Hi All, I was at Silverstone on a track day today and did 1 session without issue, towards the end of the 2nd session had a little slip on a left hander, pulled back into the pits to find the coolant boiling over and coming out the overflow hose. Took the belly pan off to clean it all up, ran it up to temp in the pits and it starting boiling over again, but want came out was a mixture of oil and coolant...... Before the day I ensured the coolant was on the min mark and have done many track days prior without issue, so it isn't overfilled coolant. I did a oil and filter change last week, but again, done this a million times without issue in the past! So, my question is has anyone had this issue before, if so what was the conclusion? I guess worst case this could be the head gasket blown, 'best' case maybe I overfilled the oil and its dumped the excess into the cooling system? Haven't had chance yet to investigate, but will dump all the coolant out and flush the system before refilling. Will also draw some oil out and check to see whether there's coolant in the oil. But any other tips would be greatly received!! Thanks in advance, Joss
Oil cooler has cracked is my guess. Have you upgraded to a billet one or do you still have the factory failure prone one?
Heat exchanger? No personal experience but I've seen it mentioned on here. Edit- wasn't just jumping on Renboys post, must have been typing at the same time.
You guys are allowed to run coolant at the track in the UK? Here it's water or a mixture of water and water wetter. Heat exchanger is what I meant by oil cooler.
Thanks for the advice, hadn't thought about the heat exchanger! It is just the standard one on there still. Any in particular you guys recommend? I know UKRaceSupport do a billet one?
There are only two that I'm aware of. I can't remember the name of the other company that makes it, but I'm almost positive it's less expensive than the UKRS one if that matters.
Unfortunatly the search facility on here does not appear to be very effective anymore, if it was you would find that the oil cooler/heat exchanger unit failing has been a long standing issue which is why there are aftermarket options available to blank it off. When the engine is correctly filled with anti-corrosive coolant there does not appear to be any issues. However... When the engines are run with just water (or left empty of water, eg when removed or over-winter) the heat exchangers appear to suffer very rapidly from corrosion. This has often resulted in the failure in race bikes where water coolant is mandatory. The billet approach eliminates the possibility of that failure point by doing away with the heat exchanger. They have also been seen to fail suddenly shortly after owners have had a complete replacement used engine fitted.! Afik there has never yet been a report of any oil cooler failures whatsoever, in bikes that have all their life run "proper" coolant. Of course unless you've owned the bike yourself from new it is difficult to be certain it hasn't been run on water only under previous ownership. Hth.
Yes I did try and search before posting but nothing really came up unfortunately. Mine has always had proper coolant in, so perhaps the cooler is not the issue, that or I am the first reported! Certain need to get the bike apart anyway and see what I find. Is there anyway to test the cooler for leaks? Thanks again for all the help guys
https://www.675.cc/threads/billet-oil-cooler-for-sale.27342/ https://www.triumph675.net/threads/billet-oil-cooler-installation.246427/ Not sure if these will help you. After reading some of this I've decided to upgrade mine. I'm riding a 2008 with the stock cooler but as far as I'm aware it's always had coolant as opposed to water in the system. Sent from my SM-G996B using 675.cc mobile app
Mine went on track last year exactly the same symptoms as you had. Mine had also always had coolant running so don’t count it out just for that reason. JHS Racing are the other company that produce the billet oil coolers which is the one I went for, think they only sell through eBay. With the U.K. race support version the coolant hoses are blanked off whereas the JHS recommends looping the coolant hoses together to maintain circulation through those passages in the engine.
On trackdays you can run coolant. For racing it has to be water. The bike will fail scrutineering if found to be running coolant. And for the OP, oil cooler would be my first port of call. They're renowned for failing.
Yes the more I read about it the more that it seems the cooler is the most likely cause!! How did you go about flushing the engine and cooling system to ensure all of the contaminated fluids are cleared? I presume change oil and filter, run up to temp and change again? Repeat until cleared? Or is there a more efficient way? Same again for the cooling system? (Water rather than oil of course, lol)
Thankfully coolant hadn’t seemed to get into the oil side just oil into coolant, I think this is typical and to do with oil pressure being greater than coolant system. I just did an oil/filter change with cheap oil, ran it up to temp for half an hour or so then did another oil/filter change with Motul. The coolant side I think I drained and flushed with some additive twice then again with just water then finally filled with water/coolant. I did 3 or 4 more track days on it following this but have yet to service it ready for this season and see how the coolant or the oil come out.
Ah that was lucky then! Hopefully mine is the same. Thanks for the advice and tips. I have ordered a billet cooler from UKRS and will order some oil and filters today. Busy weekend ahead for me it seems! Thanks again all for the advice, helpful as ever on this site! Will keep you updated with how I get on!
So thought I would give you all an update. It took UKRS 3 weeks to send the oil cooler as they didn't have any in stock, so had to have one made. Anyway, it got delivered Friday so I set about today fitting it. Drained the coolant out which was all congealed coolant/oil. Drained the oil which luckily was all clear, so that was some good news. Fitted everything from UKRS (very easy install), changed the filter and refilled the oil, then got to flushing out the coolant. I've managed 4 flushes so far, first 3 with just water and the last with white vinegar and water, still pulling oil out though, which sucks. I've ran out of empty containers so will have to leave it for today and carry on once I've managed to empty them. During the warm up runs between coolant flushes it didn't boil over and actually sat at a lower temperature then before this whole ordeal, so I think your advice was right and the cooler was the issue!! Will carry on flushing it next weekend and let you all know the final result! Thanks for all your help so far though, this forum has been amazing as always!
Good news that the oil isn't contaminated, suppose oil in the coolant is the lesser of two evils, guessing that the oil pressure is greater than the coolant pressure so it tends to go one way? Seen various suggestions online about using degreasing solutions or even dish soap or bleach to help break down and flush the oil but not sure if I'd risk it, what about a propriety coolant flush additive?
Yes think it is to do with the pressures etc, just very thankful its only one of them and not both, that would have been a real ball ache! Yeh I was having a Google last night and there's loads of suggestions, dish soap, dishwasher powder, vinegar, something called Simply Green etc etc etc, just hard to know what would be safe and would could effect the hoses/aluminium. I do think I need something though, it'll take forever to get this clear at this rate!
I use this water based degreaser in a spray bottle diluted to 20:1 but can be diluted down to 80:1 Ammo Pro - AMMO .243 DE-GREASER-BRAKE CLEANER 750ml MULTI AWARD WINNING. (ammoprobike.co.uk) May help break the oil down and at least it won't foam up like some of the other suggestions. Probably similar to the Simple Green or something like Bilt Hamber surfex HD which is another popular water based degreaser in the car detailing world. Could start off with very low concentrations and work your way up if necessary, and obviously a good flush afterwards.
Thanks for the info, you mention you've used it before, have you used it in the cooling system before or for cleaning externally?
Sorry, I meant for normal cleaning/de-greasing, I haven't got any experience with oil in the cooling system so can't personally vouch for any of the suggestions for that purpose.
