We have over a period of time ran into trouble with cooling on different bikes. All of us have heard of all the special cooling additives and different techniques now in use. We decided to run some test on our own to see what worked best on a bike we had in house. We found that some of the expensive things did not work as good as some of the less expensive items.
Here are the solution mixtures we used in our testing. A 10% antifreeze solution, a 50/50 anti-freeze solution, a 50/50 blend with a cooling aid in percentage the manufacturer recommended, plain water with a cooling aid and straight Maxima Coo laid.
These solutions were used in the same bike allowing several hours in between cycles to get engine to room temperature. Running the engine until it reached operating temp 160-170°, the radiator fan kicked on at 180°, we recorded the time it took from "fan on to fan off". The amount of time for the fan to cycle and dissipate the heat was what we based our results on. We also kept a check on radiator core temps and head temp as we did this as a check against the coolant temp gauge we were using and the fan cycle times.
Let me state here this is not conclusive in any way as to absolutely which one performed the best, but it was the best we could do in house. I personally feel this is as good a test as needed to say which one transferred engine heat the quickest.
| SOLUTION |
Fan Cycle Time |
Improvement |
| Water and 10% anti-freeze |
40 seconds |
Base Point |
| Water and 50% anti-freeze |
30 seconds |
25% |
| 50/50% solution with 3oz. of JB's Super Radiator Cooler * |
25 seconds |
37% |
| Straight Maxima Coolanol ** |
25 seconds |
37% |
**The ambient temp was 10°s warmer than when the other test were run, results would probably be better than shown. We also used the Maxima Cool-aide Solution but found it did not cool any better than the Coolanol. The Cool-aide does not have anti-freeze in the solution so come winter you would have to change this.
*JB (Justice Brothers) solution and other chemicals are sold at most parts houses. If you can not find them locally contact us and we will find you a supplier.
Net test results showed the Maxima Coolanol to be the best buy. It is made especially for the aluminum motors uses de-ionized water to keep down electrolysis and comes in two quart containers.
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