How hot does your motor get?

Today was the first really warm day I had the chance to ride..... Temps were in the low 80's. I was riding a route that brought me into some medium traffic..... 3rd and 4th gear 4000-5000rpm. Temps hovered around 210-220 with the fan coming on every time I caught a light. Is this normal? My CBR ran in the 185-205 range if I was moving at that temp and speed...... Those side radiators must make a big difference with no forced air going through. Just thought I'd ask... I don't like seeing (or feeling) the heat. I should probably just leave outside air temp on and not look at coolant temp anymore.:smile:

 

Thats sounds pretty normal. As long as the temp goes down when the fan kicks on I think your OK.

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That's what mine does ... fan on around 220 ... off around 204. Temp has never gone above 221.

 

I have seen mine get up to 225-230, but the fan always kicks on and gets it back down to about 220 - in stop and go traffic with air temps 105+. It will drop a little more once moving. The manual says that when you get to about 240-250, then that's pretty hot and a red bar will be under the temp and flash(I think).

I know what you mean about the heat though. It roasts your legs for sure. No chance of riding in shorts on a VFR in the summer because you will have minor burns after 30 minutes of riding. The heat is especially prevalent on the right side of my bike.

 

My 04 runs at 185-190F in town in warmer weather (+80). At a long red light I have seen it go to 210.

 

While sitting at a light mine will go from 225 to 210, when the fan cycles and does it pretty quickly. Interestinly though, the other day I was following a line of cars doing 50 to 60, 4k to 5k RPM, with the engine at about 210F. Came to Temple mountain where the road opens into 2 lanes temporarily and starts to go uphill pretty steep. When I got out around the line of cars and started accelerating uphill, which I figure would work the motor harder, the temp started to drop! I guess these bikes also really like clean air coming into the radiators.

 

They always run a little hot, especially in stop and go traffic. Their water cooled but with out air pushing thru the radiator it doesn't dissapate heat fast enough. If it sits running too long it will over heat.

 

I think the stock fan temp switch is set to high for Southwest temps and by reading the previous posts it seems to be a tolerance difference also.
When I used to ride home from work in the summer, sitting at a light, watching the temp gauge rising in to temps I thought were too high for any motor, got me thinking for a better way.
So I wired in a bypass switch from the radiator fan switch to ground. While stopped at a light or stuck in traffic I'd just flip the switch to run the fan. It prevented the engine from reaching those high temps.

The only feature I wished I had installed was a time delay. Sometimes I'd flip the switch on and forget to turn it off. It would be nice just to push a button and have it automatically run a 2-3 minute on cycle, just enough to get though a light.
When I get my bike back on the road I'm going to see about trying with a push button and time delay circut.

 

Are there any performance thermostats out there? I put some of that "Water Wetter" in my Mustang and "it" ran a little cooler... Don't know about adding that stuff to a motorcycle......ofcourse I used to think a bike with 50k was dead too.

 

I ride out in the canyons of SoCal a lot, and she sits around 230 while I'm in the vtec range rip roaring through the twisties. Outside temp is anywhere from 85-110, depending on where we end up, but I've only had her at 240 once and that was stop and go down in SD along the beach last year. I just put some water wetter in her and we'll see how she does this weekend. If not, I'm thinking of trying some other stuff I saw at work. i'll let ya know how it works...

 

Those coolants that claim to make your bike run cooler is marketing BS. I bought and put in Engine Ice and it made absolutely no difference on the temps I was running compared to the other coolant that was in there(I don't know what it was from previous owner.).

It was just an excuse to flush my system and put in new stuff and boy was it dirty! I think it had OEM coolant in there.

 

temp

My 2006 was sitting on 215- 224 with the fan going on and off .
The other coolants will still run at what ever the thermostst opening temp is during normal riding . The differance is ,after the thermostat is open and the cooling system cant keep up . Like racing situations or a trafic jam . Then engine ice will make a diferance . also if it spills on a race track it wont be slippery like anti-freese.

 

I hit 239 while sitting in traffic ~20 min. waiting to get over the Wilson Bridge here in DC yesterday afternoon. Ambient Temp. was 90 according to the dash. Took a couple miles of moving to get it back down below 220. That was the first time she cooked that hot.

I was considering hitting the kill switch with the ignition on for the fans to run as I coasted down hill and then bump start if the battery drained to the point of no return, but had not yet seen the red light.

 

I hover at 210 ish except if im using Vtech a lot then its closer to 225. In stop and go traffic on a 95 degree day I hit 242 degrees without any temp warning lights. I started splitting traffic then to cool her down. I hate traffic!

And yes, when youve got a 240 degree motor sitting between your legs, its hot as hell, I was sweating like a hooker in church on sunday.

 

I ran into the overheating problem on a three day ride into West Virginia. I had about 2600 miles on the machine at the time. I was doing some riding in the Twisties and the group hit some traffic in a small town and my temps ran up to 245. At 245 it started spitting coolant out the overflow. When I finally made it out of the town and the airflow was moving again the temp only dropped down to about 218. The fan was working at 220 and above but apparently lost its battle to the heat. At camp that night I replaced the coolant best I could and a buddy of mine on a Goldwing swapped radiator caps with me. Being Honda they were the same caps. Well, That did the trick. Since then I have not gone above 220 (Fan kicks on) in any type of traffic and the average temp now runs about 185. My buddy changed the cap when we got home.
Bottom line, you might want to try a new radiator cap. Mine was apparently defective.

 

I'm glad I saw this thread, my bike has always seemed to run hot as hell. But it's never gotten anywhere close to as high as anyone's here. I think my highest was 213 and the fan always brings it down quick.

 

I was in stop and go moving about 2 mph for an hour and my bike kept cycling the temperature up to 225 then back to 215. After an hour of that it finally went up to about 232 and puked out some coolant. Anyone else experienced anything similar. I have never had any coolant problem before or after that one incident.

 

YES, my experience with the VFR is that these engines run hot, I did like one of the guys earlier and have a fan overide switch,that way the engine never has to get into that scarey/ugly range. I am a believer in water wetter,its not miracle water but it does help somewhat. I am not trying to sound overbearing,but I dont think its good for any engine to run in the 215-240c
zone. eddie

 

My bike runs around 180-200when running down the road. When stopped for longer than 2 min or so it will run up to 220. Fan kicks on and it drops to around 200 and cuts off. Never had a problem and it's perfectly normal.

Being a v4 it runs more around normal cage engine operating temps for a four cylinder which is 220-240 .