What options for coolant/antifreeze

[Paul W]

I’ve persisted for a number of years with glycol based coolant in my Scotts. I like the antifreeze and corrosion resistance (for the iron barrel and alloy water dome) but i’ve had real problems with the stuff leaking. Are there any other types of coolant/antifreeze that work without finding the tiniest excuse to leak out. I have read over the years about using ‘bars leaks’ products and domestic radiator additives – what do others use or am I the only one with a leaky cooling system. Note, most of my leaks are from the blind head ferrules so at least the radiators are sound.

Cheers,

Paul

[gammakeith]

I’ve used Barrs leak in other 2 strokes over the years and I think its impressive stuff. I had a nasty coolant leak on my RG500 between the crank case halves after the last full engine rebuild. It only showed up after the engine was really hot. It would have been a major effort to strrip the engine to re-make the seal. I tried a dose of Barrs leak and I have had no further problems over the last 10 years despite 2 coolant changes (with no Barrs leak). That includes loads of trackdays and an Easter egg run though town when it got REALLY hot.

Like yours, my Scott oozes coolant from various places. I’m currently running 33% antifreeze and I had leaks between the head/barrel and from the rad. Bars leaks dried up the head gasket leak but, alas, the radiator leak persists…..

Keith

[rotary294]

In my humble, any antifreeze solution will ‘search’, but as you say its good for corrosion inhibition. The worry using a ‘stop leak’ is of it clogging the rad cores. Anyone out there with experience of ‘water-wetter’. Supposed to be anti corrosion, but not great anti-freeze properties,or so I believe ?

[gammakeith]

I don’t know about other sealants but Suzuki actually recommended that Barrs leak be added to radiators in the 80’s. As you say, glycol is very ‘searching’ so leaks were always a problem on both my GT750 and RG500. The (stock) radiator on my RG500 is known to be marginal. My bike has a Stage 3 tune and puts out 100 bhp at the rear wheel. I’ve used all that power at quite a few trackdays so clearly not suffered from clogged radiator cores. Thats good enough for me 😛

Other RG500 owners have used ‘water wetter’ with good results but I’ve never felt the need.

Keith

[Bob Mather]

Hi Paul,
I had the same problem with glycol leaking from the water dome gasket. I just kept adding water to the glycol until a point is reached when it stops leaking.Keep a record of the glycol / water ratio for the future and your problems solved.

Regards,
Bob Mather.

[TedParkin]

😀 😀 Re the above! I too had coolant leaks with a blindhead and later head motors. Answer! Lift the head (s) smear a LIGHT film of silicone sealant over NEW gasket after cleaning the faces. LIGHTLY tighten. Leave overnight and finally tighten down !! 😀 😀 Viola! No leaks!!!!!!!!! 😀 😀 Regards to all (Its a Roger Moss trick of course! ) 😀 😀

[Paul W]

Thanks for the tips… i’ll try again with the glycol and maybe even test some different dilution ratios in the freezer to see if diluted anti-freeze still works down to -5C or so. If that still doesn’t help it’ll be bars leak to the rescue (i used that years ago and it worked – just had to make sure it was well mixed up in the the thermosiphon system to get it circulated) – i’ve really had enough of the leaking now !

Cheers,

Paul

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