I put oil in coolant tank

[mmk]

Ok this is super embarrassing, but I thought I needed to add coolant, because when looking at reservoir, it looked empty.
I quickly grabbed a quart I had on the bench, thinking it was coolant, because I remember buying some and I thought that's where I set it.
Very dumb, yes I did not even look at the label, because in my mind, I thought that's the bottle of coolant I bought.

To my horror, after maybe pouring 1/4 quart, I realized it was oil.... yes, probably 10 whole seconds before my brain said "WAIT, THAT'S NOT GREEN!!"

I did some preliminary research, but I really wanted advice of fellow RC 390 owners....the procedure I need to do to flush this out.

I have never worked on a bike before, but I can follow instructions. Do I take that tube off the bottom side of the reservoir, or is the drain lower?

Ironically, I got warranty work done last fall, because an O-ring failed and caused coolant to mix with the oil. Now I pull this boneheaded move.

 

[ReidMcT]

I think I would see if I could just suction it out through the filler. I expect the oil will be floating on the surface of the coolant, and I imagine you could get 99% or more of it out without much trouble. Any remainder will do no harm that I can think of.

 

[ReidMcT]

And if you really want to clean it completely, remove it and wash it with an emulsifier such as Simple Green.

 

[mmk]

Thank you ReidMcT. I will try that.

 

[John390]

if you never ran the engine, don't!! Period. Do not start it.

Next remove the coolant reservior and dump it out in a safe manner. Clean it really well with strong soap like simple green or dish soap. rinse really well. next, look at the coolant in the pipe below the reserviour and see if its just coolant or if there is oil in there. If its just a bit floating on the surface, use a clean dry paper towel and soak the oil out. the oil will soak into the paper towel. do this till only coolant remains. Put it back togeather and fill the reservior to the correct level. With the correct coolant.

 

[mmk]

Thanks John, good info, much appreciated!

 

[mmk]

Update:


First I tried using a giant syringe to pull the oil straight out of the expansion reservoir, but the 1/4" tube attached to the syringe could not get past the overflow T, so that option was out the window.


I was about to just make a custom attachment so that I could Shop vac it out, when I realized that I could just disconnect the hose that enters the top of the radiator. That's how I got the oil out of the expansion reservoir, which was at least a cup, maybe two.


Then I drained the radiator, and started flushing 50/50 distilled water and white vinegar. I would also put a cup of Simple Green in reservoir, and run it until the fan went on and off 3 times. I repeated that process about six times. Then I did about another five flushes without simple green and just vinegar and distilled.


I finished up with about 10 flushes with only distilled water. It took that many flushes for it to finally come out clear.


Filled it up with engine ice, but then remembered that I probably poured it in too fast. Let it run leading to the left on side stand with radiator cap off until suddenly the bubbles came up and it dropped at least an inch. Then I added Engine ice to the reservoir, ran bike till the fan kicked on, leaned the bike to the right and opened the bleed screw. Coolant seeped out, but no bubbles. I hope this means that there is for sure no air in the system.


One thing I found out is that it seems impossible to see what the level is in the reservoir unless you shine a light behind it while you are looking at it from the other side. I remember last summer riding around and it was getting hot so I looked at it and could not discern the level, so I thought it was empty, but when I got back home I was able to figure out it was at normal level.


I'm curious if the thermostat opening and closing coincides with the fan turning on and off?


There was a fair amount of debris that came out throughout all the flushing. Mostly looked like metal flakes, several looked like little black rocks. Is that normal?
I got 3,775 miles on the bike.


I was also surprised that the pipe on the bottom turns orange. That also normal? (As you can tell this is my first time ever working on a bike).


Snow is finally melted enough that I can get this out of garage and go for a ride after I put the side panels back on. Hopefully I can figure out where those dangling hoses go on the left side because it looks like if I don't do it right they can touch the engine and burn. Cheers to everyone that has helped me in this!