1996 KDX 200 Blown Head gasket milky coolant?

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skycruiser100
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1996 KDX 200 Blown Head gasket milky coolant?

Post by skycruiser100 »

I got the KDX off craigslist about a month ago. I check everything on it, rode it and everything seem to be legit. So I took it out the next week and it ran great the whole time and had a smile from ear to ear on how light and peppy it is. I love my xr650l, but not for single track. I checked the antifreeze a week after and notice it was milky with spots of oil. It runs great and still does and no white smoke or smell of burning antifreeze and nothing in the gear box. Here's a video of it running with the radiator cap off and towards the end of the video you really start to see it spitting out coolant. The bike was cold in the video and hasn't ran for more then a minute when I took the cap off and notice it spitting out coolant.




The guy that sold me this bike told me the top end up was redone but even he didn't know for sure. The bottom end of the head gasket looks new or say aftermarket? But on the top, there's black sealant on the top of the head which possibility could be that RTV silicone crap. I'm about to order a head gasket for it and hope that's the issue and its not a warped head or a crack somewhere because I know people in the past that put that RTV on there because the head was warped or they were just to cheap, lazy or couldn't wait for the gasket. OR could it be leftover oil/gas from the previous rebuild that wasn't flush out of the radiator?

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JFortner5
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Re: 1996 KDX 200 Blown Head gasket milky coolant?

Post by JFortner5 »

It sounds like you're on the right track hopefully it just needs a gasket.


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david
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Re: 1996 KDX 200 Blown Head gasket milky coolant?

Post by david »

The cooling system only surrounds the cylinder and head, the only way for water to get into the trans is through the water pump seal. Since you say your transmission oil looks good, that's obviously not your problem. If you do have exhaust gas getting into the cooling system, you should be seeing smoke coming out of the radiator, and I didn't see any of that. I'm not sure the water splashing out is from a compression leak or just from engine vibration. I would clean out all the old coolant and refill with new stuff and see what happens.
'81 KDX 175
'90 KDX 200
'07 Vulcan 2000 Classic LT (totaled 4/25/15)
'82 Honda GL500 (sold)
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ohgood
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1996 KDX 200 Blown Head gasket milky coolant?

Post by ohgood »

skycruiser100 wrote:I got the KDX off craigslist about a month ago. I check everything on it, rode it and everything seem to be legit. So I took it out the next week and it ran great the whole time and had a smile from ear to ear on how light and peppy it is. I love my xr650l, but not for single track. I checked the antifreeze a week after and notice it was milky with spots of oil. It runs great and still does and no white smoke or smell of burning antifreeze and nothing in the gear box. Here's a video of it running with the radiator cap off and towards the end of the video you really start to see it spitting out coolant. The bike was cold in the video and hasn't ran for more then a minute when I took the cap off and notice it spitting out coolant.




The guy that sold me this bike told me the top end up was redone but even he didn't know for sure. The bottom end of the head gasket looks new or say aftermarket? But on the top, there's black sealant on the top of the head which possibility could be that RTV silicone crap. I'm about to order a head gasket for it and hope that's the issue and its not a warped head or a crack somewhere because I know people in the past that put that RTV on there because the head was warped or they were just to cheap, lazy or couldn't wait for the gasket. OR could it be leftover oil/gas from the previous rebuild that wasn't flush out of the radiator?

Image
The vibrations from the engine running will make water (or gas - YIKES!) jump right out of their containers. That video is normal.

The coolant color looks like someone dumped whatever they had in to 'make it back to camp' and left it. Flush the cooling system and replace with normal coolant and I think you'll see that it's ok.
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doakley
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Re: 1996 KDX 200 Blown Head gasket milky coolant?

Post by doakley »

For the price of a head gasket, I'd pull the head just to be sure.
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