Food coloring for a dye?

[gwstang]

This sight glass for the hydro is about the stupidest thing ever. Very hard to tell if it's full or empty. Is there a reason not to just use some food dye to make it easier to see? I've seen the JD type dye on ebay but that is a ridiculous price for something like that. Maybe it's "magic" or something? :laughing:

My last motorcycle was a Yamaha VSTAR 1100 and for a pricey bike, it had a sight glass for the oil level. You had to lean way over, or on your knees, and then lift (Push) the bike off the kickstand. Then try to balance the thing in some semblance of level, while leaning way over to see the glass and if it is in the middle of the glass and pray not to let it get over too far and fall on the other side. Stupid idea but....at least we don't have to tip the tractor over to level and see the glass under the left floorboard. :laughing:

Sadly, I cannot ride anymore with a titanium plate in my neck, it just caused all kind of hurt. So I let it go. Swmbo was happy....but I was not. Heck, I put well over 150K on 5 different bikes, added together, and never had a wreck. Lots of close misses with deer and little old ladies that like to turn in front of big bad biker dudes...lol Yeah, right she (Wife) says. :laughing:

Food dye or not?

 

[gwstang]

Re: Food coloring for a die?

Arrgh. It won't let me change the word "die" to "dye" in the title. Autocorrect sucks.

 

[David_Kb7uns]

Re: Food coloring for a die?

John Deere Oil Dye part # John Deere Oil MT3668

John Deere Oil MT3668

David

 

[KennyV]

Food Dye is Water base... You need Oil base dye... KennyV

 

[Fallon]

Re: Food coloring for a die?

John Deere Oil Dye part # John Deere Oil MT3668

John Deere Oil MT3668

David

That's what i used to combat the crystal clear SUDT2 & inconvenient sight glass in my old L3200. Used half the bottle & it worked great. Went to dump the last half of the bottle in my new L4060 because I had it around & it was dried out. The L4060 has a dipstick so its not hard enough to check to bother ordering a new bottle. Could barely see the level in the L3200 when it was in the sight glass, much less figure out if you were above or below the glass. At least until i dumped the dye in.

I wouldn't put water based dye in, doubt it would work & I try pretty hard to keep water out of my oil.

 

[nybirdman]

I used the JD dye in my hydro Kubota!Worked great,almost impossible to see on the dip stick without it.
Note;when I brought it in for service the Kubota tech had thought I had put automatic transmission fluid in my hydro.Used two bottles,one may have been enough.Around $5.00 ea.

 

[orezok]

Back in another century when I raced midgets and sprint cars, we burned methanol which is clear. There were no fuel restrictions back then so every week we would put a different color food die in the fuel so that the competitors would wonder what was in the translucent jugs. It really messed with their minds and may have cost some of them an engine as they added "combustion enhansers" to their fuel. . .

 

[CobyRupert]

Back in another century when I raced midgets and sprint cars, we burned methanol which is clear. There were no fuel restrictions back then so every week we would put a different color food die in the fuel so that the competitors would wonder what was in the translucent jugs. It really messed with their minds and may have cost some of them an engine as they added "combustion enhansers" to their fuel. . .

:thumbsup: Bwwaaa-ha-ha-ha! (evil laugh).

 

[Ford850]

As long as the sight glass was actually glass, I won't be concerned with adding a dye. But if this is plastic of sorts, then I would stay away from dyes. The dye could permanently stain the plastic and make it even more difficult to read. Now, if you only have a dipstick then the dye would be great for that.

 

[gwstang]

Re: Food coloring for a die?

That is much more reasonable than the prices I've seen before.