What I do with the Coolant? If I don't use my banshee in winter

[purplez111]

Hi, I was cleaning my carb today and I was wondering how cold it's gonna be in the garage this winter (Garage ain't heated during winter). So my question is : If I don't use my banshee this winter and I put it in the garage for all the winter, do I have to remove all the coolant liquid? I mean if I let the coolant be in my motor and radiator, can I have some problem when I'm gonna use it next summer?

 

Because the coolant is gonna be inactive all winter and it's gonna be cold can it does any damage in the internal system? Thanks alot.

 

Jonathan

[slow 98 banshee]

Is it bad to run car antifreeze in my banshee?

[rdzbangshee]

I heard some are bad for aluminum i use prestone or peak

[06specialedition]

I've personally never had an issue with leaving cheap 50/50 mix coolant in my shee all winter. I like to start the bike atleast once a month in the winter to keep everything flowing good.

[AKheathen]

you can use any kind of anti-freeze, just as long as it's not water in freezing temps, and it's not deteriorated. engine ice is only good to like 20f, and 50/50 green will slush below -10, but not totally freeze. i use prestone dex-cool in temps colder than -30f

[dajogejr]

Just make sure it's aluminum approved...

Which, pretty much every coolant is now a days.

If it gets REALLY frigid, like sub zeros, I'd drain anything in there now and put straight coolant in there.

 

If not, 50/50 is fine...

 

I run straight water in mine but dump it out and run coolant through it before it gets real cold.

 

However, the last two years mine has been blow up/apart at the end of the year...so I don't have anything in there...lol.

[camatv]

you need to run antifreeze at ALL times. running straight water will promote OVERHEATING and boiling over. antifreeze does a few things its helps from freezing, AND helps raise the boiling point of water... all antifreeze is alluminum safe you dont need some special banshee only coolant. its just a simple cooling system all it has is a few hoses a cheap water pump and a radaitor. your car has a much more complicated system in it.. the amount of mix is wat can determine the freezing point, it should say right on the bottle. if you buy straight coolant you should ONLY use distilled water of course if you dont know you can get distilled water in the same place you get drinking water like WALMART. the tap water in your house is more dmaging than the cheapest coolant you can use, why you ask oh because of the minerals in the water is what will eat the alluminum.. NOW the green coolant is only really good for about 2 years in a system. SO change it if your bike actualy stays together that long.

Edited October 24, 2010 by camatv

[purplez111]

Thanks for all the answers guys!

 

I bought my Banshee in March 2010 so I don't know how long the coolant had been in rad and motor. So I'm gonna just dump everything for this winter and next winter I might let everything in it. Thanks again for all infos!

 

Jonathan

[Michael Jackson]

My banshee's sat in a garage at -35 with engine ice for multiple winters and never once had a problem.

 

same here, never gets to -35, but definitely gets below 0 somenights

[dajogejr]

Sorry Cam...but any drag racer will disagree with you.

Trail riders...sure...drag racers run water.

Two reasons.

On pavement, you cant run anything else...if you blow a motor or pop a coolant line it takes FOREVER to clean it off the ground. Water just needs to be dried.

 

And...for us Nikasil plated guys, if you pop an Oring, just water won't generally do any damage.

Whereas coolant will increase cylinder pressure exponentially and get behind the nikasil and cause it to flake.

[J-Madd]

...And plain distilled water is a better coolant. Antifreeze/coolant does raise the boiling point, but so does the 14 psi or so that the radiator caps holds in the system. Water boils @212* F. That's already too hot for most engines. @14 psi the bp is raised (I"m too lazy to look up the equation to figure bp:pressure) to higher than what your engine should ever run in the first place.