well, I'm stumped

[smb_racing]

Well, I'm having a less than happy KLXperience right now. The bike in question is a 1994 KlX250 with the stroker 307 kit and a 33mm pumper carb. Here's my problem, the bike runs great, I've checked and rechecked the cam timing and it's right on with the kawasaki service manual. Bike isn't running lean, the plug is a nice color and all. It has new rings and a new cam chain and a new head gasket, BUT the thing keeps losing all of it's coolant. It pushes it out of the engine and into the overflow tank but then on out through the overflow and down to the swingarm. I tried going to a 1.6 radiator cap but the problem still exists. I tried using engine ice (not impressive by the way) and Prestone's Dex-cool approved coolant. If I start the bike and watch the overflow tank I can't see it bubbling as if compression is leaking into the system, also am not getting any water in the oil. As far as I know the water pump is functioning normally as well (if you remove the housing and push the kicker the impeller turns freely). So now on with my question....what could be the problem? Does the stroker kit require different cam timing? I've tried everything I can think of so I bow to the superior knowledge of my comrades :worship:

 

[penguin]

clogged radiators or restricted cooling passages? Ever had the radiators cleaned? On a 94 I would think you would have deposits in the radiator.

 

[Humai]

I would suspect your head gasket sealing integrity. Check for signs of leakage and check for any damage to the head/barrel sealing faces, the barrel (sleeved or plated?) or the head itself.

Good luck.

 

[smb_racing]

The rads appear to be clean inside, no scale on top of the tubes and I thoroughly cleaned the fins. As to the head issue I noticed that one of the bolts appeared to have backed off a tad so I'm going to retorque them and see. When I installed the head gasket I made sue to align it with the coolant passages, I coated the gasket on both sides with two coats of copper seal spray and torqued to specs. Hopefully everything will turn out good on it now.

 

[JohnE]

Quite often the cause of overheating KLX's is that the nut on the waterpump impellor has come loose. It happened to a friend of mine and your's sounds like it has the same condition. Hope this helps. JohnE

 

[smb_racing]

retorquing the head appears to have remedied the situation. I took a lap or so around the practice track and haven't lost a drop of coolant so far :)
thanks for the tips guys.