• 4 Stroke Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Italy - About 1989 to 2014
     TE = 4st Enduro & TC = 4st Cross

  • 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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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!

Overflow tank exploded

D

DirtyOldMan

Husqvarna
AA Class
On a tight trail ride Sunday, paused for just a moment to let another rider clear a creek crossing, suddenly BOOM!!! and I'm instantly enveloped in steam. Literally can't see anything. The rider in front heard it and came back we cant see anything. It's not leaking anywhere we can see but obviously smells of coolant. Limp back to the truck, let it cool and am able to add maybe 1/2 qt. of water (only thing I have). Starts and runs fine, we can find no leaks.
After a good wash I tear into it and find this.
642670448_qcTVi-M.jpg


Some details.
80 degree day
tight singletrack (although we were moving ok)
my homegrown cheeseball rad fan had quit
recently returned from a CO trip (altitude change 12000' back to 1000')
engine ice coolant

any thoughts?
 
Was it dry? I know if you don't keep at least half of that bottle full, it has a good chance of that happening.

Dan.
 
I gotta admit, I don't know. I never had a recovery bottle on a bike before.
I'll have to include that in regular checks from now on.
Ashamedly, I've always been a little lax on coolant system maintenance. This should change my habits hopefully.
Thanks for the info.
 
Wouldn't the vent in the top of the cap have to be plugged, causing a pressure buildup, for it to burst?
 
Reports are that an empty overflow tank will explode. Word is to check for coolant to avoid.

Prior planning prevents piss poor performance.
 
glangston;48714 said:
Reports are that an empty overflow tank will explode.
Click to expand...
I find this hard to believe. I have had my bike overflow into the can and not had it explode (with the can empty). I think it is more like what BentAero stated...plugged vent cap on overflow tank.

Seriously, would the specifications of the material used in the plastic not have to be in-line with the temperature of the fluid it is holding?

Exploding overflow tanks sure could be grounds for a lawsuit should someone get a serious burn.... just say'n
 
My '04's rads vent to the outside world but any expansion bottle should have a breather vent so that air can escape when incoming overflow coolant floods in. Was there a blocked breather pipe? Additionally, if that white plastic is high density polyethylene then it will soften at just above 100C - but a coolant overflow shouldn't be subject to pressure (like I said).

Perhaps your rad cap is allowing too much coolant flow into your expansion tank? (and a blocked breather is allowing pressure to build up.) Dunno.
 
Dirty Bikes;48715 said:
I find this hard to believe. I have had my bike overflow into the can and not had it explode (with the can empty). I think it is more like what BentAero stated...plugged vent cap on overflow tank.

Seriously, would the specifications of the material used in the plastic not have to be in-line with the temperature of the fluid it is holding?

Exploding overflow tanks sure could be grounds for a lawsuit should someone get a serious burn.... just say'n
Click to expand...

I should have stated it will melt and deform and possibly develop a hole.

I think it does have a little hole in the cap that vents some.
 
Dirty Bikes;48723 said:
The venting of the overflow bottle is through the cap (which is point straight at your leg btw :) )
Click to expand...
Hmmm - interesting. That's what I assumed too, but in view of this thread I thought I'd just check mine to make sure it wasn't blocked, and to my surprise it appears to have a very simple valve which allows air into the bottle, but not out at any speed. It might let air leak out very slowly if there wasn't much pressure and the valve didn't close, but any significant outward flow does close the valve. :confused:

Is there some sort of additional mechanism I can't see which allows pressure to be released if it rises enough, even with the valve closed? (Other than blowing the cap off completely or destroying the bottle I mean.) :thinking:
 
Inside the cap on my '07 TE there's a white plastic "floating" plunger that allows air to freely enter the tank thru the cap. This same plunger restricts the flow rate of air exiting the tank....allows a steady small flow of air. If a violent surge of air attempts to exit the cap, it blocks it off. Test it...I think you'll find you can blow into the end of your cap slowely but trying to force alot of air thru it...it blocks off.

Almost like we need a surgetank for the surgetank, or actually just a vent tube off the top of the tank back up to a high spot.

I was thinking of finding a place up high and closer to the radiators to put my own metal surgetank, large enough to accomodate a substancial volumn from the radiators.

