[grayman]

Hey sportsfans,

I'm troubleshooting a cooling issue on my CBR and was wondering what would be the best coolant (brand/ingredients) to use. The service manual only references a Honda-branded product :s

The system only needs a top-up, but I've read elsewhere that the best way to go is to drain and flush the system.

 

[Hessian]

Yes to drain and flush.

As far as coolant goes, really anything should be OK as long as its actually coolant. IE: Petrol, kerosene or oil are not recommended.

 

[dayeve]

Have you tried running any additives like water wetter or engine ice?

Just do a 50/50 mix with coolant and distilled water.

 

[grayman]

Have you tried running any additives like water wetter or engine ice?

Just do a 50/50 mix with coolant and distilled water.

I've not tried either of these, but I've seen them mentioned elsewhere; I'll check them out.

Are there any brands/coolant types I should avoid?

 

[Guest]

Have you tried running any additives like water wetter or engine ice?

Just do a 50/50 mix with coolant and distilled water.

I've not tried either of these, but I've seen them mentioned elsewhere; I'll check them out.

Are there any brands/coolant types I should avoid?

get nulon radiator flush from supercrap, and a 4l nulon premixed coolant. aussie made for aussie motors

The flush is good, you can hear it working, and my bike didn't get to half way on the temp guage after that even on hot days.... only rode it a few times though :-/

 

[Guest]

I've found the best stuff so far is motul. I was having some over heating issue on the track bikes and that has been the best option.

I tried other brands and they didn't work as good.

 

[Guest]

Coolant is one of things where there are just as many myths and crap products out there as there are decent ones. There is ALWAYS something cheaper that works as well as anything sold by Motul or from Honda for that matter.

The ingredient you want in your coolant, is Glycol. Whichever way you buy it. Whatever colour it is. Thats is the ingredient that works. Motul dont use magical ingredients, just glycol.

Look for either a 50% glycol premix, (Easy) or a glycol concentrate that you can dilute to 50% with distilled water. Basically the concentrate you want should have about 1000gm of Glycol per litre (Usually 996 or something), which means it is more or less just a litre of glycol. 2L of Glycol + 2L distilled water gives you 4L of coolant ready to use. At 50%.

Many you can buy are less than 50%, but only use less than that if your handbook specifies it. 33% is easy to find on the shelf, but wont provide as much anti-freeze/anti-boil protection when you need it. Dont use greater than 50% or the heat transfer properties begin to be reduced.

Anything you find without glycol in it is simply a corrosion inhibitor, not an anti-freeze anti boil, and is not ideal for obvious reasons. It wont stop freezing or raise the boil temp. It is cheap, it is crap, and it is to be avoided. Piss probably works better!

It can also be bad to mix it with glycol.

You dont need to drain/flush & refill if it just needs to be topped up. Just top it up with 50% glycol/distilled water mix. You only have to drain/flush and refill when specified in your service shedule, or if you just bought it and have no idea what is in it and no history. Dont worry about mixing brands, 50% glycol is 50% glycol.

Dont drain and refill without flushing, and dont top up with just water unless you absolutely have to, because it weakens your coolant. But is ok in small amounts.

Because of all the crap coolants and myths out there, whenever i buy a second hand vehicle i usually drain/flush and refill the coolant first service. So i know what is in there.

Hope this helps.

 

[grayman]

Thanks all, this is exactly the advice I was seeking

 

[dayeve]

Sounds pretty good to me. Now you have got me interested in how much glycol I have in my coolant.

 

[grayman]

Sorry to zombify this thread, but in sorting out my cooling problems, I thought I'd share what I learned.

Firstly, my radiator cap and thermo fan switch were both stuffed. As referenced in another thread MCS do a generic replacement 1.1k cap (RC5).

The thermo fan switch came from Honda (37760-MR1-003). After searching high and low, I could not source an after-market replacement. If you go down this path, take your wallet out and bend it over, in preparation for raping by Honda. This plug is ridiculously expensive...if you are not anal-retentive like me, go with Eclipze's :hail: mod.

Finally, the '19 takes 1.3l of coolant in the radiator, 0.2l in the overflow tank. Having the bike upright when filling the radiator makes things go much quicker.

Hope this helps.

 

[Guest]

Coolant is one of things where there are just as many myths and crap products out there as there are decent ones. There is ALWAYS something cheaper that works as well as anything sold by Motul or from Honda for that matter.

The ingredient you want in your coolant, is Glycol. Whichever way you buy it. Whatever colour it is. Thats is the ingredient that works. Motul dont use magical ingredients, just glycol.

Look for either a 50% glycol premix, (Easy) or a glycol concentrate that you can dilute to 50% with distilled water. Basically the concentrate you want should have about 1000gm of Glycol per litre (Usually 996 or something), which means it is more or less just a litre of glycol. 2L of Glycol + 2L distilled water gives you 4L of coolant ready to use. At 50%.

Many you can buy are less than 50%, but only use less than that if your handbook specifies it. 33% is easy to find on the shelf, but wont provide as much anti-freeze/anti-boil protection when you need it. Dont use greater than 50% or the heat transfer properties begin to be reduced.

