160* Thermostat?

Re: Flow Pattren

Jon,

You said in your previous post "So the T-splitter at the bottom of the motor is a parallel supply line to both radiators (the flow direction goes from the back bottom of both radiators, across the rows, to the front tops (seen above) - feeding through the T-stat at the top junction area - mounted on top the right radiator...."

I think the flow is in the opsite direction.



So am I working too??? (J/K)

Action

 

Sorry to bother you hard working folks, but this has really taken off.....it's now gone from a potential $6.00 solution of a manual fan switch or a $40.00, 200 degree thermoswitch for the fan - to a complete $400.00 reengineering of the cooling system. Can't wait to see how this all ends up, good luck. :thumbsup:

 

Interesting I didn't know that. I thought it was nearer to 185-190. I've always noticed that cars and such ran normal temps of about 180-185, and this VFR runs about 172 if it's at speed. And it runs well on this temp. In general I know that cooler temps cause poorer fuel economy.

From what I am getting here, it's in the cooling systems design to be ran at temps tipping 200 when ran hard, but with temps around 170-180 not under any agressively load.

When I get some time, I am going drain the system and refill it with engine ice, before-hand pulling the T-stat and Fan-stat, measure the temps in boiling water to get the opening and full-open readings, and then pickup an oil temp sender and digital gauge and watch what happens at low speeds. Going on about this seems to be unsupported without any solid measurements and information.

 

Looking at the sketch,which I believe is from the service manual,I have to say, Action is correct. In short it appears that all the engines coolant goes through the radiator with the
radiator cap first(right side) and this radiator then transferes its coolant via two paths,one is straight back to the engine and the other path is over to the left side radiator,with fan,then down through that radiators coolant tubes and back to the engine and repeat.
In essence the right radiator is the primary,which gets 100% of the coolant and the left one is the secondary which gets only a percentage of the coolant ,seems to me the fan should be on the right side radiator,buts thats the way I see it. eddie

 

Thanks. I'll take the hat for that one...lol

Personally I'd do a $400 redesign on this system if it meant I could go low-speed without the high temps and having to use a fan and drain the battery or cause the voltage to dip. I have an airbox cover I modified that flows air well enough to make the engine responsive down that low - it just causes a lot of heat at low-speeds. 2500 rpm at under 30 mph is the real combination that causes it.

Might not seem a concern for a lot of members here, but if you build a VFR for sport-touring and not for carving it up, you'll see what I am getting to. I think these bikes are great for building off of because they actually can make torque, have that a true sport side to them and are lightweight and fun. And parts are abudant as hell and cheap. Other then that, I would have traded up for an FJR a good while back.

 

NCB
I think cold fusion and ambient temperature super conductors will figure promently in the final design.

Action

 

I deleted my last message.....pretty sure it would have lit Jon off like a roman candle. I'm done with this thread, I know what it takes to fix the problem and I've already done it. Have fun with this everybody.

 

You're absolutely right. Thanks for pointing that out. The Larger Hose E-16 in Illustration MCWAF3600 connects to the Bottom Neck of the T-Stat Housing at F-36 in Illustration MCWAE1600.

That doesn't make much sense to me either. You would think the secondary radiator would have more flow resistance, and not allow a chance for it to cool the system - almost acting like a helper that bleeds over. I wonder if when the pressure builds in the system from increasing the rpms, if this doesn't change - actually forcing the second radiator to flow. But low rpms - that's where is just doesn't add up. There need to be a radiator fan on that primary radiator. That just sounds like a poor design. It's no wonder why it takes so long for those temps to drop when crawling around parks.

Yeah $400 might not be a bad investment along with some replumbing and definately consulting an engineer. I would say that since I don't quite understand why they did it this way - that there is some not so obvious reasoning as to why it was engineered as they did.

Yeah I'm done here too.

 

im glad you are keeping such an open mind to all of this. because the way you and squirl are talking, it sounds like you believe that you were mr.honda himself... :crazy:

"Most stock engined sportbikes produce maximum power between 92c (197.6f) and 96c (204.8f) coolant temp" yes this deffinetely sounds like it has some merrit behind it, but with this beeing said, how is my bike sitting at 226* plus going to be benificial??? also if you had spent more time actually reading this thread instead of just giggling to yourself you would see that i am doing this because i plan on advancing the timing a few degrees and i do not want to cause any harmful detonation.

find a fan switch that comes alive at 200* instead of 225* and i will gladly install it and toss the 178* in the trash. with the 178* fan switch being the only switch i have found alvaliable so far, this is where i am going to start my trial and error.

unlike you, i am not saying that any of this is matter of fact, i am just trying to see what works best.

.

 

just went with an oem suzuki thermostat (part # 17670-32C01). seems that suzuki runs 170* thermostats with most of their bikes.

now i just have to hope for 2 things...
1 that it actually fits inside of the housing.
2 that it will allow the engine to cool down enough for the fan to kick off.

 

In the context of this conversation, I might just be Mr. Honda. Have you tried NOS as coolant yet?

 

Jon and CandyRed,
Slightly off topic, but...... Have either of you given any thought to replacing your fan with a VTR1000 fan. For anyone who hasn't looked, the VFR fan pulls air in past the rad. This is fine at a stop or very low speeds. The problem starts to occur at speeds from 10mph up to around 40mph, where the fan is trying to suck air in while the forward motion of the bike is trying to blow air in the other direction. The VTR1000 fan blows air out past the rad so as you start moving the bike cools quicker. Its a stock Honda part and a bolt on replacement. I have not tried yet because they were on back order from everyone else trying this mod.



Action

 

i did a lot of research on the fan blade options. rc51, vtr1000, multiple years etc... im thinking the best route would be to take the stock blade off the motor assembly, put it back on reversed(backwards) and then reverse the polarity (similar to just turning the whole fan assembly backwards, but without having to deal with the mounting). that way it wouldn't lose any efficiency or get any louder. im going to try that out soon, its on my to do list. i just have to get the thermostat and switch sorted out first.

 

that's hilarious. you should put that in the humor thread.

 

Guys this may be relevant!!
I read from a VFR rider that replacing conventional oil filter with scott performance one will bring down the temp 10degrees.That's a huge improvement without doing any mods.
The reason is Scott filter has fins and flows lot more oil per minute and cools it.It is pricey 120-135

I think it will pay itself over the yrs since you can wash and reinstall.

 

it is a drop in, but i'm pretty sure the reason that it flows backwards is because it was meant to spin in the opposite direction. when you spin a fan in the opposite direction it will lose some efficiency and be a little louder. i think i would rather just be able to switch it off when i know im going to be going over 40 for a while.
basically what we're after is trying to cool the bike down a little. bringing it down from the 225 plus area to somewhere in between 170 and 190...