Manual doesn't really explain specifically and since I don't live in Europe, what type of coolant should I use for the bikes? There's a bunch of Mopar Antigel(redish pink) in the garage for the trucks and it's really quite tempting. The jugs contain ethylene glycol 107-21-1 and sodium benzoate 532-32-1.
Most people I know swapped over to Evans waterless . I more expensive than most , but it is once and done .
If I do grab some Evans, do I have to change from 1.1 cap to the 1.8 cap too, or can I just pour that stuff in without a worry? I just want to know if the Mopar stuff is compatible, less travel for me. haha
its likely the mopar stuff isnt compatible with anything but itself...but if you want to run it and have a bunch of it, i dont see why it wouldnt work. you would just need to completely swap to it and stick with it.
For a 5yr life expectancy, it's more than perfect and you can't complain for that offer! 1 gallon is 26$ vs the Evans is $84 for 2 gallon because it's more environmentally friendly or buying the name, possibly why the price is high.
the evans is also good coolant..i run the xf2 which is similar. doesnt build pressure, etc. just make sure if the coolant needs mixed, you use distilled water to mixed to minimize corrosion issues
I use generic propylene glycol (pg or "DexCool") ready to use. It goes on sale several times a year for $6.25/gallon at Napa.
Ethylene glycol is perfectly fine. It's the "old school green" stuff we all grew up with. If it's EG it doesn't matter what color dye it has in it. But it will need to be changed out at 2 year intervals, rather than five year like PG "extended life" coolants. Dunno about the waterless stuff, I don't and won't use it.
I have used the "HP coolant" from my local Honda power sports store. its 50/50 ready to use and safe for bikes and atv's. if I remember its less then 9.00 bucks a quart. one bottle was more then enough for my 11 te310.
All types of coolant will work, some seem to have better qualities than others. Many guys have had good results with Evans and other 'waterless' types of coolant, but there have also been quite a few issues too. I decided to go a different route and explore the cause of some 'overheating' issues, particularly as I am running a Nuda 900R and a TR650 Strada in Cebu Philippines where ambient temperatures are a lot higher than others and the bikes have a 'history' of running hot. Both my Husqvarna bikes and several others run a BMW style semi-pressurised system whereby the radiator and cooling circuit are pressurised but the reservoir tank is not. In my experience, one of the biggest 'culprits' of cooling issues in this type of system is the radiator cap and in particular its design whereby, under pressure, it allows 'hot' coolant to pass up into the reservoir and then as the bike cools and pressure drops it should allow the coolant to return to the radiator, via a non-return valve. I have found that it is the failure of this NR Valve that causes most issues, the valve basically sticks and the coolant remains up in the reservoir instead of returning to the main system. Instead, as it cools, the main system draws in air via the radiator cap and then next run the bike is a little hotter so more coolant passes up to the reservoir, but fails to return. Eventually there is an occurrence of overheating, which often leads the owner to believe it is a head gasket issue, but in reality it is the radiator cap at fault. Another culprit is the design of the thermostat, which in the case of my two bikes, works as a bypass to the radiator. Other manufacturer systems employ a thermostat to 'keep' the coolant in a short circuit around the engine and then as it heats up, the thermostat opens to allow the coolant to flow around the radiator. The BMW Husqvarna system is different in the aspect that the coolant flows to the radiator permanently, but the thermostat is open to a bypass between inlet and outlet pipes. As it heats up this thermostat is designed to close off the bypass and cause the coolant to flow instead across the radiator. Removal of the thermostat in any vehicle is a common method of getting an engine to run cooler, however on the BMW Husqvarna system it is not quite that simple. Removing the thermostat leaves the bypass between inlet and outlet pipes fully open and renders the radiator ineffective. The thermostat once removed has to be replaced by a baffle or 'thermostat delete' device to ensure the coolant is forced across the radiator to make it work at maximum efficiency. I have tested the efficiency of the thermostat set up in my bikes by running two Nuda 900Rs, one with a standard unit and another with a thermostat delete. Both bikes had exactly the same coolant in their systems and ran together on the same stretch of road at the same speeds and at the same time. In theory the bikes should run exactly the same temperatures once the one with the thermostat had activated, but we found it did not work like that. The bike with the thermostat delete was indicating a lot cooler (sometimes up to 15c) at every test point. This proved to us that the standard thermostat set up does not allow for maximum radiator efficiency and can cause the bike to run hotter than necessary. So before you go for a coolant to make your bike run cooler, make sure you have addressed the real issues which may well be mechanical. Both my Husqvarna bikes and many others I have 'fixed' are running a thermostat delete or baffle device in place of the original thermostat and at the same time have had the radiator cap checked for operation of the NR valve. With these two things done, we are able to operate here in Philippines in very high temperatures (up to 50c) in traffic, but using normal (cheap) Glycol based coolants. So far everything has proved to be 'as good as it gets' and we have no issues with cooling, and best of all it has cost us almost nothing to achieve.
