T Stat leak....possible reasons?

[Mp5]

Hey all. New to this forum, but on TT alot.
Here's my question, and my bike.

17 300RR.
Bought it used 2 mos ago with 120 hrs.
It now has around 160...all good.

Recently had a crash where bike landed against a boulder on rad cap side. Next day when bike was cold, had a small puddle of coolant on floor. Traced it to T Stat. This was weird to me as bike has never boiled in some very tight, up hill ganrly single track.

Researched and discovered possible head O ring priobem. Ordered KTM O rings, (should arrive today).

Then, I noticed my rad cap, and rad neck lip (that cap scews on to) were both tweaked from crash. Straightend out cap, and "unbent" neck lip as close to normal as I could, without cracking aluminum.

Wondering if the bent cap and lip could have caused my cap spring to not function, thereby not allowing any overlow from hose, and causing pressure build up, which then caused slight leakage from T Stat? Or maybe my Beta head O rings just gave up the ghost. Hard to tell.

My rads were not damaged at all except for cap and neck lip. Bike has never overheated prior to this, and I drained, flushed original coolant 3 times after buying my bike...so it has good quality HP coolant in it.

Thinking of buying Mylers rads, and equivalent guards, just to have them...and the Motominded T Stat to replace the stock plastic t stat. Do I need these...no...but like the idea.

So..anyone ever damaged their rad cap, fixed it with some tweaking, and that solved the leaking T Stat?

Or should I just buy all new beafier stuff, add a new t stat, and be done with it?

Just curious what y'as think..

BTW, here's my little "get off" that bent my cap...lol

https://youtu.be/lsHmhqmBwiQ

[aj_mariner]

I had a leaking t-stat right after installing the Mylers radiators. Just drained the coolant and ran with distilled water for a handful of rides then switched back to Engine Ice...no more leaks. The coolant had a weird pungent ammonia smell to it when it was drained.

[Mp5]

Hmm...interesting. My HP Coolant smells fine, and when I flushed rad 3 times recently, ran dstilled water through it.

Just finished swapping my O rings. Piston and cylinder look great after 160 hrs!

[Mp5]

Replaced my Beta head O rings w KTM 300 rings...two hard rides later, no more T Stat leaks