How to Flush.

I just checked with my on line manual and it looked pretty simple. I'll double check my Vstrom Shop manual to see if there are any tips or tricks.

Basically you remove that protective plastic water pump guard off the lower right side of the engine. Just follow the radiator hose. It also said to remove the radiator shrouds, but you can get to the radiator cap and to the bleeder on the other side, why take the shrouds off? Maybe for a radiator inspection? Are they clean and not blocked by debris?

Then you remove the little Philips safety screw from the the radiator fill neck and remove the radiator cap with the standard counter clockwise or anti-clockwise twist.

Place a drain pan under the pump and remove the little 8mm drain bolt and washer on the bottom. Careful, the coolant will come out like a urinating race horse. Ok, maybe not that fast, but it will have a pretty good stream.

Once the radiator and the engine are drained of fluid they said to remove the hose from the coolant reservoir bottle and drain it also. You of course know that the coolant bottle is on the left side of the bike. On the Vstrom I had to remove the coolant tank and give it a nice cleaning just to make it new looking.

In the Vstrom instructions they say to rinse the radiator with fresh water if necessary. If you change your coolant every 2 years I can't imagine that much gunk would be in there. But if it makes you feel better, flush it! Now I wouldn't shove a pressure washer hose down in there, just a gentle stream from the hose. Of course some people would say that I have introduced nasty mineral saturated water into my cooling system. I don't think that much would hang around to do any damage. But if you are anal you could get a gallon of distilled water to pour through there.

Then they have you installing all the drain plugs and reconnecting the coolant reservoir tank hose. Then you refill the radiator with a 50/50 mixture of ethylene glycol based anti-freeze recommended for aluminum engines and radiators. Definitely not the old yellow/green car stuff. I'm not sure if the new long life red car stuff is designed for aluminum cooling systems or not. The bike shop sells the premix stuff that is designed specifically for bikes. It usually comes in a 2 gallon container so you will have some left over for next time. ========DRZ400 Coolant capacity 1,250 mL (1.3 US qt)==========

The last instruction says: If the cooling system needs to be bled, use the bleeder screw on the top left radiator, making sure that the engine is cold. Of course that cold engine part would be nice to have at the beginning of this tutorial also. You would add coolant until it flows out the top of the bleeder screw hole. Tighten it up after you are done and wipe up any spilled coolant.

Here is a puzzler, how would you know if your 'system needs to be bled'. Mmmmmmm, I guess if you couldn't fit in the required amount of coolant in there? In the Vstrom instructions they have a bleeder screw down on the water pump. They also have you lightly tapping on the thermostat case and slowly swinging the motorcycle right and left. Then you start up the engine and bleed it from the radiator inlet completely. Hey, I found a little Engrish in the instructions: "Repeat the above procedure until bleed no air from the radiator inlet." I guess untill all the air bubbles have stopped. The Vstrom has a coolant reservoir just like a car, you have a high and a low mark. I don't think I have ever seen any coolant in my DRZ reservoir. Just a little coolant spit.

When I did the Vstrom change I just drained out the old and put in recommended amount. I didn't do anything extra special.

Good luck

 

sounds easy enough buddy Im going to give it a go:clap:

 

Rocky Mountain MX ATV YouTube channel has a super easy vid to do almost anything to a bike. Check them out. I use them before any project