[Armitage Shanks]

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OK.. this is where you have a good laugh at me.

Ive had the Wing (87 1200 Asp) almost a month. Done a couple of thousand miles, the longest stint being about 300 with a couple of stops. No problems at all. Now today, I nipped out to the brother in laws...20 miles, and when I stopped the engine hot water came pi ...came flooding out of the pipe under the block. I had been stuck in traffic for ten minutes...and today is really warm...UK standards. When I turned the ignition back on the fan kicked in for a minute or so and the water stopped running. The temp gauge never went over three bars till I stopped...then it hit five. Coolant level is fine and so is oil level. Should I be panicking ? By the way...came bcak home the same route (but without the traffic jams)and no problems.

 

[Guest]

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Hey Armitage Shanks :waving:I cant understand why one of the "Gurus" :clapper:has not replied before now. :stumped:I dont think you have a big problem but it would be nice if one of the experts explained what happened. :whip:Someone will soon come your way. :clapper:

:walker::18red::walker:

 

[JOHNO]

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Hi Armitage Shanks

I'll try again, the forum dosn't want me to answer your question!

by 'pipe under the block', do you mean the expansion tank overflow (just follow the hose to be sure)

my first thoughts were your thermostat is on the way out as I to was out in heavy traffic today (32 C in my garden!) and my temp stayed normal and climbed to just bellow fan cutin when stopped.

But now I'm thinking that one of your head gaskets is failing.

when the engine is hot or under heat stress combustion gasses are getting into the coolant.

disconnect your expansion tank from the rad, clamp the hose so you don't lose your coolant, remove the rad cap. start the engine and let it warm up so the thermostat opens.

You should see a flow of coolant across the opening. Rev the engine, if you see bubbles bad news i'm afraid, your looking at a head gasket,

I've just been through the same thing on my three wheeler ended up using a liter of water every 10 miles (I was 250 miles from home!!!!) a head gasket change solved it

trouble is you've got to guess which one :gunhead: (change them both)

you could always get a CO gas test of the coolant done at a garage to confirm this.

good luck

 

[Armitage Shanks]

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Thanks Red...thanks Johno...I shall do as you suggest Johno...will be difficult with my fingers crossed...but shall give it a go. Thanks again.

 

[exavid]

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JOHNO wrote:

Hi Armitage Shanks

I've just been through the same thing on my three wheeler ended up using a liter of water every 10 miles (I was 250 miles from home!!!!) a head gasket change solved it

trouble is you've got to guess which one :gunhead: (change them both)

you could always get a CO gas test of the coolant done at a garage to confirm this.

Quite often you can find the problem cylinder with a coolant leak by looking at the spark plug. The plug that's getting steam cleaned can actually look a lot cleaner than the others. One other possibility is that you say the coolant level is fine. If it was fine after blowing coolant it's possible the expansion bottle was too full to start with and when the coolant started expanding it vented out of the bottle.

 

[Gearhead76]

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I would think, thermostate or fan, fan switch starting to go out, I would let it idle and see if the thermostate opens, if it does, make sure your fan goes on, while it's runny try wiggling the wires to the fan, maybe it wasn't getting good contact, I've had a lot of bikes and cars where certain components work then they don't, it usually ends up being a bad connection, or a wire thats shorting to ground when the wire bounces against it,

If that all seems ok, I'ld drive it and keep an eye on the coolant, make sure it's full,

If you had a head gasket, at least on cars, it usually blows coolant out the rad neck if you run it with the cap off and the coolant comes bubbling out then I would say head gasket, but then you should have had the problem on the way home,

I've never experienced a bad head gasket on a bike, but plenty on cars, so not sure if it's the same.

Well good luck with it.

 

[Armitage Shanks]

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exavid wrote:

JOHNO wrote: One other possibility is that you say the coolant level is fine. If it was fine after blowing coolant it's possible the expansion bottle was too full to start with and when the coolant started expanding it vented out of the bottle.

Ah AH ..Johno...I just double checked...the coolant level is about half an inch above the max line. When I looked yesterday it was just a case of lift the tray out and breath a sigh of relief that it wasnt empty. Im hoping its as simple as that.

Thank you all very much indeed for your input, good to know you chaps are around in a crisis , and thanks for not laughing at me being a complete dipstick.

 

[Armitage Shanks]

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I should have said thanks Exavid...sorry mate...im getting all flustered. Ive gone from "this might cost me an arm and a leg" to "thank **** for that"

 

[Guest]

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Armitage Shanks wrote:

Thank you all very much indeed for your input, good to know you chaps are around in a crisis , and thanks for not laughing at me being a complete dipstick.

Hey Armitage Shanks :waving:Good to see you got your problem sorted. :clapper:No one laughs at anyone on this forum :jumperwell they laugh at me :grinner and there are certainly no dipsticks. :stumped: We are all here to help one another. :weightlifter:

:walker::18red::walker: