Good samaritan fail - ran bike at 4k while stopped for too long...

[MoldTheClay]

Ran across a couple of ladies on 580 yesterday with a dead bike. Decided to stop by and offer what assistance I could. Their battery had, unfortunately, died and needed a jump. Luckily I carry cables with me so no problem, I'll jump em.

Well idling didn't seem to give it enough juice so I revved up to 4k and put on my throttle lock to see if that would give them enough juice. While waiting for the charge I got to chatting for a tad too long and caused my coolant to start bubbling and splashing/steaming out of my hose like crazy.

I immediately turned the bike off, cursed my stupidity for letting it run that long to get that hot, and threw my seat back on so I could get moving fast enough to cool my bike back down. i was amazed that the temp warning light never kicked on during that, or maybe I was just too freaked out to notice it? I then went to the first auto zone I could find and got some peak 50/50 antifreeze to refill the reservoir again.

The bike seemed to run fine again and did so for the remainder of the day. I did however start running into issues in the evening where my red temp warning light coming when I was going slower in heavy traffic or idling at a light.

Tomorrow I was planning to do my oil change and clean my air filter anyway, so now I am adding a coolant flush to that list and hope that solves it?

Anything else I should look for or think about? The coolant in my reservoir is staying the right shade of light green so hoping that means I havent blown a head gasket or anything serious?

Tldr; Overheated my engine to the point of boiling off nearly all of my coolant while trying to give somebody a jump, because I am an idiot. Refilled reservoir but now I am overheating when not moving. What should I look for/do and how fucked might I be?

 

[Junkie]

I suspect that, while you have coolant in your reservoir now, you don't have a full radiator.

Refill that and see if it stops happening. If it continues to have problems, they're likely very expensive.

 

[Rumbo Sur]

YES ^ ... Be sure to "burp" system and make certain ALL air is burped out.
Use bleed screw also (if you have one) to help flow coolant and leave no trapped air pockets. (they can form after coolant boiled)

Run a day, let it get hot then try to burp out more air and add more coolant.

With luck, all will be OK. Go onto Yamaha forums and ASK about this. Someone
may have more specific info.

meantime, don't let it get too hot ... look for leaks and check your oil to see if coolant has got into oil. If so ... head gasket
blown. Good luck! :thumbup

 

[mototireguy]

Top up/refresh all fluids.

Was the radiator fan running during this damsel in distress derring-do?

 

[afm199]

YES ^ ... Be sure to "burp" system and make certain ALL air is burped out.
Use bleed screw also (if you have one) to help flow coolant and leave no trapped air pockets. (they can form after coolant boiled)

Run a day, let it get hot then try to burp out more air and add more coolant.

With luck, all will be OK. Go onto Yamaha forums and ASK about this. Someone
may have more specific info.

meantime, don't let it get too hot ... look for leaks and check your oil to see if coolant has got into oil. If so ... head gasket
blown. Good luck! :thumbup

This. When you take the cap off the radiator today, you will discover it's not topped off after all.

 

[madsen203]

How did BARF let this slide by? Some new TOS?

Were they...

 

[MoldTheClay]

Top up/refresh all fluids.

Was the radiator fan running during this damsel in distress derring-do?

Yep but it couldn't outpace being run at that rate while stationary sadly.

Ran it again and it sucked the reservoir dry to refill the radiator. When i let it cool down I could see the occasional bubble popping up as it refilled so I think I have air in the system, explaining the poor heat dissipation while standing still.

Will drain and refill the system tomorrow along with the rest of my maintenance items and update. No overheating after refilling the reservoir though andcoolant levels seem to have normalized again.

 

[MikeGyver]

Were they....

 

[dravnx]

Running your bike a 4k rpm does nothing to help jump start another bike. There is not enough capacity out of the charging system to start another bike. It's all battery. Now, it you want to charge their battery, that's another story but you've already learned what happens when you leave your engine running at high RPM.

 

[MoldTheClay]

Running your bike a 4k rpm does nothing to help jump start another bike. There is not enough capacity out of the charging system to start another bike. It's all battery. Now, it you want to charge their battery, that's another story but you've already learned what happens when you leave your engine running at high RPM.

Yup, one of those stupid things that you do and immediately question your own sanity.

 

[MoldTheClay]

Were they....

Confused? Yes I am.

 

[Smash Allen]

:boobies how were the :boobies

 

[ST Guy]

While you're at it, replace the overflow hose that goes from just under the pressure cap to the reservoir. Make absolutely sure that there's no air leaks at either end of the hose. Clean the fittings the hose slips onto. Use spring clips. Any leaks there will result in the cooling system not working properly. It's an often neglected part of the cooling system but it's critical to proper operation.

 

[Junkie]

Running your bike a 4k rpm does nothing to help jump start another bike. There is not enough capacity out of the charging system to start another bike. It's all battery. Now, it you want to charge their battery, that's another story but you've already learned what happens when you leave your engine running at high RPM.

Running your bike at 4k puts out more power, which charges their battery faster, resulting in a better likelihood of starting.

If they don't have a battery I agree it won't matter.

 

[Schnellbandit]

Running your bike at 4k puts out more power, which charges their battery faster, resulting in a better likelihood of starting.

If they don't have a battery I agree it won't matter.

Not enough to matter. Once the other vehicle is started, disconnect the cables. You have no idea why their bike died other than what they said and keeping your bike hooked to to theirs, the last thing you want to do.

I have one of those small lithium battery starters I carry around so that I'm not hooking my bike or car up to one that might have a shorted battery or screwed up wiring. Easier, safer and no risk to my bike.

For all you know they tried to fix things, got wiring crossed and there you are hooking up to reversed polarity. No thanks. Pocket charger, save yourself grief and avoid being stranded yourself.

 

[afm199]

Running your bike at 4k puts out more power, which charges their battery faster, resulting in a better likelihood of starting.

If they don't have a battery I agree it won't matter.

Correct. 4k is when the voltage is as high as it will go. Usually 14.x

 

[dravnx]

Met a rider in Mexico once. He told me his bike mounted phone charger wasn't working. I plugged mine in to see if it was the charger or the outlet. Mine wouldn't work either. I plugged mine back into my bike. Now mine was dead. Grabbed my meter and checked his plug. He wired it bass ackward. Blew his and my chargers. No good deed goes unpunished.

 

[Junkie]

Not enough to matter. Once the other vehicle is started, disconnect the cables. You have no idea why their bike died other than what they said and keeping your bike hooked to to theirs, the last thing you want to do.

I have one of those small lithium battery starters I carry around so that I'm not hooking my bike or car up to one that might have a shorted battery or screwed up wiring. Easier, safer and no risk to my bike.

For all you know they tried to fix things, got wiring crossed and there you are hooking up to reversed polarity. No thanks. Pocket charger, save yourself grief and avoid being stranded yourself.

I mean before it's fired up.

Connect bikes, run your bike at 4k as long as you're willing, try to start the other bike.

 

[splat]

i was amazed that the temp warning light never kicked on during that, or maybe I was just too freaked out to notice it?

Found the problem...

Ran across a couple of ladies on 580

Also, remember when the coolant is hot, the system is pressurized. If you refilled the coolant while bike was hot (which your story leads us to believe) then you now have a vacuum when your system is cooled. You need to remedy that. Also, yes, burp your system if necessary. That will cause the bike to run hot as well.

 

[Rumbo Sur]

While you're at it, replace the overflow hose that goes from just under the pressure cap to the reservoir. Make absolutely sure that there's no air leaks at either end of the hose. Clean the fittings the hose slips onto. Use spring clips. Any leaks there will result in the cooling system not working properly. It's an often neglected part of the cooling system but it's critical to proper operation.

IMO, this is good advice. I struggled for 6 months trying to expel air from my
1050 Tiger system. Really helps bike run cooler once air is ALL out and everything is sealed up tight!
(not so easy to do!) :thumbup