Coolant change for track

J

JustinRR

Well-known member
I am new to this field, planning on doing my first track intro course, and a few lapping this coming season. But I would hate to change the coolant every time can I keep just pure distilled water in there, would there be any implications when I ride on the street all the time with just water?
 
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What he said. Swap it at the beginning of the season with distilled water with WaterWetter and swap coolant back in the fall for the winter.
 
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On the track don't they only allow water in coolant? Like no water wetter, engine ice nor any antifreeze?
 
Do not use Engine Ice while on the track. it is an antifreeze product that contains glycol. This will be extremely difficult to clean up if spilled on the track. Use water wetter in the spring with distilled water
 
Use water only, or water and water wetter on the track. Water-wetter is not an anti-freeze like coolant. It does not contain glycol. There are a couple others that can also work, but best to stick with what most people use.


JustinRR said:
On the track don't they only allow water in coolant? Like no water wetter, engine ice nor any antifreeze?
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Antifreeze is only in the bike so it doesn't freeze. The bike will run cooler with dist water, water wetter is for the water pump. Motul also makes one called MoCool, available at royal dist.
 
I stand corrected. I've only ever used distilled water with WaterWetter on track and left it in for the season including street use.

***edit***
I mentioned Engine Ice in error.
 
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Riceburner edited his post - I saw the earlier version.

Water + waterwetter / Motul MoCool is the correct answer. These additives are NOT glycol antifreeze, they are just anticorrosion additives and water pump seal lubricants. For winter, you can:
- Store the bike indoors where it never freezes ... obviously the bike must never be allowed to go below freezing if left with water in it.
- Drain it, leave it dry over the winter, and put a piece of tape marked "NO COOLANT" over the ignition switch so you don't forget.
- Drain the water and replace it with a normal coolant/water mixture over winter, and flush that out again to put water in it for your next track season.
 
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I use mo cool in all my bikes. last winter I left a partial jug of the premix on the garage floor, the temps in the garage got well below freezing and the mo cool did NOT freeze, but the cup of water on the work bench did....... go figure ?
 
That's because the MoCool itself is not water. It's not glycol ... but it's not water.
 
Without knowing the configuration of your storage area ...

Just about anything as a solution mixed with water will depress its freezing temperature. In some cases it's only slight, in other cases it can be quite large. For example, the right concentration of salt mixed with water can depress the freezing temperature to -18 C / 0 F. Not that I would suggest using salt as antifreeze ... but it's pretty likely that whatever the MoCool is, will depress the freezing temperature a little bit.

It's possible that the thermal inertia of the garage floor never let the temperature drop as low as the air temperature where you had the plain water stored.

If you have a thermometer, it's possible to do a proper test ... just put the thermometer in a container of your mixture and put it outside in the shade on a day like today and watch what happens. When you observe a mixture of liquid and ice in the container simultaneously, take the temperature. I'd be interested in the outcome of this test - go ahead and do it.
 
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