Waterless Coolant

[Trinity765]

Has anyone tried waterless coolant? Any rumours of it causing damage?

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

What's wrong with water?

[KungFooBob]

I run waterless coolant in my Bullet.

[Yorick]

If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

[Count Steer]

Seems a bit of a faff, you have to flush the system with their (Evans I assume) prep fluid which costs more (for 5l) than the coolant does (for 2l) ie £39.95/£29.95...so, £70.

I'd want it to address and fix a specific issue for that money.

[Skub]

I take it you would use the stuff to prevent corrosion,or is there another reason?

[mangocrazy]

First of all, is it actually approved for use on your bike?

[roadster]

If I was running a racer and wanted to reduce the size of the radiator and header tank I might give it a try. But then I would have more than one sensor gathering and recording temperature data and the engine would be stripped and inspected every few races.

[Yorick]

If I was running a racer and wanted to reduce the size of the radiator and header tank I might give it a try. But then I would have more than one sensor gathering and recording temperature data and the engine would be stripped and inspected every few races.

In 25 years racing and instructing i never did that.

So maybe nor essential?

[Trinity765]

The Speed Twin 1200 has a very hot engine and that's to be expected I guess. I was out all day yesterday at around 24c and the fan was on almost continuously. The worst thing is that my knees sit on the fins which is fine when I'm wearing thick motorcycle clothing, though they look a little melted, but when wearing jeans it burns. Reading comments on the Speed Twin forum a lot of people have this issue, burning knees and constant fan, and someone has said that their fan comes on 50% less using waterless coolant. The bike doesn't have an engine temperate gauge, just a warning light which has never come on and I don't believe that there is an issue as they all do it. It's more, I'm guessing, shorter people and where their knees sit.

My concern is that waterless coolant could corrode something that water doesn't and is it worth the faff of changing over. I would be wise to ask Triumph as the bike is still under warranty though I'm sure to get a "no" from them.

I wanted to know more about it as I've never heard of it.

[roadster]

I'm pretty sure you will find youtube stuff related mostly to cars, but some of it might have a sponsorship bias. There was also an episode of the Mike Brewer program where it was used in a classic car with a reputation for overheating. Sorry I can't remember the details.

[Count Steer]

Interesting. Some bike forums appear to conclude that the top end runs hotter with waterless coolant. It seems for every claim on one aspect there are reports of the opposite ie increased fuel efficiency, reduced running temp. Bit of a minefield if it's down to YouTube and user groups of one sort or another.

I'm sure I vaguely remember something (might have been a car) being claimed to have a 'sealed for life' cooling system but can't find anything.

[Trinity765]

I'm pretty sure you will find youtube stuff related mostly to cars, but some of it might have a sponsorship bias. There was also an episode of the Mike Brewer program where it was used in a classic car with a reputation for overheating. Sorry I can't remember the details.

I've done a little Youtubing and yes, it's mostly car related. One vid said that it won't fix a problem but I don't have a problem to fix.

I'd be interested to know if there was a better coolant than the traditional coolant/water mix.

[KungFooBob]

You could probably get the standard radiator re-cored with more rows, or something.

I imagine it's not as cheap as just trying a different coolant.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

The Speed Twin 1200 has a very hot engine and that's to be expected I guess. I was out all day yesterday at around 24c and the fan was on almost continuously. The worst thing is that my knees sit on the fins which is fine when I'm wearing thick motorcycle clothing, though they look a little melted, but when wearing jeans it burns. Reading comments on the Speed Twin forum a lot of people have this issue, burning knees and constant fan, and someone has said that their fan comes on 50% less using waterless coolant. The bike doesn't have an engine temperate gauge, just a warning light which has never come on and I don't believe that there is an issue as they all do it. It's more, I'm guessing, shorter people and where their knees sit.

My concern is that waterless coolant could corrode something that water doesn't and is it worth the faff of changing over. I would be wise to ask Triumph as the bike is still under warranty though I'm sure to get a "no" from them.

I wanted to know more about it as I've never heard of it.

I was going to say "Time to spread your legs" but decided it was too tasteless, but it does sound like you need to ride the bike with you knees away from the engine.

[Trinity765]

The Speed Twin 1200 has a very hot engine and that's to be expected I guess. I was out all day yesterday at around 24c and the fan was on almost continuously. The worst thing is that my knees sit on the fins which is fine when I'm wearing thick motorcycle clothing, though they look a little melted, but when wearing jeans it burns. Reading comments on the Speed Twin forum a lot of people have this issue, burning knees and constant fan, and someone has said that their fan comes on 50% less using waterless coolant. The bike doesn't have an engine temperate gauge, just a warning light which has never come on and I don't believe that there is an issue as they all do it. It's more, I'm guessing, shorter people and where their knees sit.

My concern is that waterless coolant could corrode something that water doesn't and is it worth the faff of changing over. I would be wise to ask Triumph as the bike is still under warranty though I'm sure to get a "no" from them.

I wanted to know more about it as I've never heard of it.

I was going to say "Time to spread your legs" but decided it was too tasteless, but it does sound like you need to ride the bike with you knees away from the engine.

I do but it requires effort so when relaxing my knees fall on the fins.

I thinking about getting another Street Triple to be honest. It's becoming an itch that won't go away.

[dern]

The temp that the engine runs at is determined by the thermostat. No amount of changing coolant, increasing radiator size will change that. You'd just be adding extra cooling capacity, not changing the running temperature.

You might be able to make some aluminium stand offs like the ones made for exhausts to stop luggage melting for the engine fins. You wouldn't need much of a gap to make quite a difference.

[KungFooBob]

I'm probably wrong, but the thermostat only controls when the cooling circuit opens and closes.

Once it's open on a running engine it plays no further role in normal use.

Changing the thermostat will only change how long it takes to get to normal operating temperature.

[dern]

Unless the cooling system is inefficient (or broken) and just sits at hot all the time then the thermostat will regulate flow to maintain temperature all the time. Thermostats can fail open for example and in that case the engine will over cool.

[KungFooBob]

But how often in normal use will a thermostat actually close?