Coolant Overflow Bottle Capacity

[turbosteve84]

I'm tired of looking at the cheap plastic coolant overflow bottle on my Visioné. Does anyone know the capacity of that bottle? I'd like to replace it with one of those trick stainless steel units but need to know the capacity first.

No guessing.

Thanks,
Steve

[The Prophet of Doom]

Does anyone know the capacity of that bottle?

From the 11U workshop manual...

[turbosteve84]

Thanks POD!

[pinholenz]

A while back POD was looking at using a waterless coolant in his bike such as the Evans. In theory this should eliminate the need for a coolant overflow bottle. Anyone tried it? www.evanscoolant.com

[fret not]

The redeeming factor of the cheap plastic reservoir is that you can see the level of fluid. 

[The Prophet of Doom]

I'm going to get Liquid Intelligence rather than Evans.  NANO PARTICLES !!!
I wrote to them about expansion but didn't get a helpful replay.

[pinholenz]

I haven't found a cleaning solution in the Liquid Intelligence range. Presumably you could use the Evans flush cleaner and then the Liquid Intelligence waterless coolant. Every scrap of water/glycol needs to be removed to get the best results.

[The Prophet of Doom]

They do have a coolant system flush - LI 239.  Unlike Evans they don't say it's essential, but I can't see that you would get a zero pressure system with any water remaining.

[Rikugun]

How far into the gage's red zone would be considered safe when using these products?

[devotee]

Never bought evans coolant, but considered using it in a diesel application.

Pretty much does not boil (if anhydrous). It is more viscous than glycol-water, so it does not circulate as easily. It has a lower "specific heat" so other things being equal the engine will run a bit hotter.

Unless there is a coolant leak that only occurs at pressure, I would not be inclined to switch.

I also considered it on a GM 5.7L engine (I've had several with this problem) that would leak coolant in to the crankcase, again not much and only at pressure. I always chose to just have the gasket upgraded. OEM system was a bad design on that engine.

My $0.02
David

[The Prophet of Doom]

It is more viscous than glycol-water, so it does not circulate as easily. It has a lower "specific heat" so other things being equal the engine will run a bit hotter.

No doubt that water is the most effective way to transfer heat right up to the point that it starts to vapourise - but that's at about 88C.  As soon as it starts to vapourise you are getting an insulating blanket around the cylinders and cooling efficiency drops dramatically - the heat will stay in there.
The viscosity of Liquid Intelligence is the same as a 30% glycol water mix.  Glycol reduces the transfer efficiency, but a 30% glycol mix will push the vapour point up to 90C, or 50% up to 93-95C.  It's a trade-off.
Waterless coolants don't vapourise till about 190C so retail their cooling efficiency where water or water/glycol has long since stopped being effective.  The engine will run cooler, not hotter

How far into the gage's red zone would be considered safe when using these products?

You should be good right through the red zone, but the increased efficiency over a glycol mix at higher temps (over 90C) mean you won't normally get there. 
The red zone is calibrated to start at 115C.  The waterless coolant will remain fully effective till 190C and not boil till 245C.  You will start to have lubrication issues long before this.  Oil will lubricate up to around 135C , 145C for semi-synth and nearly 200C for full synthetics.
The insulating effect of vapour with water/glycol means your engine temperature can be way higher than the indicated temperature.  This doesn't happen with waterless.

I haven't found a cleaning solution in the Liquid Intelligence range. Presumably you could use the Evans flush cleaner and then the Liquid Intelligence waterless coolant. Every scrap of water/glycol needs to be removed to get the best results.

I rang Liquid Intelligence about this, they say you need to be anal about getting all the water out.  Suggest running your bike to 100C then drain while hot.  The remaining water will evaporate.  No flush is needed on aluminium engines.  My engine has been drained for long enough for this to not be a problem.

Also asked about running without an overflow bottle.  He said no problem.  Simply under fill your cooling system and run the engine up to temperature with the cap off. Allow the fluid to fully expand then top up to just below the cap fitting....then replace the cap. Liquid Intelligence 115 reaches its full thermally expanded level at about 75C to 80C.

By the way, the cost for 3.75l was $85 + $35 shipping (it's on special at the moment).  This is about twice the price of regular antifreeze from Supercheap at $14.99 per 1l   

[pinholenz]

As always POD, super through research! So the benefits with waterless coolants such Liquid Intelligence are:

1. No need for an expansion bottle (following L.I. instructions)
2. No need for antifreeze additives
3. 7 years or 350,000km lifetime without changing coolant
4. 15 times more effective in reducing engine/radiator corrosion and erosion than water/glycol products

But, all water needs to be flushed from the cooling system to prevent oxidising dissolved oxygen from continuing to do its damage.

Anyone use No-Rosion in their cars or bikes? They are pretty negative about the Evans Waterless coolant in their research.

POD, I now live about 1.5 hours from Roy King who distributes L.I. Time for me to try this stuff out....

[The Prophet of Doom]

As always POD, super through research! So the benefits with waterless coolants such Liquid Intelligence are:

1. No need for an expansion bottle (following L.I. instructions)
2. No need for antifreeze additives
3. 7 years or 350,000km lifetime without changing coolant
4. 15 times more effective in reducing engine/radiator corrosion and erosion than water/glycol products

But, all water needs to be flushed from the cooling system to prevent oxidising dissolved oxygen from continuing to do its damage.

Anyone use No-Rosion in their cars or bikes? They are pretty negative about the Evans Waterless coolant in their research.

POD, I now live about 1.5 hours from Roy King who distributes L.I. Time for me to try this stuff out....

I hadn't come across No-Rosion.  That's one negative article. It must be a frigging hard life being a coolant salesman. 
I know a lot of people out there are calling BS on waterless coolants, but that's what they did for liquid polymer car wax and oil friction modifiers for decades before the big guys started selling it.  There's a lot of inertia in the marketing machine.


I don't know how it will turn out but I've taken the plunge now on LI and can report soon enough.  If the only thing I get is deleting the fugly coolant bottle, then I'm fine with that.

[Rikugun]

The engine will run cooler, not hotter

Perhaps it is the Evans product I'm thinking of that was discussed on ROV.

I don't know how it will turn out but I've taken the plunge now on LI and can report soon enough.

I look forward to hearing your impressions. Could you build another identical Vision to simultaneously test with conventional coolant. That would be awesome!   : ;D

[pinholenz]

7.5 Magnitude earthquake north of Christchurch earlier today.
Any damage POD?. Last one was a major setback for you.
It'll be harder to get down to the Burt Munroe classic this year with all the road and ferry closures up north. We got tossed about quite a bit about but no serious damage. Bike is still on its side stand. Yay!

[The Prophet of Doom]

I haven't checked the bike yet, but everything in the house is intact.  ;)  Horrible.  the main one lasted several minutes, then I was up all night because of the tsanami sirens.

[fret not]

Wishing you all well in NZ, and hopefully no more quakes for a good while.  It comes with living in the "Ring of Fire", as we in California are aware.

7.5 is a serious magnitude. 

[The Prophet of Doom]

My gallon of LI 115 arrived from the land of Oz today.


If you are interested, the label says...
Contains: Glycols 735 grams/L in Bonded DD-water to 1000mls/L
Contains: bittering agent 10ppm


Evans is 100% glycols according to their website.