As we all know the 6th gen VFR’s (and others I’m sure) are hot running bikes. What are some mods that people have done to reduce/ dissipate the heat? Aftermarket cat-less header Exhaust wrap Aftermarket exhaust VTR fan blade swap What have other people had success with?
Other Ideas i have heard replace coolant with water wetter. upgrade to a bigger oil cooler. add a fan to right radiator.
I tried searching for a thread on putting a fan on the right radiator and didn't find anything. Do you have a link to the thread?
I put Engine Ice in my 98 Viffer. Subjectively, I think it helped. I had done the VTR fan blade swap too. That definitely helped.
With regards to the WW don't use it with glycol or any kind of anti-freeze. Even though it will say you can. That's true it will mix fine with glycol. But the glycol will hold the extra heat in it, that the WW extracts from the motor. So you can run warmer doing it that way. Just use water and a little rust inhibitor in it for best cooling results. Don't forget to put anti-freeze in it when you store it.
I don't think there was ever a thread or a How-To posted, but I do remember the idea being tossed around. Maybe on chat or at one of out west coast get togethers. I've thought about trying to tackle it myself since the bike does run quite warm on our 100+ degree days here in the Sacramento Valley...230 is not uncommon those days. Thats what I meant by replace. Drain it all and put in DI H2O and WW. Thats what I did and I subjectively noticed a 5-10 degree drop in running temps.
I am also on the quest to cut the heat. My '07 RWB runs hot in Chicago traffic. When I shifted to Amsoil Synthetic Oil it helped. I added Amsoil Coolant Boost last year to my stock Honda Anti-freeze and that also seemed to help. Not only in running temp but also in recovery time once I get the bike moving again. This year it's time to change coolant so I am going to try Amsoil Propylene Glycol coolant with Coolant Boost added. (Can you tell I like Amsoil Products?) The Amsoil engineers tell me it will run cooler than the Honda Ethylene Glycol product. We'll see! One thing I notice, when on the tollway, I find when following cars you get in a dead airspace and temps go up. At ten or twelve car lengths behind, temps still stay high. My VFR loves to be in clear airspace with no one in front of me. I was surprised to see how far back you must be to be in clear air.
Plans for my bike still include (but not limited to) VTR fan blade swap, PCV with the Auto Tune, changing coolant fluid, and putting on some exhaust wrap. The VTR fan assembly is sitting on my counter (fan blade, motor, and housing), exhaust wrap will be delivered tomorrow, PCV and AT will be ordered in March. Since I will be doing a bit of work with my fairings off, it looks like I'll have to dive into the question of whether or not one can actually fit a fan blade on the right radiator. As always, pictures will follow!
I switched to Amsoil PC Coolant + the Amsoil "Coolant Boost about 3-4 months ago. I run between 169 and 172 for the most part, stop & go traffic 178-182, and have only seen 200'F once or twice. Seemed to have done the trick!
Thanks for the info! Can't wait to try that Amsoil Coolant Combo Cocktail. Cooling not a problem at the moment, 34F and snowing in Chicago!
I know it is hard to believe, but when I went from the semi-synth Honda oil that was in it when I picked up the bike to the Motul 300V 10w40 that I use now, my running temps dropped 10F. I also had the added benefit of smoother shifts too. The temperature reduction was significant enough that I was able to talk my dad into switch to a Amsoil for his Harley instead of using the Harley oil. He dropped temps about 15 degrees by doing so. Since I've got the bike, there have only been three times that I've h ad troubles with heat: The Advanced MSF class I took, leaving the Indianapolis MotoGP, and Tail of the Dragon. The first two were because we were never going fast enough to get enough air moving over the radiators. The last was because I was running in a lower gear for more fun on the Dragon. Since most of what you are doing is under 40MPH, it doesn't offer too much of an opportunity to get air flowing over the radiators either.
See if there is enough space behind the right radiator to mount another fan assembly. I was only able to find the complete assembly on ebay, picked it up pretty cheap so I figured why not.
I picked up an inexpensive computer fan, 12V, aluminum body, it covers about a 1/3 of the right side rad. Wired it in to my stock fan override switch so when I notice temps climbing (210 or more) I force the stock fan on early, and also kick in the smaller 'auxiliary' fan. Helps. Maybe a switch to the Amsoil stuff would be good too :^) ... ACE
Best het reduction I know involved serious mods. Look up high performance coatings. you can go crazy and get serious temperature changes by using this stuff. When I had the headers (only the headers, not the collector pipes) on my RVF, which used to melt plastic in traffic, now won't even light off the fan sitting in the sun for over 40 minutes.
