was not the case with mine!
And yes to that taking a long time to reach temp during a fresh start and idle one air is purged. And also watching the thermostat open and close during same! Mine did not do that until air was purged, so another tell take sign.