I shoulda bought a Cool head

[AZ Erik]

Well I'm back from Gordons Well and not exactly happy. The good thing is I still have my Predator to ride. For 2 weeks before this trip I had tossed around the idea of getting a cool head right off the bat but decided against it due to not knowing what might be bad or going bad on the shee I just picked up. Well it looks like a head gasket or the colling is filled with pepper. I noticed when I got there that the exhaust never was hot when it was idling. It did get hot after a few minutes of riding.

 

I rode it for about 15 minutes saturday night, I smelled something but figured it was my pants burning on the ppipes. (It took about 7 kicks to start, it fired on the first kick before)

 

Rode for 30 minutes Sunday and noticed that the head was boiling. Loud enough I could feel it in the bars with the bike off. Let it cool down and rolled back to camp. ALL and I do mean ALL of the coolant was out of the overflow and the cap had 'blown off' (I even still have the little lid thing over it. It took about 11 kicks to start it this time.)

 

I let it cool down and changed the jets to a 330. Let it sit and idle for 10 minutes, the exhaust was still cool, not hot but cool. I happened to have my lazer temp gauge. Checked the head temp 181 degrees. The radiator was 160. Took it for a 2 minute ride. Came back and ALL the coolant is being shot out the over flow again. I check the temp on the head 320 degrees (Or at least that's what it said, I kinda believe it as gas boiled instantly on the block). Shut it off. Pulled the water pump cover off. The coolant was thick green. Like that shit on Nickolodean slime or whatever. It also has very small black chunks of something floting in it. I drained that crap and checked that the water pump was working. It was pumping fine. The radiator appears to be flowing fine as well. It appears a head gasket or clogged head might be the cause.

 

Heres the real kick in the ass. Sitting in my truck at my buddies house where we left from is a brand new complete gasket set. So if it is the head gasket I'm going to be pissed. Ofcorse I currently only have paddles for it so i can't load test it locally as out here is nothing but desert. So tomorrow I begin the tear down. It really sucked as I was happy as hell to be wipping around on it for the little amount of time I was able to. But I did rip my buddies 420 with no front breaks on Shaw's, after about 8 minutes I was thinking about getting a cub. But for now I'm still going to have to get a cool head.

[watkins]

Are you sure the waterpump is fine? I would take the impeller out and inspect it. The stock impeller is plastic and can turn into nothing in a hurry, mine was fine and I replaced it with a billet one just to be safe.

Edited March 8, 2006 by watkins

[RATBIKE0130]

Let me guess... it was warm 80* or so and there was no breeze at all. Where were you riding when this happened? I had the same thing happen to me about 2 months ago at Gordon's (I even have a cool head). It was an o-ring that caused presurizing of the coolant system. You have a head gasket leak for sure. Check how tight the head nut are.