KDXRIDER.NET

After reading the repair manual: 1.1 liters of Permanent type of antifreeze (soft water and ethylene glycol plus corrosion and rust inhibitor chemicals for aluminum engines and radiators) it sounds like regular auto parts store stuff will be good enough. Any suggestions?

FWIW, I use the 50/50 premixed stuff from the auto parts store and have never had a bike overheat. If it's going to be really hot, like the desert distilled water w/ some water-wetter is the best....Just can't let it freeze.

Thanks fuzzy, that's what I'll be using when I put the scoot back together.

Yep.. same thing... cheap parts store 50/50... never had any problems. Maybe elevation may have something to do with temps.... but here at 600'... no problems.

Water with Redline Watter Wetter if the temps never go below 32.

How much watter wetter you running Brad? Never boils?

I use about 7 capfuls. This is according to the Redline directions. I have never had a boil. There is an old thread where we discussed this pretty extensively. Make that extremely exhaustively. Very interesting reading. The bottom line is, the best heat transfer agent is water. Any amount of glycol coolant lowers the systems ability to transfer heat. It's used for the anti-freeze properties in passenger cars. Water with Water Wetter for lubrication and surfacant will keep the engine cooler than anything. BUT, if you do get too hot do to bad circumstances, Engine Ice will stay in the system longer as it has a higher boiling point. The drawback with Engine Ice is that you can't put any water in the system to refill after a boil-over.

I'm really trying to not believe EVERYTHING I read, but...

A post on "the other site" said store-bought antifreeze would cause the water pump seals to degrade over time. Something about the silicates in Prestone-ish products being the culprit. I was thinking about dumping my coolant for the Kawa brand. Anyone have feedback on that?

I've been using regular automotive 50/50 mix and i've never had a problem with my seals.

Silicate/phosphate/borate are ingredients that are harmful to the internals. Toyota years ago spec'd out an anti-freeze that did not have any of these.

I run Maxima Cool Aide. It offers no freeze protection. Of course here in S. AZ the likelyhood of freezing is well...something like a snowballs chance in H*** . $7.00 for a 64 oz bottle and that will fill your system with enough left over for plenty of top offs. My 220 has not boiled over since swiching to the Maxima.
Just my experience...others may vary!

Later
Robb

Cool-Aide's only active ingredient is sodium nitrite, a corrosion inhibitor. Redline uses sodium molybdate, tolytriazole polysiloxane, and a couple of alcohols. Corrosion inhibitors fall into many general classes like phosphates, silicates and organic acids. Sodium molybdate is a common and very effective broad-spectrum corrosion inhibitor as is Tolytriazole. Sodium salts of molybdate, nitrate, nitrite, borate, benzoate, phosphate, silicate, etc. are used because they dissolve so well in water. Different chemicals will preferentially protect some metals better than others. Molybdate is particularly good for protecting copper and steel. Silicates are excellent for protecting aluminum but may be difficult to keep suspended in solution.

Bradf,

That's some cool info. What does it mean? You mention Cool-Aide's ingredient and then Redlines ingredients...but, I don't get your comparison. So one has several corrosion inhibitors (and some alcohol ) and the other only has one corrosion inhibitor....so...that means what? Did I miss something?

Later
Robb

I use the cheapest crap AutoZone carries... Peak Long Life 50/50 and it works great. Has a proprietary inhibitor ... 265 degree boiling point.

All right, I actaully read the other post by bradf and went and searched out the coolant thread. Coolant Thread Here There is some great info in that thread.

However, I still would like to hear an answer to the comparison between Cool-Aide's ingredient and Redlines ingredients and why these make one better than the other? I'm not trying to be a pain...makes no difference to me which product may be better than the other...I just would like to hear the opinion and reasons supporting the opinion.

Later
Robb

Many companies make a product to be used in water only cooling systems. "Water only" being the most efficient system. Due to the use of different metals within the cooling system there arose the need for corrosion inhibitors. Then Redline went a step further and added surfacants to help eliminate the hot spots. That is the difference.

Short and Sweet. Thanks.

Later
Robb