KTM SuperDuke Coolant Flush and Change

After friday’s wet ride, yesterday the sun finally came out so I decided it would be a good opportunity to wash the SDuke!

Yes…my decision making hability has been questioned before….

Well washing is not a fun task, but one that has to be done, and so it was.

Halfway trough the process I noticed there was a white/grey “sandy” residue on the bottom of the coolant overflow reservoir.

I had read about the problems in the water pump seals caused by sand left from the casting process of the engine. By now I would expect this problem to have been addressed and thought the coolant circuit had been flushed on the previous coolant change (done by the previous owner…). Well it seems that If they did change the coolant they didn’t flush the circuit properly.

The SDuke is due to go for the 15.000km service this week. But because this service is already going to be expensive (Valve Clearence Adjustment) I decided to give it a go at changing the coolant myself and save a few Euros.

Started off by reading the procedure on the Owners Manual, very easy… if you can find a way to lift the front of the bike 50cm in the air (which I can’t with the means I have at home) and it also doesn’t address the flushing of the circuit.
After a bit of Internet searching I found this great tutorial: Replacing Hoses and Coolant on the Super Duke I opted not to change the hoses as they seem to be ok so I don’t see any reason to spend more money.

My procedure was a little different and although I’m no pro at mechanics I’ll try and give you some tips on how I did it, focusing on the parts not covered by the tutorial on the link above.

With a cold engine and the bike on the padock stand I removed the radiator cap to check the level, it was fine but there was some residue in the cap as well.

I then removed the two side panels from the front fairing to better access the radiator and the overflow reservoir and proceeded to draining the circuit by removing the drain bolt on the water pump (it is the one in the midle on the lower side of the water pump).

If you’re doing this get a container to catch the draining coolant (be careful it’s slippery) put the radiator cap back on and remove the drain bolt, as soon as you remove the radiator cap again the coolant will start pissing from the engine, at first it will land about 40cm from the bike, so be sure to properly place the container.

After a few minutes of draining it stopped driping coolant so I got a garden hose a inserted it in the radiator opening the tap to let water flow trough the circuit and flush all the coolant and debris. Be careful if you’re doing this, don’t use a pressure hose or to much water pressure as it could damage the radiator fins.

Next it was time to drain the overflow reservoir, now this requires the fuel tank to be lifted up, which on the SuperDuke ir quite easy to do. The tank is held in place by one bolt on the front (near the handlebars triple clamp) and two bolts on the back, where the seat meets the tank. Just remove the seat and the front bolt on the tank. Don’t remove the two bolts on the back as this hold the tank hinges. Disconect the tank overflow hose, on the front lower left side of the tank (near the top of the radiator), and just lift the tank (make sure there isn’t much fuel in it and do it slowly to see if nothing is leaking).

Get someone to hold the tank up and remove the two screws that hold the overflow reservoir in place, then remove it gently because there is a hose connect to it on the inner side, remove the clamp and the hose to allow for the reservoir to come out of place, you can leave the hose that connects to the top of the radiator in place. You can now lower the fuel tank again.

At this point I drained the overflow reservoir and using the hose washed thoroughly to remove all the deposits.

This is what had built up inside the reservoir.

Then it was just a matter of lifting the fuel tank again, getting everything connected,  the overflow reservoir back in place and begin to drain the remaining water inside the circuit by rocking the bike from side to side and leaning it to the right. (Again, if you do his be careful and get help, the SDuke is not exactly light).

Most of the procedure from this point on was similar to the one described HERE, but because it is an absolute pain to get rid of all the air in the system I opted not to make the procedure first with water and then with coolant.

After removing as much of the tap water from the circuit as possible, I flushed the rest with distilled water and again drained as much of the distilled water as possible. Then started filling the circuit with coolant until all the remaining distilled water came out of the drain bolt on the water pump and the coolant coming out was the same colour as the one going in, at this point i just put the drain bolt back on and filled the system completeley. rocking the bike side to side to get the air out and adding more coolant as the air bubbles came out.

From here on I followed the same steps as Helipos, Here keeping a close eye on the engine temperature and feeling the temperature on the radiator rising (indicating the coolant is flowing and is not blocked by an air bubble. After about a minute (maybe less) of the engine working and before it got hot I removed the radiator cap to refill (be careful, make sure it is not hot or it could burn you!) the level on the radiator had gone down quite a bit.
Again radiator cap on and the engine working, allowed it to get all the way up the temperature range until the fan started working (it’s not supposed to get to max temperature, the fan should start at about 2 bars below max and the temperature then lowers after a few seconds).

Allowed the engine to cool down and took the radiator cap back off to refill, then lifted the fuel tank again and drained the overflow reservoir as it had collected a lot of distilled water/coolant mix (it was light blue colored instead of bright blue) and refilled it with coolant. Reconected everything, put the fuel tank bolt back on, conected the fuel drain hose and double checked everything.

I the went for a short ride, revving the bike hard (after it the engine was up to temperature) to get the coolant to flow and dislodge any air pockets, on return allowed for the bike to cool down before taking the radiator cap again to check the level and topped it up.

And it’s done!

Now I still have to check on the next rides if the coolant level inside the radiator doesn’t drop, and that there is no more residue collecting on the overflow reservoir. I’m also going to have a look at the oil filter on the 15.000km service,  for any foaming indicating that the water pump could be leaking coolant into the oil.

This is not meant to be an expert tutorial or anything like it, I did this at my own risk on my own bike, If you decide to do it too, it at your own risk. If you can, get a professional to do it. This in only meant to give you a short description on how I did it to MY bike.

Be careful when following this procedure, especially if you live in a cold country. KTM recomends a 50% Coollant + 50% Distilled Water mix with a MINIMUM freezing protection of -26ºC, where I live you can’t even find that kind of coolant, the lowest temperatures are around -1ºC or -2ªC so all vehicles use -5ºC Coolant. I used the only coolant for temperatures lower the -5ºC I could find: Redex -11ºC Extreme Temperatures Coolant which can be used directly or diluted. If you read the text above you’ll notice I used it straight from the bottle, this was to account for some dilution that may happen from some distilled water that might still be in the circuit. Because the temperatures here very rarely below 0ºC I’m not worried about the antifreeze protection not being exactly -11ºC, but if you live in a could area make sure you’re coolant is concentrated enough to protect your bike.

30/03/2013 | Categories: Bike, KTM, Modifications, Super Duke | Tags: 990, Casting Residue, Changing the coolant, Coolant, DIY, KTM, Motorcycle Maitenance, Service, Superduke, Water Pump | Leave a comment