Coolant Leak

[aniwack]

I'm chasing a coolant leak. I can smell it burning off [and the fumes are awful!!] and if you leave it for a couple of days you'll get a puddle on the ground. Before I go burn another 3 weeks waiting on a hose from some warehouse on an island with irregular shipping service, I'm trying to do this without consulting the white courtesy phone..... yet.
My thoughts are it's somewhere under the throttle body. Before I go ripping all of that out, what are the thoughts on one of those four hoses are leaking? Or could it be from the radiator hose? I've got a water pump o-ring ordered (a month ago) but now that it's not in the 30's I'm tired of staring at this bike.
But the fumes are BAD even with the tupperwear off the bike.
Ideas/Thoughts??

 

[dduelin]

The hoses connected to the thermostat housing and the housing O-ring itself are common leakers. Removing the radiator and the cross member immediately behind it accesses the most common leaks.

 

[Chris09]

I've got my disassembly down to that point, through the last few weeks I've been on the fence as to whether I want to take that one further step - lifting the TB assembly. First, add six weeks longer for parts in Canada, call it a hunch.
I've got evidence of leaks between the housing and the hose inlet and the [same] hose outlet and [left side] rad connection. With the rad and cross brace [in front of the housing] removed I've tried a [Ridgid Brand] Sea Snake, lights and mirrors to view in under there but it's hard to see much.
I think the other connections at the housing are clean and I'm leaning toward cleaning up those two connections and moving on, but on the other hand I would like to visually inspect and verify that everything in the vee well is well, clean it up a bit and somehow flush the vee drain; previously leaked coolant from other's vee drain pathways show some sticky looking stuff and I wouldn't want to risk blocking that passageway and swamping my alternator.
On the other hand, techniques involving leveraging 2x4s to pluck the assemblies out of the boots [and I've read better techniques, they just never work for me] on a machine with only 24,000 miles that previously ran perfectly has - why did you do that - written all over it.
I've dealt with dual carb boot wrastling on my XL600 a few times [if you're gonna do it, warm environment works better than cold, and my carport is cold] and this looks a little more of a delicate assembly to boot. I'm not indecisive, it's just that I can't make up my mind.

 

[Gug]

I just let it leak on my ST1300. It required a pint or so of antifreeze a couple times a year and I utilized it as a antifreeze change. It never worsened over 40K. I traded the ST for a new Goldwing in 18'. My mechanic saw that and asked me about it on the trade in, I explained my logic above and he thought it was not a bad idea.

 

[Chris09]

Works for me!
I often wonder about these things; I bought a 92 accord in 93, we hammered it for twenty five years; [and I ____ you not] never lifted the head, any coolant change was incidental to a couple of mishaps; some worse than others, lots of drive axles, a few clutches, all kinds of other things, but the F22 honda engine with 385k [ that would be about 385 1/2 in New Foundland ] and i love new found land, gonna go there this year, any way.. where was I going... oh, wait.. is that the... yes it is...

 

[Chris09]

Opps, wrong pic, some horrible Canadian Pontiac, [not really a Pontiac, but hey it does look good] and there's always a but..

 

[Chris09]

Well, okay I guess it is a Pontiac, but let's be honest; it's on a Chevrolet Chassis, plus...

 

[Chris09]

alright alright, it's not bad, I'll give it a 7, but...

 

[Rob20111]

I went through this last fall on my 04 with only 8k miles or about 13k km on it.
I ended up replacing the thermostat (stuck open) and O ring, and tightened every hose clamp I could get to from both the top and front.
Mine was leaking at the square hole, which drains the V area, but the T-stat housing also showed signs of a leak.
All back together and so far no more leaks. Let's see what the riding season brings.
A properly operating thermostat and fresh coolant should help cooling system performance, and while I had the plastic off I also wrapped the header pipes.

 

[Igofar]

Call me tomorrow John....don't be afraid

 

[aniwack]

After using a UV light from Harbor Freight for 7.99, the leak was narrowed down to the thermostat housing.

 

[Igofar]

There you go giving up my secrets

 

[cjames431]

There you go giving up my secrets

Wait, you didn't tell me about this!! I thought we were friends