radiator problem

[painhatehope]

hello...

i own a ktm and recently the (when looking from the front of the bike) right radiator started leaking when the bike ran for a short period of time, in the bottom left corner of the radiator. i run rock gaurds and its a very slow leak. it seems to be coming from the inside and has no visible cracks on the outside. the fins are slightly bent but not really bad. some goop would collect there but i think it was just coolant and dust collecting. when it happened i only lost about a 1/4 or less of the fluid in the 3 hours i rode. i was wondering if a product, like they make for cars, that seals from the inside (if that is were a crack may be, which seems to be the case) would hurt my radiator if i put it in (off the bike) and flushed out any extra sealant and then put in new coolant? also does car radiator fluid hurt a motorcycle radiator? i dumped the entire system tonight and flushed it with water, ran some car collant through it to collect any debris and the flushed with water again. during all of those times only water came from my two hose outlets and my overflow tube but none from the area where the leak seems to be coming from....i am at a loss... would running it while leaking, if i kept a watch on the coolant level, hurt the bike? i really would like to fix this easily because radiators are not cheap and i am strapped for cash...

 

[Peer Lovell]

First you should only use "non silica" type coolant. You can use car type fluid if it says this on the container. If not, go to a Honda car dealer and get a jug of their fluid, its pretty cheap.
I wouldn't put Stop Leak type of products in the rad. It will gum up the impeller. Look in the back of some dirt bike mags, there are always ads for companies that repair bike rads.

 

[Moto Squid]

take it to the local car radiator guy and they can pressure test it. Then when they find a leak they'll create a vacum and put some epoxy on that will get sucked into the leak. It'd probably only cost a few bucks.