So i suspect that my Strada has a blown head gasket. Coolant spurting out the overflow bottle cap. when the temp gets over about 92 degrees celsius. I've got two temp guages, the standard one and one in the radiator return hose. the second temp gauge goes down when the fan cuts in but the standard one goes up and up and starts flashing!! I've done the pod mod and have an eruption. I've also knocked the cats out. Does this sound familiar? Where's the best place to buy a headgasket kit for these things.?
Does your coolant smell like exhaust gases? Does your engine oil look or smell any good? Is your whole radiator getting hot (both sides)? If not you could be missing a divider and It could be short cycling. Still could be a thermostat as mentioned. Mine blew coolant out before the gauge even moved. Also only spewed out after hard on and off throttle, mostly in 3rd gear for nearly 10km. BMW G 650 gs, X challenge and so on is our best bet for head gaskets.
Thanks Quirky. I pulled the radiator out and poured boiling water on the thermostat.. it moved a lot.. poured cold water on it and it moved back... seems it's working ok. Not sure if the radiator is cold on one side and hot on the other. didn't start it before i pulled it apart this morning. The coolant doesn't smell like exhaust.. but it smells toxic. could be the mixing of the old and new coolants, i replaced the coolant a month ago. So really it's got to be a head gasket hey? One weird thing is this morning i popped the radiator cap off and heaps of fluid came out. what the?.. the overflow bottle was still at a normal level.
Hey LB, can you see what the position of the thermostat is when it is cold - is it open? I have a theory that when cold it only circulates coolant between the top & bottom hose. As it warms up it gradually closes allowing coolant to flow across the radiator? Not having pulled mine off to verify this, are you able to check it out for me? Thanks
yes that seems to be the case. I put a temp sensor in the hose that comes from the radiator and it reacts within about 20 seconds of starting the engine. starts climbing very quickly. And if the thermostat is working as I suspect it is, water is circulating 100% of the time. just not through the radiator cooling fins.
Under normal conditions, the radiator cap increases the boiling point by pressurizing the coolant. Here's a thought: If you have lost coolant yet the radiator is full and overflow bottle is at normal level, then maybe you have an air pocket trapped in the engine. When the engine heats, the coolant expands and compresses the air pocket and coolant starts boiling because it reaches boiling point before the right pressure is obtained. Once it starts to boil there is mayhem because water expands 1700 times when converted to steam. There are many discussions here on "burping" the radiator to remove trapped air. Also, if the gasket was blown, would it not pump air into the water jacket on every firing stroke regardless of temperature? So pressure would build up in mere minutes. I would be triple checking cooling system before assuming head gasket.
Ok. so yeah. I completely jumped to the conclusion of a head gasket. I then started reading that huge thread about overheating. It was definitely an air pocket in the engine/radiator. I blame the radiator cap. I've put another one on and i've heat cycled it at least 5 times and it's back to normal. I'm checking the radiator level before each ride now, just in case, until i'm happy that its all good.
hey quirky, glad to hear your ordeal almost over. curios to learn what they concluded and how they resolved the issue, i.e did you get compensated?
The Pod Mod and me opting to leave the top of the airbox open has contributed to this drama. Repairs, new parts and labour were all covered for me. Possible causes all could be combined together to create a perfect storm- TPS- not setup correctly by the dealer. Staintune exhaust system increased airflow. Airbox setup changed with pod mod (I opted for leaving the box above the pod open, increasing airflow) Got the power commander V fitted up today and left the standard exhaust system fitted. I only checked that the bike would start this morning, never rode it anywhere because I wanted to limit it running lean as much as possible. With the PC-V stock Terra map installed pinging was obvious 4000-5000rpm, the bike idled too quickly, had no engine braking whatsoever, felt over fueled and bogged down from low revs while accelerating. So I have tinkered with the map at least 3 times and have improved it considerably. I got rid of the pinging by adding numbers to the problem areas and took numbers lower where I was having high idle and lack of engine brake feeling. I also set all negative numbers back to zero. This is only short term while running this new engine in just a little before we do it properly on a dyno. So here is my adjusted guess map that is on the improve from stock map supplied.
Did you go back to the stock airbox? Did you run it stock without the PC5? That is the first thing to do, and if pinging take it right back. Or run octane boost. Glad to hear you are back up and running.
I left the modified Pod mod open air box in. No I didn't ride it anywhere and yes it would have pinged if I did, as it did rattle with the PC-V standard map. Pretty sure we're heading in the right direction at this stage. I am also using 98 fuel from a busy service station.
Glad your back up and running again. Why revert back to the standard exhaust now that you can adjust fueling. Are you going to re fit it after or sell it. First dibs
Refitting the staintune system just before hitting the Dyno. Running stock pipes right now to minimise the chances of a lean running engine. Cheers, Q
Sounds like the problem is not fixed by the dealer. You shouldn't have to spend $600 or so to make the bike not ping. I'm not really hearing the airbox mod as the problem to pinging or lean, or we would have alot more problems with the others who have done the mod, and my bike does not ping. I drilled more holes in the front of my airbox for flow, so I should really be in trouble, but am not. I have a custom single exhaust that flows fairly well also. It may be that your ecu has a hiccup. The ignition advance does not seem to be working proper for whatever reason. I would revert to as close as stock and make them fix it. Fashion up a patch to seal the airbox back up and see if you still get the ping. Remove all spoofers and let them fix it. Got pictures of your pod mod?
I think we will never fully be able to "fix" our lean problems completely unless, some brainiac can break the freaking hex codes. If that happens a whole new realm of possibilities open. In the mean time this thought occurred to me, and, it would fall on someone with access to emissions testing equipment. We don't have an emissions requirement here in Arkansas. Access is limited to auto dealerships. Anyway I thought about getting someone to do an exhaust gas analysis to see what is happening at the exhaust tip. The tests would show the percentage of CO present in the exhaust stream. The higher the presence of CO the richer your bike is running, the lower the leaner. At 14.7:1 CO is at approximately .1% and will drop off to near 0% as the mixture gets leaner. So, a low CO reading would be a leaner condition HC readings can also help us. Since a Stoichiometric of 14.7:1 AFR is what our bikes are designed for, HC readings can also help us determine if we are running rich or lean by showing the HC levels of 14.7:1 going toward 18.1:1 (lean) or 14.7:1 going toward 08.1:1 (rich). CM readings at 14.7:1 is about .1% of Carbon Monoxide. It also drops to near 0% when the mix is leaner. Another key indicator is o2 present in the exhaust stream. At 14.7:1 the oxygen present is near 0% across the board from 08.1:1 towards 14.7:1. It goes up when the bike is lean or increases from 14.7:1 toward 18.1:1 See where I am going here? If its lean out of the crate (and it is), these tests might help guide us as to how much to richen the mixture with less guess work. Anyone gotta friendly neighborhood mechanic with a gas/exhaust monitor? This would be best done by someone with a stock bike (or near stock).
As far as the ECU getting cracked, I think we are about a year away. Word is the BMW 650 that uses the MM ecu now has the GS911 option, so the TR should be close behind. The BMW 650 being a popular bike, will most likely get the files cracked and then it is just a matter of time to adapt to the TR.
