The skid plate I have (was installed when I got KLR) covers under and around side of engine. Thus prevents me from examining the engine for where that 6" diameter blotch of something - not oil so must be coolant - came from.
So removed the skidplate, there was quite a slimy gucky mess on the bottom-side of the engine, nicely covered up by skidplate. While the mess was slimy and gucky, it didn't seem like oil. Wiped it all clean, found the oil plug, removed that, and drained oil. Nothing on the tip of the magnetic plug. Continued wiping and cleaning bottom of engine. I put a new copper ring on the oil plug, and torqued it in with my 1/4dr toque wrench to 15 ft lbs. Found a hole through the head of the oil plug, obviously put there by previous owner. In keeping with my obsessive-compulsive oil-plug-retentive tendencies, I wired the oil plug to the frame.
Onward to where that blotch of glycol is coming from. It took about an hour, but a droplet of coolant slowly formed at this hole in the bottom of the water pump.
My question for the forum is about what is in that hole... I took a clean toothpick and poked in there, what came out was not only glycol, but maybe a bit of oil. In terms of oil disappearing from the crankcase, this being an 08 model, oil going away from the crankcase at a rate of about 1/4 quart every 1000 miles is not unusual. The presence of oil in this weep-hole, and the gucky mess on the bottom of the engine appears a bit oily, introduces the possibility that some of that 1/4 quart is going here.
Without looking at a cutaway diagram of that area of the engine, I presume that weep hole goes to a dead cavity inside, with a crankcase oil seal on one side, and a glycol seal on the other. Either seal can leak with the theory being the path of least resistance for the leaking substance is out through this weep hole and out, rather than past the other seal.
I presume the glycol seal is reasonably doable. How much do I have to remove to replace the oil-seal side?
So removed the skidplate, there was quite a slimy gucky mess on the bottom-side of the engine, nicely covered up by skidplate. While the mess was slimy and gucky, it didn't seem like oil. Wiped it all clean, found the oil plug, removed that, and drained oil. Nothing on the tip of the magnetic plug. Continued wiping and cleaning bottom of engine. I put a new copper ring on the oil plug, and torqued it in with my 1/4dr toque wrench to 15 ft lbs. Found a hole through the head of the oil plug, obviously put there by previous owner. In keeping with my obsessive-compulsive oil-plug-retentive tendencies, I wired the oil plug to the frame.
Onward to where that blotch of glycol is coming from. It took about an hour, but a droplet of coolant slowly formed at this hole in the bottom of the water pump.
My question for the forum is about what is in that hole... I took a clean toothpick and poked in there, what came out was not only glycol, but maybe a bit of oil. In terms of oil disappearing from the crankcase, this being an 08 model, oil going away from the crankcase at a rate of about 1/4 quart every 1000 miles is not unusual. The presence of oil in this weep-hole, and the gucky mess on the bottom of the engine appears a bit oily, introduces the possibility that some of that 1/4 quart is going here.
Without looking at a cutaway diagram of that area of the engine, I presume that weep hole goes to a dead cavity inside, with a crankcase oil seal on one side, and a glycol seal on the other. Either seal can leak with the theory being the path of least resistance for the leaking substance is out through this weep hole and out, rather than past the other seal.
I presume the glycol seal is reasonably doable. How much do I have to remove to replace the oil-seal side?