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I have followed the procedure in the manual for replacing the coolant on my KDX200: drain, flush, refill. I removed the air from the system by loosening the bolt at the top of the head, tapping and squeezing the hoses, and running the motor with the cap off. I think I got most of the air bubbles out.

I topped off the radiator and filled the overflow/reserve. I ran the bike some more and noticed the reserve tank is empty. The manual says 1.1 liters of coolant is required which translates to ~1/3 gallon. I put in half of a gallon already. ???

I checked the tranny oil and it looks clean and I don't have a sweet smell or white exhaust.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,
jim

My reserve tank never has any in it.... if I put any in it, it is gone next time I check. I just think of it as an overflow tank only....

If I pop the cap and it is full... I am happy.

If you're intent on keeping fluid in the res bottle...you'd best buy cases of the stuff 'cuz it's prety much ALways going to be empty.

Like Inda said...it's good for overflow, that's it. The bike gets hot, pukes some fluid, cools down and sucks it back in. But...put fluid in the res, ride for a few hours and NEVER get it hot enough to get coolant past the first seal on the cap and the res will still be empty.

Do check the bottom seal on your cap. If there is any question about it..replace it. It will commonly have some specks of junk right at the place it seals to the neck of the rad. Clean that off.

canyncarvr wrote: Do check the bottom seal on your cap. If there is any question about it..replace it. It will commonly have some specks of junk right at the place it seals to the neck of the rad. Clean that off.

Saw that and cleaned it. Thanks all!

My bike pukes its fluid a lot as well. I use Engine Ice but seems like after every ride I am refilling the reserve bottle. Does changing the rad. cap to 1.3 or 1.6 make any difference.

Should I be concerned with anything by going to a cap that has a higher pressure rating?

Yes ...changing the cap does make a difference. As a matter of fact... your cap may just be bad.

Known issue.

Refilling (or trying to keep filled) the reserve bottle is a waste of time.

Don't bother.

Check the rad levels before a ride..if it's good, you're good.

The exception to that would be a severe overheat and boilover. Then you will want to check the rads when they cool enough to get the cap off.

You will not keep fluid in the reserve bottle..even over the course of a single ride.

..even with a good cap.

Which isn't to say your cap is not bad.

Thanks. I will start checking the level in the radiator before each ride. I also am going to order a new cap.

Just because you can't keep fluid in the thing doesn't mean it doesn't DO anything. During an 'overheat' event, fluid DOES go into the bottle, then gets sucked back into the rads as things cool off. So, there is reason to keep it there. Some have taken it off thinking it does nothing but impair airflow. I tried that...and found the rads consistently low on fluid when I checked 'em before a ride.

So I put it back on.

Understand. I have no intention to remove the bottle. But I agree with you, they could have put the darn bottle elswhere. When I had my Wr450, it was under the rear fender. Much easier to acces and its weight was counterbalanced against the silencer. Oh well . . . things we would change if we ever could get Kawi to update the bike.

I don't have a problem keeping fluid in my overflow bottle, since I zip tied the louvers to the devol radiator guards. I ride a lot tight technical rocky nasty single track. Before I would always see evidence of dripping from the overflow bottle's overflow hose on my skid plate. Not anymore. The bike would not actually overheat ,but sometimes it would get just hot enough to burp and gurgle a bit. You could hear it when you stopped.

Not keeping water in the bottle isn't related to the bike getting hot. Or...the bottle will empty every ride..whether the bike ever gets hot or not.

..that situation has been queried into at least a dozen times over the past years.

Some improvement is to be had by re-routing the bottle overflow hose to form a higher loop.

I don't follow the connection. What's the link between fluid out of the overflow bottle to 'burp and gurgle'? As one would expect..the bottle doesn't overflow until it's overfull.

If you fill the res bottle, THEN a bit of spitting from the radiator will push some fluid out. Keeping that from happening is why the 'full' line on the res isn't...'full' that is.

It was my expierience that when the bike would get hot it would expell more water than it would pull back in. When you filled the bottle to the mark it would overflow some out and then the rest(being a lesser amount than you started with in the bottle, due to overflow and being bounced out of the overflow) would get drawn back into the system. The blurp and gurgle would spit small amounts past the cap. When this happened sometimes it would puff a small amount out of the bottle overflow.

If you can't keep fluid in the bottle something is not completely correct. This may not, however, be a big enough problem to create a concern. (that would depend on what is causing this)

There are only two ways the fluid can go, out the overflow or into the radiator. I would bet more is going back to the coolant system than you think. It would be interesting to see dye out into the bottle and then check the rads after a ride to see.

One thing I know for sure, my bottle keeps fluid in it. It did when I got the bike, stopped holding fluid when I put on the devols, then started holding again when I put the louvers back on.

My rads are always full... but never any in the res....

sounds to easy,but is there a crack in the over flow tank?

FWIW, I have no problems keeping fluid in the bottle of my '06.

My tank and radiator stays full and I still have the stock louvers on the radiators. The overflow hose out of the reserve tank routes up and over the rear fender aft of the airbox and in behind the exauste pipe which puts the loop above the reserved level of coolant. Of course the tank is under the rear fender on my 93 E model not sure how things are routed on the H models. I agree with jaydollar check to see if your tank has a leak.

So is there a theme here with the louvers vs no louvers?
Who has them and who doesn't?

Maybe those bikes without the louvers are tending to run hotter and are expelling some coolant more often than those with.

Maybe the over flow line out of the reserve tank needs to be looped up and above the coolant level??

We also have no problems keeping fluid in the overflow bottles and in the radiators on the two KDX 200 that the boys run. Stock louvers, stock caps and radiator fluid containers with stock tube routing. When they do boil over (not very oftern) and excess fluid flows out of the overflow bottles; once cooled down there has always been some fluid left in the overflow bottle. Using 25% mix of antifreeze with redline water wetter - so nothing really special there....

Re: '.. I would bet more is going back to the coolant system than you think...'

Good bet...hard to prove.

I gave up on figuring it out. I agree, logically, with what skythrasher says. But...I know empirically that something else is happening.

It is a matter of '..more than you think' because without the res, my rads were consistently low when I checked 'em.

If I can fill my res before every ride, after every ride it's empty and the rads are full..OR I can ignore ever putting anything in the res..and after every ride the res is empty and the rads are full..coolant is going somewhere, NOT into the rads.

As long as I'm not riding in Idaho (where both the res and the rads were empty 5-6 times a ride), I don't fuss with it.

Anybody ever try this ??
Kind of hard to believe it could make a engine run 50 degrees
cooler and if so wouldn't want my bike running 50 degrees cooler.

"Engine Ice Hi-Performance Coolant" is biodegradable, phosphate free & non-toxic; while reducing operating race temperatures by as much as 50°F and effectively keeping boil over temperatures to 256 °F or less and freeze-up protection to -27° F.