KTM 350 overheated during race, is it ok?

rob27ma
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Williamstown, MA US
9/25/2017 2:47pm
I have a KTM 350 and yesterday during a race I started losing antifreeze. I was unaware at the time, so I continued to race, but my bike suddenly shut-off near the end of the 30 minute race, and when I went to restart it would not. After letting it cool for about 5 minutes it started back up, and I rode it for another 5 minutes. When I finished the race, I noticed the red FI light was on and would not turn off until I shut the bike off.

At the time I did not realize the bike was low on antifreeze, or that it had overheated, but I've since repaired the issue, and the bike starts up normal and seems to run just fine. My question is, should I be concerned with any damage to the engine? or is it safe to continue to ride?
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imoto34
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9/25/2017 3:01pm
What was the issue to cause it to over heat?
ktm-5
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9/25/2017 3:45pm Edited Date/Time 9/25/2017 3:46pm
Not sure myself but maybe your temp sensor shut your bike off when it got to hot?? Hence why u were able to restart it after a few min. Just guessing since I'm fairly new to these new 4 strokes. I know on my 2 strokes when it shut down from overheating it was over lol
rmstrg
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9/25/2017 4:41pm
If it were mine I would check/replace piston and rings. Look at the valve train very closely for scoring.
RCF
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9/26/2017 5:33am
If you still had some coolant left you're probably okay we had this happen multiple times with one of our older bikes without any bad effects , but if you lost all the coolant you need to tear the engine apart. we had a 350 that the head gasket fail on it destroyed every Seal in the motor actually melt the cages around the main bearings the heat also wrecked the valve seats the engine got so hot that it melted my son's riding boot on the clutch side and obviously the Piston seized was able to save the cylinder with an acid bath to get the aluminum off.
And like your bike once it cooled down it would start and sound fine even with the bad head gasket but obviously the engine was trashed.

The Shop

rob27ma
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Williamstown, MA US
9/26/2017 6:56am
imoto34 wrote:
What was the issue to cause it to over heat?
A rock hit the drain bolt and bent it. It must have been dripping during the race.
rob27ma
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Williamstown, MA US
9/26/2017 6:57am
ktm-5 wrote:
Not sure myself but maybe your temp sensor shut your bike off when it got to hot?? Hence why u were able to restart it after...
Not sure myself but maybe your temp sensor shut your bike off when it got to hot?? Hence why u were able to restart it after a few min. Just guessing since I'm fairly new to these new 4 strokes. I know on my 2 strokes when it shut down from overheating it was over lol
That's what I was hoping, but I couldn't find any information on whether they had a temp sensor that would turn the bike off.
CarlinoJoeVideo
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9/27/2017 10:23pm
I just saw this on instagram. Photos of a engine after running with no coolant.


RCF
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9/28/2017 6:40am
There is no sensor that shuts the engine down here's a few photos of mine the oil boiled it was so hot







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