KX Riders
Maintenance & Technical => KX500 Original => Topic started by: uncle albert on July 18, 2008, 04:26:39 AM
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Hi guys,
Here comes the newbie question of the month...
How much coolant does the KX500 take? Can anyone tell me?
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i just fill her up till its pooring out..
then i kick it till the fluid is spread through its system.
and the manual says to keep the level just above the radiatorchannels,
guess its just under a liter going in
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Going off memory I think spec was 1.4 quarts. But you can just fill it till it's full. Make sure you use the air bleed screw that is located on top of the head, this will ensure all the air is out of the cooling system (engine side). Again If I remmber correctly the 500's have a black plastic plug on top of the left side rad. I alway remove it to ensure the system can purge correctly while filling.
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Here's some pictures.
Crack open bleed screw, fill right side rad. until you have a solid stream of coolant flowing out of the bleed screw, then tighen the bleed screw, next remove the black plastic plug contuine to fill right side rad. until the left rad. is full and coolant is flow over into the right rad.(left and right side rads are join together at the top with a hose).
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Thats great, thanks for the info!
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not sure if you fill all the way till its full. i think there has to be a small air gap or bike may overheat (??). i was always told to fill just over neck to leave small air gap.
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It's nice to see such quality advice being handed out on such a very important topic. More then one person has fried their bike from doing this wrong, I'm sure. Two thumbs up To hughes. :wink:
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It's nice to see such quality advice being handed out on such a very important topic. More then one person has fried their bike from doing this wrong, I'm sure. Two thumbs up To hughes. :wink:
d**n how do people go wrong with it...
not bleeding /kicking all the air out and then with too little coolant in it ..
they then frie it while racin,around in the dirt ?
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Hughes, is that power point your using to make the text and red ovals?
It's a program called Snag It. Works really great.
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Has anyone or does anyone run engine ice or anything like it?
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I have not tried engine ice, but I have used Water Wetter with good results. I used to race a military jeep with a rotary engine in it and it used to run very hot at high rpm. After improving the shrouding, enlarging the radiator increasing the air flow path, I finally tried the Water Wetter, apparently it has a chemical that helps transfer the heat out of the aluminum and into the coolant . This did greatly improve the cooling, and I am not a fan of magic potions. But in all fairness, the real solution would have been to under drive the water pump . John
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So what is everyones coolant of choice? I have been using engine ice, but is expensive...
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I have been running EVANS waterless coolant for 10 yrs in my streebikes. The coolant gives boil over protection to I believe its around 365 degrees F and is permenant. It was designed to transfer heat faster than regular ethleen glycol. On of the benefits is the boil over protection is with no pressure on the system. I have modified caps to run only 2 psi on the cooling systems and have had great results with lower cylinder temps as well as its made life easier when my nephew wrecked my yz and damaged the rad. WE managede to run it the rest of the day with no psi by just crimping the damaged fins with pliers.
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I have been running EVANS waterless coolant for 10 yrs in my streebikes. The coolant gives boil over protection to I believe its around 365 degrees F and is permenant. It was designed to transfer heat faster than regular ethleen glycol. On of the benefits is the boil over protection is with no pressure on the system. I have modified caps to run only 2 psi on the cooling systems and have had great results with lower cylinder temps as well as its made life easier when my nephew wrecked my yz and damaged the rad. WE managede to run it the rest of the day with no psi by just crimping the damaged fins with pliers.
No chit? Wow ok. Is that a motorcycle specific brand?
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Has anyone or does anyone run engine ice or anything like it?
I run Engine Ice in my CR125 powered shift kart. Never needed any coolant additives in any of my dirt bikes, but my shifter kart running at 12,300 rpm's in the dead of summer heat would tend run hot and blow coolant. Engine Ice dropped my temps about 15F.
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most road racing bikes here in the uk are only allowed to use distilled water , with no problems , once new a guy who spent weeks trying to fix a overheating problem after fitting a rg500 engine to rgv250 [trying bigger rads etc,] turned out he had not mixed his coolant with water, some coolant is thicker than water slower circulating, dont know much about evan coolant but if it does not boil until 365f is going to be hard to know when your bike is over heating? i would not use a lower psi cap , the more your pressurise water the higher the boiling point,
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Evans coolant is designed for maximum heat transfer and is viscosity correct. You NEVER want boiling. As soon as boiling starts there is no longer contact of liquid to your water jackets it vaporizes there and in the head first as they are the hottest. ass soon as vaporization ( boiling ) happens you loose the heat transfer of your cooling system. the boiling point evans gives is with no pressure. Be relieveing pressure you get rid of the chances of blow out of hoses and wear on seals such as water pumps as the pressure and temp rises. You can get stick on temp indicators to go right on your cylinder. I believe proo circuit makes them too. Dave is absolutly correct most types of coolant REQUIRE water or you will get poor cooling. The evans coolant was designed for high performance applications and racing. Truck drivers use because it doesnt need additives to prevent boiling and cavitation or corrosion resistance. It has since been used a lot in high performance and racing engines as well as motorcycles. It is on a small list of allowed coolants at some of my local drag tracks. check out evanscooling.com for more info ( I am not affiliated or a dealer for their products I just have seen benefits and its proven itself to me personally)
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I was using normal coolant in my crf and at one meeting which was really muddy it boiled over since then I have used Engine ice and it never happened again and I have been in the same conditions since and now using it my KX, it is pricey but so is an engine rebuild if it gets to hot and not noticed
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So would distilled water be a viable alternative ? If you drain it after each ride?
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Pure water is an amazing coolant. The less additives used to combat corrosion or freezing, the better.
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/ethylene-glycol-d_146.html (http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/ethylene-glycol-d_146.html)
Larry
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can u use EVANS coolant with a low psi cap on any engine that was originally designed with a high pressure system ??, i know modern superbikes run to 110c [100c is boiling] sounds good if no pressure on hoses and seals
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I tried "Engine Ice"on my race quad.Found it did not drop temp at all .Never used it again.
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exactly dave check their site for more info i have it in 3 street bikes and 5 dirtbikes my car and my truck
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Pure water has the highest heat absorbtion capacity. Adding antifreeze to the water reduces this but is often necessary to prevent freezing and/or corrosion in the system and to raise the boiling point. As soon as the water boils, the vapour bubbles reduce the contact surface area which reduces the transfer of heat tremendously. To combat this all rad run under a pressure which increases the boiling point of the water above normal. Products like water wetter should help since they work by reducing the surface tension of the water, making it contact a surface easier and more completely. Most roadrace courses mandate water only since antifreeze spilled on the track surface is very slippery and difficult to clean off. The evans waterless coolant is a great product as it is a different fluid with a much greater heat absorbtion capacity than water. It also doesn't boil so the cooling system does not need to be pressurized. I have never tried it but have been tempted a few times. It is a good fix for 450s like mine with teeny rads. I have never run engine ice myself but reading the label I recal it is just Propylene-glycol coolant which is a bit better than ethlene-glycol. I spent $$ adding a cool overflow tank to my 450 when a better fiix would have been putting in the Evan coolant. Then no overflow tank would be needed. Cam.