We have a thermal imaging camera at work so I had a few pictures taken of my bike last fall before I put it away for the winter, it was 30C outside and I went for a quick 10km run before the pictures were taken.
I put a lot of hours & parts into this bike after I bought it last summer (it had been sitting for 7 years), and as you can see it still has a ways to go, but it’s slowly getting there.
I didn’t have time to write anything yesterday,
Looking at those engine temps do you think that is normal or is this thing running hot?
I’m thinking it’s on the hot side so I’m going to check my thermostat to see where it opens, what temp of thermostats are you guys running?
How many of you have changed the fan sensor switch, and at what temp do your fans come on at?
My lower rad also sprung a leak on my last ride last fall, not sure yet if I’m go to get it fixed or replace it, have any of you installed a rad from a different bike, if so from what, how did it fit, was it big enough to eliminate the top rad, any ideas?
I have a thermostat that opens on 82 degrees celcius.
Only problem is the thermometer just bearly lifts in my dashboard.
The 82 degree thermostat is 13 degrees cooler than the original.
Gunnar
It’s a bit funny when I look at the photos of your bike we both have painted our bikes blue.
Here is one photo of mine.
I don´t know why my picture won´t show up but here is a link to it.
http://picasaweb.google.com/thoramarta/Motorhjol2010#5440344547321993234
And one more.
http://picasaweb.google.com/thoramarta/Motorhjol2010#5440344153404258498
I’ve also changed the thermostat to Pn: 37760-KE7-003 which comes in at 10 degrees lower than standard.
Is the bike running in the pic? If it has been sitting for a while it may have ‘heat soaked’ and be showing higher than normal temps?
They do look pretty good though!
Those pics are pretty fucking cool! Can I use them on the website?
“The 82 degree thermostat is 13 degrees cooler than the original.
Gunnar”
The Honda service manual that I have says the thermostat is suppost to open at 80-82C, did you have a 95C thermostat in there before, I still have test mine to see when it opens.
The Honda manual also says that the thermostatic switch turns the fans on at 107-113C, that sounds way too hot for my liking.
Planty, when you changed your switch (37760-KE7-003) did you notice much difference?
As for the heat soak, like I said I took the bike for a quick 10km run came back shut it down and the pictures were taken within 5-10min after shut down.
PAJ, your right those are cool pictures, go ahead and use them, I thought there would be other people out there that would like to see these, it’s good information.
I should have said I’ve changed the thermostatic switch not the thermostat.
I haven’t had a chance to test it yet as the bike is in bits. You’re right though the standard thermostatic switch turns the fans on when the bike is already too hot.
You can also add a manual switch into the circuit so you can turn on the fans earlier if you want to.
As you say, it’s a good idea to check the (water) thermostat operation, if it’s not opening at the right temp the bike will overheat (blocking water flow).
I´havn´t looked it up but when I got the bike it had the thermostat stuck open and it said 95 degrees on it. I bought a new one and it said 82 degrees on it.
I just thought the original was in there before I got it.
But if it is supposed to be 82 original why does my thermometer stay in the cool zone?
It just lifts about 5-7 mm in normal riding but if I let the bike idle in my garage it will go higher.
Gunnar
Don’t let it idle, the mechanic here at the Honda shop said to try and never let it sit and idle, to start the bike with the chock set to keep the rpm at 2500 and when you can shut the chock off GO, never cruise in traffic with the rpm below 3000 or you won’t get enough oil to your cams. He said he had one of these bikes back in the 80’s and never installed an oil mod but followed the rule of never letting it sit idling and after 60,000km he said the cams were still good.
If your temp gauge isn’t rising, what is the outside temp?
I would say our average summer temp is around 28C + or - a few, and on the open road the gauge doesn’t climb that much but as soon as I slow down or get into traffic it climbs pretty good.
So the oil mod would cancel out the need to avoid prolonged idling or low speed running below 2500rpm then. Other than that, the 82 degree thermostatic switch or bypass switch mod would reduce hot running in traffic too. See you can get one of these old girls to behave if you modify their behaviour!
My outside tempreture in the summer is never over 20 degrees celsius, it’s more like 10 = 15 degrees.
I put a VF400 fan switch on my FF because they come on 10 deg’s lower.But my FF runs cool anyway,only just out of the cold zone on the gauge.My VF500F2 runs real hot with the full fairing keeping the heat in.