I was wondering, some people always said to let your engine cool before hosing it down with cold water. Because the drastic change in temp can crack your block. If this is true then how come you can ride an atv straight into a big mudhole and not have any problems afterwards?????

 

You just answered your own question. It's not true because you can do just what you said without breaking anything.

Now, that being said, it's not a good idea to ride an air cooled ATV wide open for a while and hit some cold water and crank it wide open again. The jug can tighten up some and the piston will still be very hot. This "can" cause a sieze in the bore. Now; it must not happen very often because I have seen people do this hundreds of times with air cooled quads and bikes without anything happening.

Liquid cooled engines are far more forgiving. They have 180 degree water right next to the piston so it is very unlikely that any liquid cooled engine will sieze from such a stunt.

Now; after saying all that, I still don't pull my quad in from a hard ride and hit it with cold water. It's just not nessary, so I don't do it.

 

thanks, I was curious. Yeah what you said makes a lot of sense.

 

It won't hurt hot aircooled ATVs to get cold water on them if the motor is off, but it might if it's running.
Doctorturbo I have aircooled ATVs and I'm getting a liquid cooled one(Grizzly), and I have a question, do you have to put water or something into a liquid cooled ATV? I don't know much of anyhting about liquid cooled motors.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Doctorturbo I have aircooled ATVs and I'm getting a liquid cooled one(Grizzly), and I have a question, do you have to put water or something into a liquid cooled ATV? I don't know much of anyhting about liquid cooled motors. </end quote></div>
Yes, coolant (antifreeze and water) cools the engine instead of air/oil. It is just like almost every car on the planet. Except older VW's and a few others.

Congrats on the Griz. They are a very nice ATV.

 

It won't hurt hot aircooled ATVs to get cold water on them if the motor is off, but it might if it's running.

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I believe its the other way around for liquid cooled, just like dumping water into your radiator after shutting off the car/atv/bike is bad for it. Its pretty well known that you should have the vehicle running when introducing a drastic temperature change

 

V2RIDER

That has a lot of truth to it. It would probably have to be a drastic change

 

so if you rode for a couple hours and got the engine hot would it hurt if you washed it off while it was still hot if the motor is running

 

I believe it has to do with the fact that the engine running limits how cold it can actually get by still producing its own heat, or mixing hot coolant which is moving through out the motor with cooler coolant which gradually changes the temp. When you shut it off, and dump cold water on it, it has no way to counteract the temperature change, and drops to fast.

On the otherhand, i have to wonder if anyone has looked at a block on a car that has gone through the ice, or snowmobile or atv. Anyone knows to kill the motor so water will not get sucked into the intake. Hmmmm...........

 

don't understand it completely, but ok.
thanks v2rider