TOPIC:

Hi Guys
I am 500 miles into a running in period for new rings etc, my problem is my exhaust collectors are holed like a tea bag making the bike a pain to ride, I have some decent replacements but am worried that if I go through the process of taking the rad off to replace them I will then have to bleed the rad which as you know involves taking the engine temp into the overheat band on the temp gauge to get all the air out, do you think there is any possibility of the heat affecting anything
thanks
Paul

Hi Paul,

Not sure where the running into the red comes from. Probably something you read in the factory service manual.

I've never bothered to go that far and have had good luck just running with the cap off till I saw coolant moving, topping it off and reinstalling the cap.

Bill

Bill
your quite right it does come from the manual, which says to bleed it properly you need to take the fan fuse out and run it until its in the red which does work as I have done it many times , obviously you turn it off after a short time but I may try your suggestion and see how I get on
many thanks
Paul

Running into the red is something I avoid like the plague. I never found it necessary and just did as Bill said and all has been good.

By running it with the cap open, topping it off and re-installing the cap does not allow the overflow hose and reservoir to maintain a prime.

Air would still be in the hose and the overflow tank cannot flow back and forth into the engine. Unless it happens on its own over time.

With the overflow tank way below the radiator cap, the air has to be expelled to be able to pull coolant up and over the elevation of the radiator cap.

The only way to do this is by running up the engine temperature near the "H" mark.

The hot coolant needs to get hot enough to expel that air into the overflow tank to create a siphon.

As a compromise you might be able to get to within 80 to 90% of the H mark.

I have never (at least I don't think)damaged a Kawasaki engine doing this.

Newer bikes provide bleeder ports to accomplish this task which unfortunately was never an option with our older bikes.

Regards.

T.

Good Explanation Todd! I'd always assumed the priming of the overflow tube to be unimportant.

Bill