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NZR: What's wrong with my bike?


auxilary

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or is there? Let me give you a quick background, so all facts are in...

 

my friend offered me his old bike that was sitting around in pieces a year ago at a very low price. He dismantled it to fix a throttle/idle issue, never got around to it, so it sat there for 2-3 years. I picked up the bike, put it back together, replaced the idle air control valve, filter, plugs, all basic maintenance, bam! fired right up. Still had the throttle issue when cold (it would not rev past 4k rpm and not build power), but once warmed up, it was pretty good.

 

I rode around for a month or so (sparingly, not every day), and took it to the dealer to have the ECU reflashed. Once the new ECU tune was loaded, bike runs like a champ. Takes a couple cranks to start when it's cold, but otherwise idles and responds just fine, and I've put maybe 700-800 miles since the ECU reflash

 

Now onto the problem. This weekend I decided to flush the coolant, oil, clean the chain, do misc. stuff to it. When I drained the oil (which has no more than 1500 miles on it), it had a hint of burnt gas to it. I wouldn't say it was very strong, but it was sufficient enough to make me worry. The motor is 9 years old now, and has just under 19,000 miles. It was never abused at the track, but has been romped on around mountain roads and used for commute. This is the 2nd oil change since I got the bike. There is no black or blue smoke, and when I wind it out in neutral to 9-12k rpm, I don't see much coming out of the exhaust (on a pit stand)

 

What are my chances that this is piston blow by, or if it's just a fluke from all the crap from sitting around, or incorrect amount of fuel being dumped from the bad ecu load when I first rode it? The bike is a Triumph TT600, which is basically a copy of Kawasaki Ninja ZX6R

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For reference, oil is Motul 15w50 semi-synthetic blend, exactly what FSM calls for.

 

Also another question if any bike guys are reading this... Any issues using regular automotive coolant, and not overpriced mobil1 crap dealer charges an arm and testicle for? As far as I can tell, manual says that it has to be ethylene based, and not methanol, and needs to have corrosion prevention agents.

 

Not too keen on paying $20/half gallon

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the owners manual should have a coolant spec. maybe an ASTM test number or such. if it says ethylene based, then you cannot use the low tox stuff as it is proplyene based.

 

a little disclaimer, i'm not a "bike guy" but I am an engineer that does design/build/startup for thermal systems of various sorts.

 

if you can share a spec or a product you're looking to replace i'll give what advice i can.

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Ok, so a little looking about shows that Mobil uses some kind of silica based scale inhibitor, not the more common phosphate type. From the warnings that they put on their products i don't think mixing the Mobil product with a "normal" antifreeze is a great idea. This is not to say you could not drain the blue stuff and put normal antifreeze in it's place, it is just the mixing that is frowned upon.

 

http://www.fioresebernardino.it/schedetecniche/Mobil%20Antifreeze%20Extra.pdf

 

I could not find the blue stuff as a US product, only brittish.

 

It also looks like this phosphate free stuff is more of a Europen thing. Again a warning about mixing your inhibitors. http://www.prestone.com/carcare/faq.php

 

I would say for the volume you're talking about i'd go out with the blue and in with the green with a 50/50 mixture. be sure to dilute with distilled or Reverse osmosis water.

 

hope this is a little helpful.

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