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08 cbr600rr “leaking” coolant from head gasket?

71 views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  Bat-1  
#1 ·
I just bought an 08 cbr600rr. 6k miles. Bike runs great. I started to notice a faint coolant smell and put some coolant dye in and checked it with a uv flashlight. I found one spot, specifically the valve cover gasket or head gasket that was glowing with the coolant dye. Only in one spot. It also was not wet. I touched it to see if dye would get on my fingers but it didn’t. It looks as if it’s barely seeping through the gasket. How serious is this? Any help is appreciated thanks.
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#3 ·
Looks to be your valve cover gasket. Coolant doesn't enter that area (it could theoretically if you had a cracked coolant channel in your block but it couldn't leak enough to show through that gasket. Besides if that gasket leaked you'd get 50x more oil seeping than coolant) so I think you're getting a false reading here. I would ignore this.

When you say 'faint coolant smell' do you mean fresh coolant or that slightly sweet smell that burning coolant makes?

I'd make note of my coolant level and ride it normally. If it doesn't change you're good. You could also buy a pressure tester (they're cheap but make sure you get one for motorcycles as car one's won't fit). This will tell you if your coolant system is keeping pressure. If it is you don't have a leak.
 
#5 ·
In case you're not aware: water pumps have a little weep hole. It it's dripping out of there it means the interior gasket is shot and you have to replace the pump (on some bikes you can replace just the interior gasket, I don't remember if you can on the 600RR). The interior gasket seals the coolant from the motor oil. A leak here will allow coolant to get in your oil. It's not catastrophic but your oil will begin to look like chocolate milk and you'll get white cream under the oil filler cap.

A leak at the actual water pump gasket is rare (I've never seen it) but an easy enough fix.