Very Bad Day!!!!

sorry to hear about your probs bigkev.... did you figure out why it was smoking up??

simon

 

fark Kev, thats sux as.. how was ur bike temperature was it hitting H?? not good to have smoke comin out if its from the engine area then it maybe the raidator blowing its ass of lettin steam out.. might wanna flush out the radiator and put some fresh fluids in.. it dosent help espically when it was so hot, not as bad as wesenday though!!!!

 

I think it may be the clear water coolant container which may be missing a lid, since bikes are already hot, & add to that to hot weather, the water may be evaporating rapidly. Take off the side rear panel and check the water container. Its quite common that the lids fall off, hapenned on the bike I ride too. <!-- s:o --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_surprised.gif" alt=":o" title="Surprised" /><!-- s:o -->

Haha talk about riding in the shoulder on the M5 bigkev, when there is tons of traffic I always do it! Can't stand car drivers, always cause traffic blocks for no reason at all! <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_mad.gif" alt="" title="Mad" /><!-- s -->

 

Only the one set of coolant. Just make sure you do not fill the radiator/coolant bottle any higher than the 'max' line on the bottle. In the heat (and when the bike gets hot) the coolant does expand slightly and can cause the radiator cap to come off (due to too much pressure) and for coolant to pour out. There is also a pressure release valve somewhere for when the coolant becomes too hot and again that will release some coolant. Coolant loves to smoke if it is placed on the engine (or other hot surface) so that is likely the problem.

I was always told, and have never been told otherwise, to use a slightly higher concentration of coolant:water than in cars. If you get coolant concentrate (from auto stores) cars say to use 1:3 ratio (25% coolant), but I have always used 4:5 (40%) or 1:1 (50%) coolant. Seems to work well...

 

my understanding is that if youve blown a headgasket, youll have oil coming out of the bike and its likely that youll be able to see oil in your coolant too...

just get your coolant situation fixed up quick smart, and if youre not sure what to check on the bike, either take it to a mechanic or ride conservatively and check your bike for oil loss and/or oil in the coolant reservior every now and then until youre satisfied that everythings ok.... and you dont get more smoke coming out of it <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s -->

cheers

simon

 

Yeah...it doesn't sound like uve seized the engine..u just wouldn't have done it much good. The engine can actually warp and distort under that sorta heat. Good thing u stopped a fair bit though.

As for turning the bike off with the key..dude...its called the kill switch..that lil red rocker switch on the right hand side <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: -->

 

hmmm it sounds like either youre not putting the radiator cap on properly, or you need a new radiator cap... it shouldnt come off so easily i dont think...

simon

 

hey bigkev,

sorry to hear about your bike mate.
i don't know much bout bikes, but from my experience with cars...

it sounds like you have blown the head gasket. This would allow air to get into the cooling system whilst the engine is running, causing a "bubbling" effect in the coolant. The easiest way to tell is while the bike is running, move the petrol tank out of the way and take off the radiator cap, if the fluid inside is "bubbling" you more than likely have a blown head gasket. (ps you dont have to do this when the bike is hot. just take it off when its cool and allow it to run for a few minutes)
another way to tell is to change your oil and catch the used oil in a container, if you can see coolant in your oil, than the coolant is leaking into your oil somehow, most likely through a crack in the head/head gasket.

or.... hopefully, its just a case of your thermostat not working, it may be seized in the 'closed' position and not allowing the fluid in the cooling system to circulate, causing it to heat up and expand, hence the bubbling and overflowing. Strange that it overflows from the reservoir tank though. The radiator cap should have a pressure release valve on it. to test if it works simply look at the bottom of the cap and see the valve with a spring attached, push on it and make sure it "opens" (it should pop up on the top of the cap). now simply fill a sink/bucket with boiling water and throw the cap in. If the valve does not open within a minute or so, the valve is stuffed and for the safety of your cooling system you need a new one.
also check to make sure the breather hole on top of the reservoir is not blocked with ****.

after you have done all this and made sure there is no fluid in the oil (DO NOT ride the bike if there is water in the oil unless you want to buy a new engine!) yu can ride to a radiator repair place such as NATRAD etc and ask them to pressure test your radiator, what this does is they put compressed nitrogen into the cooling system and wherever bright green coolant spits out, that is where your leak is. Normally a pressure test is free.

hope this helps mate, and hope it is something simple.

good luck! <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s -->

 

Blown Headgasket

2 things about a blown headgasket. Oil gets into the water OR water gets into the oil. Both are very bad things. You very well may not visibly see any leaks. But as others have stated, you would see oil in the overflow tank or if you look in the oil sight glass after a ride and it looks like choc. milk, you have a blown gasket. There is a possibility that you could see a leak esternally.
All in all, the job can be done at home with time, patience and very good information. I know that most of you are headed into summer soon, so do it right. Even if that means taking it into a shop. If you don't have time to do it right the first time, you will either make time to do it right the second time, or shell out the $ for someone else to fix it and anything else you screwed up by not doing it right the first time.
Noting trying to be mean, just seeing it from my point of view and past experience.