• Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

Antifreeze!

Kenneth Webb

Kenneth Webb

Livin' It Up!
Next to oil, this may be the most dangerous topic ever. But, here goes...

I need to top off my 650 Terra coolant, and am trying to determine what to use. The factory evidently supplied Castrol Motorcycle Coolant, and no matter how hard I search the web, I can't find out if it is silicate free or not. Here is what I found when I topped off my TE630 system.

I added a bit of Honda Type II coolant, silicate free, made for aluminum engines, to the 630 radiators. After running it a while I removed the cap and found it caked with a white paste! Not good! I'm guessing that what I was seeing was silicate, and if it was on the cap, it was all thru the engine too. I flushed the system thoroughly and added Yamaha Motorcycle Coolant, which I "think" is silicate free. Can't find out for sure on that either! Why are these brands so tight on their info? The 630 has a drain plug low on the cylinder that made flushing really easy. I found the drain plug for the 650 at the bottom bolt on the water pump. It has a copper crush washer, so draining will be easy.

Now I'm in the same situation again. I'm thinking of just flushing the 650 system and adding the Honda Type II as I know that it is silicate free. I would like to know about the Yamaha stuff though as if it has silicates, I'll flush the 630 again to get rid of it.

Follow up edit: I just checked the 630 radiator cap and there is no evidence of the white paste now after using Yamaha coolant. I have to assume that the factory supplied coolant has silicates, but my dealer doesn't know what is in there. It came from Husky and is an unknown.

Any antifreeze gurus out there that know about the Castrol and Yamaha coolants?
 
The stuff in your radiator was probably dexcool type which doesn't mix with the Honda stuff. When I bought my new WR300 last winter, the coolant seemed a bit low so I topped it off with some Honda stuff. The next time I checked my coolant, it looked almost rusty, and came out all sludgy. I flushed the whole system really good and refilled it with Honda coolant. Haven't had a problem since.:thumbsup:
 
That may be the case. Regardless, today I will flush the system and refill with Honda Type II. The BMW 650's really don't like anything with silicates from what I read, and I don't want to take any chances.
 
Prestone anti-freeze is ok to use too, and it's cheap. I used it in my Yamaha, and have had zero problems. It's an ethylene glycol base. It's silicate, phosphate, borate, and nitrite free, so it's safe for all motorcycles and cars too.
 
I flushed and changed the coolant today, using the Honda stuff in my garage. One little thing that I wonder if anyone else has found. I don't see the level in the overflow tank window. I know by using a dip stick that it is over the minimum, but I'll be darned if I can see anything in the window. The fluid is dark blue, so one should be able to see the level. Odd. At lease now I know what's in all of my bikes.
 
Kenneth Webb said:
I flushed and changed the coolant today, using the Honda stuff in my garage. One little thing that I wonder if anyone else has found. I don't see the level in the overflow tank window. I know by using a dip stick that it is over the minimum, but I'll be darned if I can see anything in the window. The fluid is dark blue, so one should be able to see the level. Odd. At lease now I know what's in all of my bikes.
Click to expand...
I can't see the fluid level in the tank window of my TR650, even when full morning sunlight is shining on it. My coolant is a light blue color. I can tell there's plenty of fluid in the reservoir by looking up under the cowling. I also checked the level by probing through the filler cap opening with a bendy drinking straw. The level is where it ought to be, but I can't tell squat by looking at the check window.
 
Would it be necessary to tape up the radiator in cold winter weather on the 630? Or would the thermostat be sifficient?
 
To test compatibility concerns, the thought occurred to me that you could drain a small amount from the engine or reservoir tank, then combine it with your proposed alternative fluid in a dish. If the two fluids mix fine, then you should be ok. Or do you also need the aluminum to replicate the radiator/engine? If so, maybe a piece of aluminum flat stock added to the dish could substitute.

I'm just tossing the idea out there if someone wants to do a science project. That way, you now what is going on inside your bike.
 
AvidR said:
I can't see the fluid level in the tank window of my TR650, even when full morning sunlight is shining on it. My coolant is a light blue color.
Click to expand...

For me it works best in poor light, with a flashlight under the cowling into the tank. It back lights the fluid and the window works. ymmv.
 
Coffee said:
What types of symptoms/problems have been reported?
Click to expand...
I came across this when doing research on the BMW 650 engine with regards to antifreeze. Saw it several times, but can't say exactly where; there were early water pump failures and I think BMW put out a technical bulletin. Silicates are abrasive and from all I read, motorcycle water pumps do not like them. What really bothered me was that white paste on the 630 radiator cap. I can't think of anything else it could be, but whether mixing a few ounces of Honda fluid with the factory supplied stuff caused the problem I just can't say. If the antifreeze bottle doesn't say "silicate and Boron free", I'm not having it in my motorcycle engines. Well, not exactly, because the Yamaha coolant doesn't say that, but then I've had no problems with that cooling system. In the end, I'm just being anal and better safe than sorry! Flushing and refilling is easy!
 
the color of the liquid of your bike is transparent? to me it seemed almost distilled water. I also wanted to fill because it is below the level in the expansion tank but I do not know what to add.

il colore del liquido delle vostre moto è trasparente? a me sembrava quasi acqua distillata. volevo rabboccare anche io perchè è sotto il livello nel vaso di espansione ma non so cosa aggiungere.
 
http://www.castrolmoto.com/en/products/moto_coolant.php?recall
From the castrol page linked above...

Motorcycle Coolant​
Pre-diluted (ethylene glycol based, fully formulated) coolant, developed to meet the requirements of all water-cooled motorcycles and scooters.​
Fully formulated for corrosion protection down to -25°C​
​
​
---------------​
​
Ethylene Glycol based means mix it with any silicate and phosphate free Ethylene Glycol coolant (color doesn't matter) and don't worry too much. Prestone and other kinds available at Auto Parts places will work just as well as the Castrol branded stuff. You can also go with a water wetter or engine ice coolant.​
 
I checked after the service and the mechanic I added the liquid in the pan blue. obviously do not know what the liquid is, the mechanics in my part do not provide explanations and ask questions if the steps to pain in the ass. : (However I have noticed that I have a leak from under the drip espensione of the liquid. This loss of fluid is at the screw tightened onto the pan. This screw holds the piece of LASTICA where the container cap. Would not want to be been screwed too strong and it is veined plastic. well I'll have to check and then ask for a warranty claim. happened to you? sasera if I can put a picture to help you understand the lives that speak!

Ho controllato dopo il tagliando e il meccanico mi ha aggiunto del liquido nella vaschetta di colore blu. ovviamente non so che liquido sia, i meccanici dalle mie parti non forniscono spiegazioni e se gli fai domande passi per rompipalle. :( Comunque ho notato che ho una perdita da sotto la vaschetta di espensione del liquido. Questa perdita di liquido è in corrispondenza della vite avvitata sulla vaschetta. Questa vite tiene il pezzo di lastica dove si trova il tappo della vaschetta. Non vorrei che sia stata avvitata troppo forte e si sia venata la plastica. Dovrò verificare bene e poi chiedere l'intervento in garanzia. A voi è capitato ? se riesco sasera metto una foto per farvi capire meglio di che vite parlo!
 
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