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'10 FX450 radiator overflow hose too short?

Joined May 2010
50 Posts | 0+
Abu Dhabi UAE
We had a magic ride in the dunes yesterday, in some pretty warm weather - 33 Deg C and climbing. Working pretty hard in the dunes but keeping our moving speed up, none of the bikes boiled over.

However, after a particularly bad choppy section through some rough dunes, I noticed that some coolant had splashed onto the motor through the overflow pipe - I got the fright of my life seeing the motor covered in green steamy coolant, thinking that I'd put a hole into one of the coolant hoses and I was gonna have to walk home.

After a closer inspection back home, i realised that the radiator overflow hose is a real shorty, and there is nowhere for the coolant to go but straight onto the engine? This strikes me as a design fault. Is there a reason why this hose would be designed like this? I will fit a longer hose asap and am thinking about putting together a water bottle system to catch any coolant overflow.

I thought maybe I'd simply overfilled the radiators and this was merely a bit of overflow of the excess fluid. But I had to fill the radiators with around 300-400ml of coolant after the ride, so I dumped more than "some excess".

Has anyone successfully hooked up a platic bottle setup to catch any coolant overflow on these Berg's? :roll:

Will I eliminate this problem by fitting a high-pressure radiator cap? :idea:
 
the overflow hose dumps on teh engine so that you are aware when it does so by steaming up into your field of vision or smell. A longer hose takes the coolant out and away, leaving you unaware of any issues.

a catch bottle is a good idea :D
 
Fryguy - I guess that makes sense in a bush-mechanic kind of way. I've found a suitable shaped 250ml plastic bottle and I'm going to make a plan with hooking up the overflow pipe, etc.

I'm just shaking my head at the thought that I just spend close to $10,000 on a hi-tech piece of equipment, and I'm gonna solve a basic design fault with a piece of plastic hose and a kids plastic juice bottle... Somehow the thought of a "zip-tie bottle on the frame" solution just doesn't go with the bling looks of a shiny new bike. I will do my best.

And I did find some helpful posts on this forum, thanks
 
I set up a coolentcatcher in a good location on the bike,will post some pictures, i set one up without drilling any holes in the plastics,guess there are many versions..
 
Squ1rrel,

May I suggest just putting a fan kit on your bike and solve the problem easily. Putting an overflow bottle on the bike is only going to catch coolant from a boil over and not prevent a boil over from happening.

There was a thread a short time back on this, and the only draw back is that there isn't a temp switch bung on the FX right side radiator. However, I believe that all the wiring harness hook ups are there under the tank.

I believe in the other thread someone talked about a fan kit for a 300 KTM that had a radiator hose inline temp switch. Or I'm sure you could have a radiator shop put the correct bung in your radiator for not too much money.

I bet with a little research on the net, you will be able to find an in line temp switch housing that you can cut in yourself, and put the stock thermal switch in it. I suggest a 100C on point for your fan, other wise it will run a lot.

If you need some help finding the switch, shoot up a flare and I am sure someone will be able to set you up. I'll have a quick look around myself.

I have the fan kit on my 570 and have ridden in some pretty demanding conditions and my bike has never boiled over.
 
Dale, you are right, the fan is the way to go. It will lower engine temps and completely eliminate boiling. I had to replace my 1.8 cap with a 1.4 ( its was the only spare I had ) and it is still on the bike, as it does not boil with the lower rated cap.

I wouldn't call teh short hose overlooked engineering...if you are buying a Husaberg, you have to realize that teh bike was created by people who do not believe in fluff and dazzle. Long long ago, we used to take our overflow tubes that used to hang under the bottom of the frame rails and reroute them, and shorten them to dump onto the expansion chambers of our 2t bikes. Before doing so, we were burning our bikes up after unknowingly boiling them dry. After the mod, the steam was very evident, not exactly what we liked to smell, but it told us what was really happening with the engine.
 
thats the go fryguy I directed mine to dump on the exhaust so I know when to stop thrashing her or when its time to get some air thru the rads.
 
Thanks for all the feedback and advice - I will talk to my friendly KTM dealer about a fix for this problem...
 
Had a chat to the dealer - this overheating problem mainly caused by riding with a following breeze, which results in no airflow...

So everything works just fine until you change direction and have this freaky no-airflow situation. It seems this was a fairly isolated incident and I have not had any similar problems since.

Dealer has promised to get back to me with some solutions and mods, fan, etc.
 

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