LupusInterOves
Member
But "actual field experience" and people with no experience . . . how could that possibly happen?
Draining coolant/water for winter and not refilling, any damage?
- Thread starter 油井緋色
- Start date
But "actual field experience" and people with no experience . . . how could that possibly happen?
The shop I work at sells Prestone pre-mix to bikes all the time, haven't had an issue.
And I'd save the $13 from Canadian tire and hassle of flushing in the spring and take BrainP's advice. My bike's going into at least it's 4th winter being only drained of water with nothing bad ever happening to it. But who needs real world experience when you have an automotive specialized mechanical engineer working for a multinational auto manufacturer telling you otherwise.
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Good thing all bikes and engine blocks are the exact same as yours then, I guess.
But...like I said, to each their own...but $13 and a half hour labor in your garage seems like cheap insurance against all the potential negatives to me.
Maybe I've just seen (and worked on) the results of cracked blocks enough times that I'm jaded.
I actually have less than no experience. Just to be clear.
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Show me a liquid-cooled motorcycle engine that does not have the following features:
- Water pump on the left (side-stand) side low on the crankcases
- Either a specified drain bolt on the lowest point of the water pump or an adjacent coolant pipe OR a specified hose that you are supposed to disconnect in the same location
- A pipe from the bottom of the radiator which leads to the inlet of the water pump - thus draining the water pump drains substantially everything out of the radiator - the worst you'd have to do is tilt the bike side to side a couple times to encourage it all to get out
- A pipe (or pipes, in the case of a V-configuration engine) from the outlet of the water pump to the bottom of the cooling jackets - thus ensuring that draining the water pump drains the contents of the cylinder head down to the level of that pipe connection. It is indeed common for that connection to the cylinder block is not completely at the lowest spot, thus leaving a low spot ... and there is either going to be another drain bolt on the front of the cylinder block to allow that additional low spot to be drained (Yamaha FZR), or the shape of the bottom of the cooling jacket has been designed so that there is not enough coolant left in the cooling jacket to trap anything. Water freezing to ice and the resulting expansion is NOT a problem if the container has air space on the top so that the ice has someplace to go.
- Hoses leading from the high spot in the cylinder head to the thermostat housing and the radiator cap at the high spot of the cooling system - either in its own separate housing, or on the top of the radiator on the right side (which is the high spot when the bike is on its side stand). Reason it has to be this way is so that if the engine is marginally overheating to the extent of gas bubbles forming, the flow direction has to be up and out towards the high spot so that the gas bubble can be vented. It also means draining the water pump drains all this out.
- A bleed hole in that thermostat that allows enough through it to allow the system to be drained and vented, even if the thermostat is nominally shut.
Every one of them that I have ever seen is like that. Every. Single. One. Show me an exception. SHOW ME.
My Kawasaki has an oil cooler which has a separate coolant feed for it ... but the hose from the oil cooler to the water pump and from the oil cooler to the radiator is oriented so that draining the water pump drains the oil cooler.
The manufacturers are not stupid ... Any water pockets left in minor low spots after properly draining the cooling system (read the manual for the drain bolt locations) will be so small, and open to the top for expansion, that it doesn't pose a problem.
I've only been doing this for, oh, 20-some-odd years ... If you want to go to the extra work of putting antifreeze in over the winter (Not a big deal in itself) and then flushing it several times in springtime, be my guest. But you don't have to.
mbroyda
Well-known member
but what about the automotive specialized mechanical engineers working for a multinational auto manufacturers....will somebody thinks of the automotive specialized mechanical engineers working for a multinational auto manufacturers
I think i'll stick with BrianP's advice, he's no automotive specialized mechanical engineer working for a multinational auto manufacturer, but he's been slinging good technical advice around here for a while
I think i'll stick with BrianP's advice, he's no automotive specialized mechanical engineer working for a multinational auto manufacturer, but he's been slinging good technical advice around here for a while
It isn't the money that's the problem, it's time.
And with regards to the engineer thing...do you have a pinkie ring that makes you special?
Rob
Well-known member
Well done sir!.
I haven't had any issues either storing bikes with no coolant in the system for 20+ years, in spite of (or because of) what I do for a career...
Oh I put a y instead of an I.... you got me. Let me give you a cookie.
Remember what I told you on the other forum and you kept asking why? This is part of why? You are just " that guy"
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N3WMAN
Well-known member
Do a search and see how many you find from previous years...
My R6 pump is on the right side. BOOM. Debunked. LOL
Maybe your R6 motor was designed by a "automotive specialized mechanical engineer working for a multinational auto manufacturer"... that had no real world experience.
Those are the WORST type of "automotive specialized mechanical engineer working for a multinational auto manufacturer".
On that note I would like to talk to the "automotive specialized mechanical engineer working for a multinational auto manufacturer" that designed the cup holders in my truck.
... another GTAM thread that makes me ask " When did they stop teaching science in school?"... in particular; when did they stop teaching science to "automotive specialized mechanical engineer working for a multinational auto manufacturer"s.
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As long as it's the lowest point in the cooling system, even with the bike on the side stand, it's not a problem.
Actually, I thought of another example. My 125 has the water pump on the right side. It's most certainly the lowest spot in the system. The inlet and outlet hoses both connect to the top.
Have you ever, or have you ever known anyone that drained the coolant from their bike in the fall and had a cracked block in the spring?
I haven't, and I've been doing this for 45 years.
