lazn

Sure you can.. But the thermostat will regulate the temperature that the engine runs at. If you proved more cooling at the rads, it will just restrict water flow to maintain proper running temp.

There is a reason the engine runs at the temps the honda engineers decided to run it at. Proper combustion is a factor of fuel atomization, temperatures, and spark.

Running the engine too cool will cause you to use more gasoline and not much else.

996serrano

Well im not so crazy I guess. I have read on a buell site of someone doing this to cool the rear cylinder and I found this ghetto looking thing on you tube but the idea that a computer fan will work is spot on. Who wants to take a shot at it first. Use a toggle swich and a computer cooling fan to cool the radiator. Who is going to do it first. Maybe me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jVixEf27Q4

996serrano

Lazn,

You allways come with the knowledge. I was thinking of having one just as a backup for those hot AZ days.

lazn

Understandable, but even on 120+ degree days in traffic I have not overheated with the stock setup.

Sure the stock fan makes a lot of noise, but the bike still stays out of the "red" on the gauge. Additional cooling would help the stock fan in that instance, but I would just hook it up to the existing power that is there for the fan so that it only turns on when needed with no need for an additional switch if I were to add one. That is just me though.

996serrano

Lazn,

Im thinking maybe removing the factory fan and buying to pc fans nice ones wiring them in so that they come on automatically just like the factory one does. Its all about coming up with different mods right. I would like my bike to stay at about the mid point.

luis saleiro

Lazn is correct.
The only thing you can optimize is the time that your gauge pointer comes down.
In other words, the more fans you put, the faster you cool your engine.
But the operative temperature is still the same as before.
In the top of that you´re at the risk of your bike running always at low temperature (ok, it has to be a lot of fans to do that) and your cooling liquid dont circulate.
And your colling liquid have to circulate or it will turn into mud and ruin the radiators.
Now, a good mod is to get a thesmostate who will regulate the temperature a bit lower. But not too much or the fan´s allways working in the summer. Just a few degrees.
But to be honest i think it doesn´t need.
I´m from Portugal, and here in the summer it can get very hot, with the the traffic, the semaphors and the walking persons crossing roads (word for that white stripes on the road?) and so on, and i´ve never felt the need for an extra fan.

nath981

It wouldn't be a bad idea to have aux fans if you need to ride in traffic on hot days, not only for the engine but for the rider. Manual operation is preferable so that you can decide when and where and for how long. Other than your psychological and physical comfort, running higher temps is not something negative.

It seems that it's common to worry about overheating and soon as the guage gets up there above 200, most people stress. This is mostly unjustified in that water cooled engines can run at considerably higher temps with no ill effects. Good oil doesn't break down at higher temps and the engine actually runs more efficiently, both in terms of performance and fuel mileage.

I can say this with some degree of confidence since i ran my 400 Cummins diesel truck engine at temps of 220-240 degrees with spikes up to 260, using only manually controlled electric fans for years. I blended my own oil, Mobil One and Delvac(organic), long before it came out on the market, based largely on sporadic correspondence with Mobil lab techs. I did get oil analysis done for a while just for peace of mind, but eventually reduced this to yearly. I was getting between 5.5 and 6.5 mpg when most were getting 4.5 to 5 and i was running the **** out of that Cummins. Doesn't sound like much, but compute savings over a million miles and it becomes significant. The engine had well over 600,000 miles before I rebuilt it and likely would have gone well beyond, but I didn't want to chance. As it turned out, all I did was replace the bearings, rings, heads/injectors, turbo, fuel and water pumps and it was ready for another 600,000. It had 1.3 million miles, just on its third rebuild, when I retired from otr driving.

Based on this experience, given quality oils and anti-freeze of course, I don't worry about temps that would likely freak everyone else out. While i realize that this is a controversial issue and that it's not worth risking your baby over a little too much heat, I must tell you that my truck was not only my baby, but my family's livelihood.

lazn

Well I really doubt you will find a PC fan that will move as much air as the stock one.. The OEM one uses a lot of power and spins very fast, so it has a high CFM (and is loud as a result, but noise was not an issue in it's design).

I could see adding PC fans to the other Rad (only one side has a fan now) but once you are moving more than ~15mph your fans will probably decrease the airflow through the rad so it's not necessarily a matter of more is better. (I have yet to hear of a PC fan that creates 15mph winds)

AngryOlaf