[Guest]

i asked this in the ducati superbike section but i'll post it here too to see if i can get more responses. what do you guys do when you have to run water wetter at a track day/race and overnite temps can drop below 30? one suggestion was to drain as much as possible before nite falls and refill the next morning. how low can the temps drop before there's a danger of damaged caused by expanded water? 32F? lower? higher? i rather sound stupid here than feel stupid when my cases are cracked because of frozen water.

 

[Guest]

Re: water wetter question (slowpoke)

Dude if it is getting cold enough for a long enough duration "overnight" at the track to actually freeze the water in your engine then you aren't going to be riding anytime soon anyway LOL

 

[Guest]

Re: water wetter question (LDH)

Not helpful.

Some of us do trackdays in below freezing weather, so don't be such a puss.

Here's the deal: Extended periods of below freezing air temperatures (read 32 degrees or less) will expand the water in your cooling system and bust your motor.

Steps you can take for an overnight stay: Park it indoors... are you staying in a motel? Get a ground floor room and wheel it in. Or, run the motor every two or three hours for a few minutes.

Or just do as you suggested: drain it and fill it back up at the track.

 

[Guest]

hell if it is that important to ride in such cold conditions then get an air cooled bike

 

[Guest]

Re: water wetter question (LDH)

I realize you're just being facetious, LDH, but seriously, there are times out here in the desert when the temp can drop into the 20's overnight, but the next day it can be in the 50's and sunny.

I've heard several stories of guys who had their motors freeze up in the trailer the night before a race or track day. If the forecast is calling for freezing temps and your bike is out in the trailer or the back of a truck, definitely drain the water out. It's a pain in the butt, but it's better than the alternative...

 

[Guest]

Re: water wetter question (AZ Scott)

Hi All: I sent 2 bikes "748's" to a shop back east around thanksgiving time to have the motors built one bike had water wetter and one had straight water. When I use water wetter I use about 1/2 the bottle per bike. Back to the bikes. The shop never touched the bikes till early Feb. and found out that one of the bikes was frozen and one was ok. The bike with water wetter did not freeze and the other one froze and broke the heads and cylinders. I dont know if this was a fluke or what. Anyone ever put water wetter in the freezer??? Does it freeze by itself??? This is just my

 

[Guest]

Re: water wetter question (desmodork)

hhmmmm

I have some WW laying around in the garage. and it gets very much below freezing out there.

I will check it in the morning. It is supposed to be 24° here tonight.

 

[Guest]

I personally have had this delimma. I drained the water from my engine and refilled the next morning. Safe than sorry.

Oh, if you are at a track day and it is that cold...USE TIRE WARMERS!!!! Don't throw away your brand new RC51 and destroy your body and all of your safety gear like I did.

 

[Guest]

Re: water wetter question (desmodork)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by desmodork »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> When I use water wetter I use about 1/2 the bottle per bike.</TD></TR></TABLE>

That's a lot of water wetter, more than the manufacturer recommends... not that it's likely to hurt your bike, but you're getting close to having slippery coolant, and the point of running water with water wetter is NOT to have slippery coolant.

But at that concentration, it makes sense that the water only bike would freeze first. The purer the water is, the sooner it freezes. This is why fresh water freezes easier than salt water. This is why diet coke freezes earlier than regular coke. (It takes way less Nutra Sweet to sweeten a diet coke than it takes sugar to sweeten a regular coke... so there's less "stuff" dissolved in diet coke, and it freezes quicker...try it.)

So, if you're running the recommended ratio of water wetter, it's going to freeze faster than desmodork's second bike in his example, but not as fast as the water only bike in his example.

 

[Guest]

Re: water wetter question (banda)

To be completely clear, I am not recommending that you use diet coke or regular coke as coolant in your bike.

 

[Guest]

Re: water wetter question (banda)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by banda »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">To be completely clear, I am not recommending that you use diet coke or regular coke as coolant in your bike. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Too late, I followed your recommendation. Man, does it run SWEET!!!

 

[Guest]

Re: water wetter question (AA 996)

If I drink Diet Coke, does that mean I'm more likely to "root" my friend?

 

[Guest]

When they used to run our first race of the year at Blackhawk in early april we ran in days that were in the high 40's. One day we even ran a day after a 6" snow. Plowed the track, it dried and off to the races.

I had an open trailer for a few years and I would stop twice to start the bike and let it get to 90C then shut it off. I have a 15 mile drive to the tracj even. Usually it was only down to 18C when I stopped.

Soem guys are using Engine Ice during cold months in CCS.

 

[Guest]

Re: (RP Racing)

How about wrapping it up in an electric blanket? I used to live North of N Dakota, and we had a block heater, a cab heater, and a battery blanket to keep the truck from freezing solid. I do not miss those days.

If you put a couple small battery blankets on the cylinders, hooked up a timer to switch on and off you'd probably keep enough heat on the motor.

 

[Guest]

Re: (Just Riding Along)

Well it seems that WW won't freeze until you dilute it with.....

water