Anything you find without glycol in it is simply a corrosion inhibitor, not an anti-freeze anti boil, and is not ideal for obvious reasons. It wont stop freezing or raise the boil temp. It is cheap, it is crap, and it is to be avoided. Piss probably works better!

It can also be bad to mix it with glycol.

You dont need to drain/flush & refill if it just needs to be topped up. Just top it up with 50% glycol/distilled water mix. You only have to drain/flush and refill when specified in your service shedule, or if you just bought it and have no idea what is in it and no history. Dont worry about mixing brands, 50% glycol is 50% glycol.

Dont drain and refill without flushing, and dont top up with just water unless you absolutely have to, because it weakens your coolant. But is ok in small amounts.

Because of all the crap coolants and myths out there, whenever i buy a second hand vehicle i usually drain/flush and refill the coolant first service. So i know what is in there.

Hope this helps.

This is why I just use the motul coolant. I know it works and I don't have to be a chemist to work out what's the right one.

Have you seen how many different coolants they have at supercheap?

It's like buying toothpaste, way too much choice.

 

[xcwizit]

I've always used NULON coolant for my cars in the past, but I have always bought the full concentrate ones.. And needed to mix it with water 50/50

Does anyone recommend mixing the coolant with normal tap water ? Rather than Coolant & distilled water?

 

[Guest]

I've always used NULON coolant for my cars in the past, but I have always bought the full concentrate ones.. And needed to mix it with water 50/50

Does anyone recommend mixing the coolant with normal tap water ? Rather than Coolant & distilled water?

Tap water in a pinch is ok, but extended use of tap water increases scale build-up and eventually leads to poor heat transfer and restricted flow. But only after extended use. It wont cause corrosion though.

It reallly depends on how bad your water is, and the level of dissolved minerals/solids. There is quite often heaps in tap water.

Studricho, You are fine to trust Motul, it's just the price that bothers me. It shits me to tears seeing a thousand different lines of coolant on the shelf like you say. Like many other consumables, too many companies are putting so much shit out there to make a quick buck. They use scaremongering & mis-leading advertising to overcomplicate everything to the extent you feel like you DO need to be a chemist to actually understand what the go is! But thats what we are here for, to put the good info here to help others.

They should not even be allowed to sell half of it IMO. But reading the label and knowing what to look for helps get the right product and save $$$.

 

[dayeve]

chukitova, What is your coolant of choice?

 

[xcwizit]

chukitova, What is your coolant of choice?

Yeah, Chukitova, I too am interested ...

 

[Johnnie5]

me personally i buy a concentrate and mix at the right ratio of an aluminium friendly variety

you have a small amount on the shelf readily available and not stuck with large bottles around the place

been a while since i have used some but iirc 500ml makes about 10 litres

i mix the required amount into say a litre of water and put into the rad

fill the rad near the top

run motor till hot and thermostat opens with cap off as bleeds through the air

top up and all good

 

[aj26]

I use cordial

 

[Guest]

chukitova, What is your coolant of choice?

My coolant of choice is Glycol! LOL

It does not matter which brand you buy, the ingredient you want in it is Mono-Ethylene-Glycol. Glycol for short.

If i was buying some tommorow, there is some on special at supercheap at the moment. Calibre brand, long life concentrate. It is 5L of Glycol concentrate, (1000g p Liter) for about 28 bucks. That will make 10L when mixed to 50%. Thats enough for a bike and a car.

Thats about the same price as 2.5L of Nulon or Castrol brand Glycol concentrate. Or about 1 L of Motul.[hr]

me personally i buy a concentrate and mix at the right ratio of an aluminium friendly variety

you have a small amount on the shelf readily available and not stuck with large bottles around the place

been a while since i have used some but iirc 500ml makes about 10 litres

i mix the required amount into say a litre of water and put into the rad

fill the rad near the top

run motor till hot and thermostat opens with cap off as bleeds through the air

top up and all good

Glycol coolants are all aluminium safe. The only coolants that are not, are shitty, crappy, Glycol free coolants that are simply mediocre corrosion inhibitors. They are the really cheap ones.

The mix you just said, is only 5%. That is very, very weak. Not good.

A glycol concentrate is just straight Glycol. It's Glycol at 100%. You cant make it any more concentrated than that.

You should remove your thermostat and flush the block out when you change your coolant. Or you are leaving a lot of the old stuff in there. Changing half of it is better than changing all of it, but it does degrade the standard of the new coolant diluting it with older/unknown stuff.

There is actually a lot of coolant in the jackets of your engine. Up to 50% of the total capacity on some machines.

 

[Drew]

+1 to Chuckitova, I wouldn't bother using anything other than Ethylene Glycol, it does the job really well, doesn't cause corrosion issues and is quite cheap. The only reasons you wouldn't use ethylene glycol are at the track, because its unbelievably slippery, and because it kills a lot of idiots children.

The reason it kills children is because it is both toxic and sweet tasting and the reason that they are the children of idiots is because if you have kids and store something sweet and toxic in a non-tamperproof container at a height children can get to it then you really are an idiot.

 

[Matt]

masssive kidney failure... never fun.