Hello! and Losing Coolant....

Hey Guys,
Firstly I would just like ot say hi, I recently bought a used 07' FE450 as my first dirtbike (mostly street riding until now.) I read a bit on these forums before purchasing and the forums sold me. Anyways I am already calling for your help lol. The bike was definatly ridden hard but has only a couple of hours on rebuild. When I was on my way home with it I glanced at the oil and it was white, I was not impressed to say the least, but I flushed it 4 times and changed the filter. I have burned near a full tank of fuel in it since I flushed it and the oil seems to be remaining its clear/brown (and is definatly not the milky white it was.) It was obvious that someone was working on the waterpump as there is rtv where a gasket should be.. My problem now is that I am losing coolant, I did as recommended, opened the bleeder screw for 30 seconds and then topped the rad up to about 10mm over the fins. I went for a ride and let it cool down, when I rechecked the rad fluid it was down below the fins again. I have had a blown head gasket before and there is no white smoke coming out the exhaust, from what I have read on the forums it sounds like my rad cap? have I not bled the system enough? Take into consideration that I am pretty new to this offroad game and I am not able to push this bike to near its limit so I don't think I should be boiling over. Any additional advice would be great. thx
Dan

Thank you for the response. I am sure I can manage replacing the o-rings, next step is to find a parts distributor. I suppose I can just take the bike back to where I got it from if it is something that involves a little work (I did just buy the thing lol.) Because I am sure there is more knowledge on here than the dealer I bought it from I am wondering what symptoms would point to which problem.
What should I be looking for if it is the o-rings in the clutch cover?
What should I be looking for if it is a piston liner seal leaking?
What should I be looking for if it is a head gasket leaking?
thx again

Thx for your response berger. So if the o-ring in the cover was damaged would the oil be turning white right away? I have ridden almost a full tank of fuel and my oil is still clear. I will do the run test to see if it is the head gasket (thats easy.) Would the oil be turning white if it was the liner o-rings? Like I said I am very new to these style of bikes and any help is greatly appreciated.

ok so i filled the rad right to the brim,left the cap off and let it idle. it seemed fine just sending a little fuid down the overflow tube. There were the tiniest of tiny bubbles but not really a steady stream....not that I have anything to compare it to. i then revved it up a bit, it sucked a bunch of fluid down, then when i let off the throttle its shot a bunch out. I then repeated and revved it up a bit, same thing and when i shut it down it sent a LOT of fluid out.....Did i prove anything? lol

Hey Ned,
I figured thats all I did lol, felt kinda dumb even writing that but I was getting pretty frustrated. Well I did some more testing and the coolant is for sure getting into the oil, it was weird, while its running its fairly white but was settling to the normal colour when sitting so I was kinda second guessing myself. So I will take it back to the stealership and hopefully they can put an end to this dilemma. I will let you know how it all goes.

Hey Taffy,
I did try that now I am wondering if this would be a very noticeable, steady stream of bubbles? There was the odd larger bubble but I am pretty sure that was created by the coolant going down the overflow tube.

Hey kawiguy, I am from Sylvan Lake, I just moved from calgary. I was there 2 days ago on my Aprilia, what a day! Well the engine was recently rebuilt, thats the reason I bought it.......The weep hole was dry but I did not try cleaning it out, that would have been a good idea. I took it back to the dealership so its in their hands now (sadly) so I am hoping for the best as they are f'in me around when it comes to fixing the problem on their dollar. I would normally do the repairs myself but I figured they would do it for free and I am out working in the field, this is turning out to not be the case. But I will keep you updated!

Hello again,
It has been a while since I posted on here, reason being I have been working so much and I haven't even seen the bike in over a month. Well the dealer replaced the waterpump seal (on my dollar) and I picked it up from the shop. I had been awake 24hrs and wasn't into dealing with them and trusted them that they fixed it. Took the bike for a ride and sure enough the same problem exists. Took it back and about 2 weeks later they called me to say that they do not want to dig into the problem further, said something stupid like the silicone has let go between the engine cases and this is causing the leak...possible? I will be dealing with the problem on my own (when I get the time.) The engine had been rebuilt so it is possible that the head gasket or the cylinder o-rings are leaking (though i could not see a steady stream of bubbles that would lead me to believe it is the head gasket.) I will check the seal behind side cover as Coastie suggested. If I have to tear into the engine further will I require any special tools? Where can one order a complete gasket set if I am to tear into this? I don't pretend to be an amazing mechanic but am more than capable of doing my own wrenching. I do need to split the cases as I do have an oil leak, how big of a job is this? Any help is greatly appreciated.
thx
Dan

Just to confirm, I am looking at the clutch cover diagram, the o-ring on the side cover is #65 in the diagram?

Hey Guys,

It has beena long time since I posted on the forum, I was working like a slave away from home since I got the bike. The dealership was unable to fix the bike and eventually gave it back to me saying they were too scared to carry on (not intelligent individuals.) They even tried to charge me for diagnosing the problem (again) even though they sold me the bike with the problem! Basically I had to get ignorant and threaten them... So I ordered a gasket kit from Rick Bozarth and when I finally got a few days off tore into the unit myself. I had a pretty good feeling that the issue was minor and was a o-ring behind the clutch cover and the gasket kit was overkill but better safe than sorry. When I got the clutch cover off the o-ring that tends to get pinched behind the clutch cover did not look too bad. But the tiny one on the water pump shaft was a little chewed up. Also running my hand on the water pump shaft the spot where the bearing and seal rides was a little grooved. About an hour with some emry cloth I had the groove take down, I then replaced both seals (I didn't have the tooling to replace the water pump seal again which had just been replaced.) I was sure to lube all the seals generously with Dow Corning 111 and used a non drying gasket glue to hold the clutch cover gasket in place. About 6 oil changes later (no new filter sadly) the oil was clear as can be and no longer was I losing coolant in the rad! This forum has been great and I wouldn't of had the confidence to tear into it without all the research I did on here. It took the better part of a day but man it was worth it, maybe take it out for some snow riding when I get back home!

Hey Guys,

Well I guess after all I didn't get my problems sorted. I have had the bike out for a few good runs this summer and have a little bit more info, maybe someone has seen similar issues.
First of all the bike smells like coolant when running (i thought it was just the smell of swamp on the hot engine.) I pulled the airfilter while the bike was running and you can see and smell burt coolant inside the airbox.
Secondly I was riding one day and the bike was sputtering and lots of black smoke was coming out the exhaust...I noticed the frame was oily, after pulling the filter there was milky oil inside the frame, eventually making its way into the carb. I thought this was from laying the bike down the previous ride. But I cleaned it all out and took it for a long ride only for it to return.
The engine oil does turn milky (though it eventually settles to normal)
The coolant level does drop
I also did notice oil in my coolant
So would you say that the coolant is getting into my oil and getting hot enough to boil and going into my airbox (meaning wp seal, o rings etc.)?? The water pump seal had been changed, I also changed the clutch cover o-ring and the tiny o-ring on the wp shaft. One thing I did notice was the wp shaft was a little scarred and seemed to be damaging the wp seal slightly. I cleaned this up but who knows until I pull it again. I just want to see if these symptoms point to anything other than the work I have already performed. I think I have pretty much answered my own questions but again any help is greatly appreciated!
thx
Dan