Dave
 
bower100;48732 said:
Inside the cap on my '07 TE there's a white plastic "floating" plunger that allows air to freely enter the tank thru the cap. This same plunger restricts the flow rate of air exiting the tank....allows a steady small flow of air. If a violent surge of air attempts to exit the cap, it blocks it off. Test it...I think you'll find you can blow into the end of your cap slowely but trying to force alot of air thru it...it blocks off.
Click to expand...
Exactly what I found on mine.

So if there was a sudden release of pressure into the tank it would have no way out, but that just seems plain crazy - surely the tank might burst if that happened? :eek:

Oh, wait a minute... :doh:
 
bower100;48732 said:
Inside the cap on my '07 TE there's a white plastic "floating" plunger that allows air to freely enter the tank thru the cap. This same plunger restricts the flow rate of air exiting the tank....allows a steady small flow of air. If a violent surge of air attempts to exit the cap, it blocks it off. Test it...I think you'll find you can blow into the end of your cap slowely but trying to force alot of air thru it...it blocks off.



Dave
Click to expand...

Yes, this is true on mine also. To clarify, the bike is an 06 TE510.
I've owned it since this spring, had 30 hrs. on it when I got it.

First, thanks to all for commenting. I figured this was something I was doing wrong (most of my snafu's are due to pilot error).


Looking at the tank and how it's melted, the empty tank theory seems plausible. The melted/exploded area is right where a blast of coolant would hit the inside of the tank if it were empty.
If there were a bit of coolant present in the tank, it would absorb and disperse the heat over a larger area of the tank.

Granted, the plastic of the tank should be able to take the heat but if it can't I see how this could happen.

I'm not kidding, it scared the crap outa me. Wish I coulda seen it.
It was shotgun blast loud and I was instantly in my own little personal steam cloud. I just sat there totally dumbfounded trying to get my mind wrapped around what had just happened.
Kinda funny in retrospect.

On a side note, anyone know where I might buy a used tank?

Thanks again for your help.
 
This has been happening for years. It is because the tank was empty, yes it is as simple as that. When the bike overheats the lets off the steam. If this happens into a half tank of water it expands slowly and controlled. If it blasts into a chamber with no quick exit it explodes. I believe there is a fill line on the bottle you need to keep at a minimum.
 
Then explain why mine has not exploded when I had overheating the last two weekends? It over heated so much that it was shooting fluid out of the overflow. The overflow was empty before each overheating situation.
 
Dunno, you got lucky. :excuseme: This subject was gone over a lot when these first came out. maybe your bike was not as hot, maybe your rad cap releases slower, maybe your cap vents quicker. Regardless, the empty tank is the issue and should not be run empty.
 
Motosportz;48765 said:
Dunno, you got lucky. :excuseme: This subject was gone over a lot when these first came out. maybe your bike was not as hot, maybe your rad cap releases slower, maybe your cap vents quicker. Regardless, the empty tank is the issue and should not be run empty.
Click to expand...
Ok I don't mean to be a prick but who has proven that it is the lack of fluid in the overflow?

I have been reading other bike forums and there are threads on the same issue with other types of bikes and I have not read anywhere else that the reason is the lack of fluid.

For example here is a thread on a Ducati forum...

http://www.ducati.ms/forums/showthread.php?t=24171

They seem to think it is the low quality of the bottle rather then the lack of fluid in the bottle.
 
Dirty Bikes;48817 said:
Ok I don't mean to be a prick but who has proven that it is the lack of fluid in the overflow?

I have been reading other bike forums and there are threads on the same issue with other types of bikes and I have not read anywhere else that the reason is the lack of fluid.

For example here is a thread on a Ducati forum...

http://www.ducati.ms/forums/showthread.php?t=24171

They seem to think it is the low quality of the bottle rather then the lack of fluid in the bottle.
Click to expand...

Can't prove it, but it seems logical to me.
Bottle is probably low quality as well $21.99 at Halls.
I'm gonna deal with what I can fix, ie. keep coolant in the bottle.
Don't have a source for a "quality bottle". Do you?
 
Looking at the overflow bottles on both my Kawasakis, it makes me think that the bottle on the Husqvarna is just not designed right. On the Kawi's there is the hose that goes in (from the radiator cap area) at the bottom of the tank, a ventless cap and then a vent hose coming off the top of the tank. That seems like a logical design right there.:excuseme:
 
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