Coolant flush - fishy smelling coolant and odd color

Hi everyone, I’m flushing my coolant for the first time and I can’t tell if the color and smell are normal. It seems to be either orange or brown. And it smells like fish. It’s a 2014 and I bought it with 2K miles on it like three months ago. I’d imagine the coolant sat in there for many years but I could be wrong.

I attached a few images of the coolant and one of the opening of the radiator. Let me know if you want any more info!

It was beautiful pink when coolant was new and I wonder if that’s the original fluid the bike was delivered with. As seen in the link below:


Flush the system with distilled water and then refill it with VP Stay Frosty. It’s also a good time to replace the hoses with lifetime hoses from Samco. It might run better than new once u do this.

how’s the bike run? Ever consider a flash/ECU tune? It’s life changing on a big twin like yours

Ditto... flush and refill with fresh coolant. Thereafter, keep an eye on it for good measure to ensure the off-color isn't indicative of a problem.

You can either get the VP Stay Frosty High Performance which is purple . VP advertises that it reduces engine temps up to 25 degrees F and has boil over protection up to 265 degrees F. As well as freese protection. But Im not sure what the freeze protection temp is. (just dont get the VP Stay Frosty race ready one. The race ready says that it reduces engine temps up to 100 F but there is no freeze protection.) Or you can get Engine Ice which is blue. Engine Ice advertises that it reduces engine temps up 25 degrees F, has boil over protection up to 256 degrees F. And has a freeze protection to -26 degrees F. I have the VP Stay Frosty Hi Performance in my Ducati. And my BMW S1000R and S1000RR have Engine Ice in them. I also replaced all the hoses over the winter on all 3 bikes with Samco silicone hoses and Samco hose clamps. If you install the Samco hoses with Samco hose clamps you get a lifetime warranty on Samco hoses. Samco also advertises that there is a significant engine heat drop. Combining the Samco hoses with either VP Stay Frost High Performance or Engine Ice coolant will essentially lower your engine temps. Samco says up to 20 degrees F. The coolants say up to 25 degrees F. I combined both and so far I see great results.

You might have a internal oil leak that’s allowing oil to mix with the coolant. Perhaps the head gasket. Coolant should never look like that. Keep an eye on oil level.

Hey guys, quick update. I’m a ........ Turns out the coolant was actually pink as it should be. It looked brown in the drain pan because it’s black. I figured this out when I was pumping it to a container through a clear hose. The takeaway is to not drain fluids into black pans. Use white instead!

But right now I’m running some distilled water and vinegar through it to prep it for the engine Ice! If engine ice doesn’t do the job then I’ll try the VP that several of you mentioned. And I never really thought about the radiator hoses from Samco as a way to cool the bike so I’m definitely gonna grab those if this doesn’t work. Thank you guys for the quick and helpful info. I love this forum

Great news! Any of them are good and will do the job