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Radiator getting blocked on the outside

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Eastsussexbiker:
Me again sorry ! Hopefully with some useful advice. Sadly I still have the cam cover leak which has been going on for weeks. However it takes me half an hour to get the cam cover off the bike now which is good, but I just wanted to show you something which amazed me considering I only cleaned the radiator flushed it through on the outside and made it really good and almost like new from the point of view of cooling. But the problem is I went out on the bike just the once and got caught in the rain and this is the result of that 30 mile journey in very light rain, but the roads being very very wet. So my advice for anybody who has one of these bikes is to get if you haven’t already a mudguard extender which I bought a while ago but haven’t fitted and I am now going to fit it, especially seeing this. As far as the cam cover leak is concerned, I will shave off a bit more of the cam chain guide as I didn’t take enough off and I will seal it on both sides of the gasket, especially in that corner. The rest of it is fine. It doesn’t leak anywhere else. I didn’t put any sealer on top side of the gasket where the cam cover fits, so this time I will do top and bottom of the gasket and then see how it works after filing flush the cam chain guide flush with the head I mean.

Phmode:
Welcome to the wonderful world of K ownership.

When I put the brand spanking new radiator on the K12, it was crud-laden after about 250 miles of summer riding. Of course, summer in the UK wasn't all sweetness and light, it was wet and hot/cold by degrees.

From many years K experience, it is wayyyyy more important to look after your radiator than it is to do oil changes, especially with the average annual mileage of the average K. Coming a close second is not letting the exhaust headers rot. Either of these will kill a K long before the normal modern bikes Achilles heel of the ECU going AWOL.

Just sayin'.

nealchaykin:
Wow! Thank god I live in Canada. My rad just gets full of bugs…the hard shelled ones that dent and bend the aluminum fins.  :evil:

Phmode:

--- Quote from: nealchaykin on March 22, 2024, 01:17:00 am ---Wow! Thank god I live in Canada. My rad just gets full of bugs…the hard shelled ones that dent and bend the aluminum fins.  :evil:

--- End quote ---

Ouch! I felt that. Having had kamikaze wasps and bees make a bee(wasp?)-line for my hands many times over the years I can tell you the impact is well hard, even through armoured gloves so, god knows what a June bug type thing would do to the finning.

I'm fairly sure that a lot of the muck that gets encrusted in our rads is also the toasted remains of many bugs mixed in with all the other crud.

Matt:

--- Quote from: nealchaykin on March 22, 2024, 01:17:00 am ---Wow! Thank god I live in Canada. My rad just gets full of bugs…the hard shelled ones that dent and bend the aluminum fins.  :evil:

--- End quote ---

...A... tortoise...?

 :P

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