Overflow Catch Bottle

[BrilliantB8]

Has anyone on here installed a coolant overflow catch bottle on the RC? I picked up the TYGA one and can't locate a good place on the bike to mount the bottle where its out of the way of the fairings. Any suggestions or pics of where you installed yours will be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Rexbo]

For AFM rules, I just bought a plastic small nalgene bottle and mounted it up near the steering head just under the fairing and where the forks don't hit on the left side. Will try to get photos when I get home.

 

[micahpearlman]

For AFM I just run overflow into the bellypan.


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[Rexbo]

For AFM I just run overflow into the bellypan.


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They let you do that?? I got a thorough lecture from one of their tech guys a while back when I had overflow just going to the bellypan and had to improvise a CVS solution

 

[motoputz]

I put one on the lower right of the engine, just bellow the radiator. There is a little space between the fairing and the motor. The stock overflow hose even reached when rerouted to the other side of the frame.

One thing you can do to prevent the belching of coolant it to drain the coolant from the system and refill with straight DI water. There will be enough of the antifreeze left in the block for corrosion protection once it is mixed with the DI water. The dealers put way to much anti-freeze in the system. Once I did the change it stopped puking a bit of coolant every time I got home from a ride. Pure water has much better heat transfer characteristics that anti freeze and does not expand much when hot. I live in California and my bike is not exposed to temps much below freezing very much. So just a little antifreeze works for me.

 

[micahpearlman]

They let you do that?? I got a thorough lecture from one of their tech guys a while back when I had overflow just going to the bellypan and had to improvise a CVS solution

Gone through tech for 2 seasons now doing that. Though your mileage may vary depending on who is doing tech. Technically the bellypan is a catch system. *shrug*


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[=maz=]

I use a couple of small capture bottles that I got from a Go-Kart shop.
My bike is a Track-only machine so I used the Headlight recess to mount the bottles...works great.

 

[Formula390]

Gone through tech for 2 seasons now doing that. Though your mileage may vary depending on who is doing tech. Technically the bellypan is a catch system. *shrug*

-=TECHNICALLY=- yes. It's more for a catastrophic failure catch tho. With something like a oil breather or coolant overflow, it's ALL too easy for that belly accumulation to mist your rear wheel. While you might not put somebody ELSE on their noodle, it's risky!

Jeff Frazier was doing that with his RC at the last COTA trackday. He was running hot, as he was about to loose his head gasket (it finally completely let go on his next track session out at the next track) but the misting of the coolant out the hose which was routed into the belly was putting coolant onto his rear wheel. Jeff reported "It was getting a little slippery out there, and the bike was running hot, so I pulled in."

<cranky old man> Back in my day, they wouldn't have EVER let us get away with just routing the overflow into the belly. No effin way! </cranky old man>

 

[Diploman]

Most liquid-cooled bikes I have seen - and virtually all cars - have a PRESSURIZED overflow/expansion tank that itself has no overflow hose. The 390 engine, however, has a simple, unpressurized coolant reservoir that seems intended only as a top-up device for coolant when the engine is cool and the radiator is not under pressure. This coolant reservoir is not meant to accept pressure, and when faulty OEM radiator caps have been known to leak pressure into the reservoir, it produces the much-discussed "puking" out the overflow hose. This would not happen if the 390 had the more common pressurized expansion tank.

I am curious why KTM would choose this unusual unpressurized coolant reservoir instead of a pressurized expansion tank. Any thoughts?

 

[motoputz]

I have seen no pressurized overflow tanks on motorcycles. All of the water cooled bike that I have owned or worked on have simple catch bottles that take up the normal fluid bleed off from the radiator cap. (this is a design feature and not faulty OEM caps). When the system heats up and the pressure rises above the breaking pressure of the cap it bleeds off fluid. When the system cools down and the internal pressure drops below atmospheric pressure fluid is siphoned back into the radiator. Look at you cap there are two concentric valves in it. One out and one in.

This is were I put my catch bottle:

 

[philipviana]

Bumping this thread because I had a problem with my coolant compensating tank today - that is, the overflow hose broke right off the connection point at the top of the compensating tank! The plastic head/nozzle that the hose wraps onto just cracked right off.

Two questions:

1. Do I even need the overflow hose in the first place? Is it safe to just seal / plug up the hole for overflow and maintain a moderate level of coolant in the comp tank, below the max level?
2. If that's unsafe, what's a smart way to fix the broken connection? I don't think any superglue could fix the broken nozzle since there is so little surface area to affix to; duct tape would be messy and might not hold...

I'm frankly wondering what the purpose is of the overflow hose on the stock bike since it simply seems to hang into the plastic fairings without any sort of overflow catch bottle (the topic of this thread). The fact that there is no catch bottle by default makes me wonder if this whole system is more for track goers and racers and not the weekend enthusiast.

Thanks!

 

[Biker]

Bump bump. Any answers to this?

 

[karizzle38]

Hey motoputz, thanks for the pic. Did you get the one from Tyga or Formula390? Did the catch bottle come with directions on where and how to mount? That seems like an awkward place to put it and looks like it might come loose after awhile. Also thinking this could be a $2 fix if I just bought all the parts myself instead of the $20 pricetage plus shipping.

I have seen no pressurized overflow tanks on motorcycles. All of the water cooled bike that I have owned or worked on have simple catch bottles that take up the normal fluid bleed off from the radiator cap. (this is a design feature and not faulty OEM caps). When the system heats up and the pressure rises above the breaking pressure of the cap it bleeds off fluid. When the system cools down and the internal pressure drops below atmospheric pressure fluid is siphoned back into the radiator. Look at you cap there are two concentric valves in it. One out and one in.

This is were I put my catch bottle:
View attachment 2858View attachment 2859

 

[avs]

Sorry to bring this back from the dead, but i just got one of these and want to race it.

I was planning to route the coolant overflow to the top instead of bottom of the catch tank, add a small hole in the cap to vent the tank, and add a short plugged hose at the bottom to drain any overflow after a session.

Is there any other drain lines (crankcase, gearbox) that need to be routed to this tank? (all i can see is fairing so far, need to start stripping it down to see the plumbing!)

 

[Formula390]

So it all sorta depends on which org you are racing with and what their rules are for catchment. In general, if you route the lines running to the evap canister you should be good. That vent hole is a good idea as well as some guys have accidentally screwed up their routing and ended up blowing gas out of their tank cap breather hole... There are FAR better ways to do a Collin Edwards impersonation.