My SD and I have just been recovered by the AA from Dublin, Ireland to Yorkshire after the SD had problems with the cooling:

After a particularly hot run though Dublin at the start of the lads' week away, I noticed the coolant header tank was empty. I topped it up and kept an eye on it.

On a run out of 100 miles, the bike would use about 150 ml of water. after a short run though town (when hotter) it would use this amount (or more) a bit quicker so I assumed it was going into the oil when the pressure built up 'cause there were no leaks, and a slight steaming was seen from the engine breather. The oil looked fine in the sight tube at this point with a slight milky scum on top so I'm hoping the water was being boiled out of the oil effectively at speed. At this point I was also hoping the issue was a just water pump seal.

We did try some red-weld with no result

Returning to the traffic of the Dublin, the bike heated up quick so I stopped the bike let it cool and removed the rad top. With the bike running, the water was spewing out of the cap and I noticed the oil stating to turn milky so I gave up and called the AA

So.

I'm now guessing its a head gasket and have booked it in with the local bike shop.
The fan works fine, the water appears to be pumping OK, however:

I did notice when the temp got above 4 bars, the FI light would flash six times then stay on. I'm sure it flashed another code first but it didn't repeat the flashing immediately if the ignition was turned off/on and I didn't dare let the bike run above this temp on purpose to try to repeat the code as I knew when the pressure rose it was pumping water into the oil so just stopped the bike 'till it cooled.


Anyone any experience of this or good advice ?

Miff

(sh*tting that this is gonna cost me dear!)


'06 SD, owned for a year, 14,000 miles on the clock, serviced last October by KTM dealer in Ripon.