Taking the Winder out 1st time after pronouncing it fixed!—Strong NO!

[Tarzan]

I had years of easy overheating, even with 1 - 2” of fresh snow on top of hard packed groomed trails. Fought with it for years. DID what many said on here, lifting sled nose up 3-4’. Tried everything, over and over, and just kept adding coolant to my reservoir because it would always use a few ounces after every ride, not much but some.

Finally, it now uses none, and I did add some Water Wetter during this process a couple of years ago.

But here is what I noticed once the system started cooling much like my buddies RTX.
NOW when I start mine and let it idle, I can now watch the temp gauge rise to 167- 168, and once the thermostat opens, it will fall to 162 or so, and it takes a while to get back up to 168. It may do this more then once, and it will finally get into the 200’s, but takes much longer now that the system works properly.

It used to just climb past that point before.

Not saying this is your problem at all, just hoping that this may help you quick test in garage.

I did also use wather wetter in mine. a hole bottle

 

[REDLINE 1]

When you were topping your coolant after the first few rides was it because it got hot on you or just checking it over after each ride?

I like the fact that it when cold gave me a puff of air, that means the system was holding pressure.

I have done the 14mm bleed screw many times. It just keeps taking coolant. Does anyone know much it holds? I can't find the capacity in the service manual.

I was just checking after each ride. Thought I was loosing coolant but it eventually stopped and held the level

 

[mrtwostroke]

mcx makes a cooler kit.
https://www.henergy.fi/tuote/mcxpress-water-cooler/

 

[Turboflash]

These 998s are tough to bleed. Need to ride it a bit to get all air out. There are many places where air bubbles can reside in this cooling system. Once you ride it, the bouncing burps the air out. Then you'll need to add some coolant. Might take even a second ride to burp it all out.

 

[Turboflash]

When bleeding, elevate front about 2+ feet higher than back. Idea is get heat exchangers sloped with rear-most end lowest part of sled. Then, I have thermostat side of sled higher than turbo tank side. Once I have slowly added coolant to fill system, it will eventually will start to flow out of turbo coolant tank hole (14mm bolt). Then, install and tighten bolt. Tank is full. Then continue to bleed and run engine until thermostat housing will take no more. Even then, it usually takes a few rides to get all air burped out. IMO, one key for me is I remove thermostat and drill two 3/32" holes in flat base. Stock thermostat has one tiny hole in it. I re-drill that one out to 3/32" and add another 180 deg from it. This allows coolant to circulate 100% of the time, even when warming sled up (much less chance for cold-seize type problems) AND importantly allows air to escape during bleeding operation. I can see air bubbling up through these two holes during bleeding.

 

[Turboflash]

Just FYI - according to Water Wetter themselves, they say their product really doesn't work well in systems that have 50/5 or 60/40 coolant in them. Product was designed to work in systems with only water in them.

 

[RobX-1]

Turboflash, in Kinger's defense, IMHO he went thru extraordinary lengths in his attempt to bleed the air out of the system:

https://ty4stroke.com/threads/sidewinder-coolant-bleeding-process-how-to-inside.161863/

However, as you state, maybe it also needs to be ridden to completely rid the system of air.

 

[kinger]

IMO, one key for me is I remove thermostat and drill two 3/32" holes in flat base. Stock thermostat has one tiny hole in it. I re-drill that one out to 3/32" and add another 180 deg from it. This allows coolant to circulate 100% of the time, even when warming sled up (much less chance for cold-seize type problems) AND importantly allows air to escape during bleeding operation. I can see air bubbling up through these two holes during bleeding.

that is a great idea. Done!
Stock:

Enlarged original plus added one:

 

[Turboflash]

that is a great idea. Done!
Stock:
View attachment 158801

Enlarged original plus added one:
View attachment 158802

Yep. That's exactly what I do!

 

[Wannaviper]

I’ll tried to trade/ upgrade my’17 Ltx Se with 3 different Yamaha dealers last year, and they didn’t want it. You can Forget about trying a DO or PO dealers. That’s another thing to remember on top of all issues with this machines when you get one.

Is your sled stock? Personally, if I were buying used, I would be wary of modified sleds. How many miles, and what condition? The dealers locally cannot keep used sleds of any kind in stock. In December I saw a used 2017 LTX SE with @5K miles at the local dealer, but it already had a "sold" tag on it, and I think it went for around $10K. The only problem I would have trading in one of my Sidewinders would be finding a dealer who had a new one in stock to replace it!

 

[kinger]

mcx makes a cooler kit.
https://www.henergy.fi/tuote/mcxpress-water-cooler/

These coolers are not needed when sled is in motion, they help slow the climb when at idle though. I am starting to think all the peoples overheating issues is air, when looking at the coolant routing diagram in the service manual, there are tons of bends, T's, coolant flowing up down, parallel, etc I think the drilled T stat is going to be really helpful for bleeding. I guess I will find out.

 

[slimjim2525]

You are making this way harder than it has to be. DO NOT lift the nose to bleed it. DO NOT fill overflow above the cold line. Make sure radiator is full. Get on flat ground and start the sled with the radiator cap off. Go to the rear of the sled and push down the rear of the sled to compress the rear shock, hard, 5 to 6 times. This is like getting air out of a syringe, you know like how they flick it with their finger. Take it for a short ride and come back. Let it cool down. Refill the overflow to the cold line if needed. Drain your motor oil, and send a sample to blackstone labs and see if their is coolant in the oil. If you keep having to add coolant, but their is no coolant in the oil, you obviously have a leak somewhere.

 

[Turboflash]

Turboflash, in Kinger's defense, IMHO he went thru extraordinary lengths in his attempt to bleed the air out of the system:

https://ty4stroke.com/threads/sidewinder-coolant-bleeding-process-how-to-inside.161863/

However, as you state, maybe it also needs to be ridden to completely rid the system of air.

Yes, I'm sure Kinger is doing it all. My only goal was to help by relating my experiences with trying to bleed these things. I have found even with good garage bleeding, it takes some riding to get all the air out. There are lots of crevices, corners, pockets, etc in the cooling system where air can hang out until you ride and dislodge it. During first ride or two after re-build or assembly, I watch the coolant level very closely until it stabilizes.

 

[kinger]

I plan to 'send it' on the local lake here this weekend and see if the T stat helps and if it just keeps taking coolant.


Asked again, anyone have a clue what the capacity is? I never filled mine only the dealer after rebuild. I have the BTX 153 and can't remember now if that is a larger or smaller exchanger capacity then the trail sleds.

 

[yamadoo]

Kinger I hope you love it and it WORKS you’ve been through so much frustration