450 EXC Over Heating – Engine ICE

This all sounds too familiar, my son Tom had an 08 530excr and we went through 4 months of problems with overheating which started with an overheat in the middle of a ride this April(so not even hot weather).
This happened a few times before realising we had a bigger problem, I stripped it down to find a blown head gasket put a new one in and re-assembled it,checking all the other radiator components to make sure nothing was blocked or obstructed then carried on with the rebuild.
Come the weekend went out and did 270ks without a problem then 5Ks from home it boiled over again :ohmy: this time I pressure tested the rad cap,tested the thermostat and nothing :blink: took it for another short ride up the road and it boiled over again stripped it down again to find the head gasket gone again :angry: :angry: , took the head and barrel to be checked for warpage where the machine shop skimmed both surfaces by the finest amount, another head gasket and off we go again only to have the same thing happen once more :angry: :angry: :angry: this time it was repaired then traded in for a new ever reliable WR :cheer:
I do think the Kato’s have an underlying problem with overheating, I’v got 2 mates with 2010 450s and both have had boil overs and one was on his first ride on saturday just gone :huh: My advice would be to fit a fan,check the thermostat even look into fitting an overflow bottle :ohmy: because you don’t want it to happen too often.