RFS Coolant Sediment...normal?

[Tiger]

New KTM owner here. Also my first 4 stroke! Curious as to whether or not my dark colored sediment in my coolant is normal. This is a 2001 400MXC about 6 months old with NO problems at all. It's still green, but why so much sediment? In years of many 2 smokes, I've never seen this before. Looks like silty black sand. When I drained the coolant it came out black initially, then green, and black again toward the end. The pic is from the bottom of a clear jar with a light behind it. Do I have a problem?:think

FYI!
The bike has never run hot or overheated.
Runs like new.
Oil change is completely normal.
It does not 'weep' out of the cylinder head.
The coolant level was normal.
The only reason I drained the coolant is I ran into a tree and bent a radiator a bit. Took it off to tweak it back straight.

Thanks for any help you can provide!:think

:think

Thanks for any input! ;)

 

[Fred T]

sedient from tree hit?

Is it possible that when you hit that tree you knocked a bit of scale and build up off the insides of that RAD? Kinda like banging it with a hammer. something may have gotten knocked loose. If you are not losing any coolant then I don't expect that you have a bad seal anywhere.

 

[RoadRunner]

Is your head gasket ok? That black stuff could be carbon and combustion gases working past the headgasket and into the water jackets.

 

[Patman]

My bet is casting sand and possibly some machining oil residue. Yes the sand can wear your water pump but other than that what else can it come in contact with? Standard practice for me is to run a new bike (or any vehicle for that matter) for a short time then change all the fluids just to make sure I'm starting fresh and clean.

 

[Iceman]

Patman,

I agree with you as far as the oil residue from the manufacturing process.

Tiger,
Look for the easy things first, drain, flush and check in a month or so and see if the residue is still there.

Just my $.02

 

[Tiger]

Thanks everybody...

I appreciate your input! :) I had just never seen anything quite like it. I really figured it may just be a KTM 4-Stroke thing. At least the KTM 2 stroke brethren are saying it's reasonable. Now, any 4 strokes had the same? Hmmm...I've just never seen coolant contamination like this before. :silly:

Tiger

 

[Patman]

Should have seen the casting sand in the bottom of the radiator on my Ford Powerstroke the first drain, darn near a 1/2 cup!:eek: It stands to reason that they can't get all the casting sand out whenever any product is cast unless each part or assembled parts are hooked up and pressurized with a filtration system to catch the crud. I'm willing to bet the dark grit would turn a dark chocolate brown if it was dried and be about 400 grit. :)

 

[Tiger]

Thanks Patman...

O.K. I feel somewhat better now. Thanks guys. I'll flush the thing out a couple of times and see what happens. I'm gonna slap her back together and go riding @ Hatfields and McCoys this weekend www.trailsheaven.com I've already got paid weekend passes! It's just a bit curious to me that no one replied (does the Ford count?) with a "KTM? Yeah, mine did that too." kinda talk. I appreciate your input more than you know. Looks like the yZ is going to get left again this weekend! :think

Tiger:D