I seem to recall someone (Moriwaki I believe) making some type of air deflector or shroud whose purpose was to increase airflow through the radiators to improve engine cooling. I think it was mounted on the outside and involved a system of fins???? Anyone familiar with any such device?

cheers
Mikstr

 

I would have thought the stock design cooled pretty good. Question for you and others on this board. Do ya'll use or have used Water Wetter or similar products in leiu of anti-freeze?

 

I have a combo of antifreeze and water wetter per recommended ratios and mine still runs hotter than I like in traffic or low speeds - its fine at highway speeds. I added a switch to run the fan on demand and it helps keep it cooler.

 

I do use Water Wetter already. My main concern with engine heat is in instances of either stop and go traffic (which I do my best to stay away from for many reasons) but also low-speed driving such as in around-town riding or in congested traffic. In these cases, the air flow is clearly insufficient (due to rad positioning and design which requires sufficient speed to generate a low-pressure zone on the exterior of the rad air ducts) so I was hoping for something that would help to increase airflow (ie. air suction) in such instances. I truly do not like having my engine temp hovering close to the red, or even in fan-starting temp range. I simply cannot imagine it beign good for the engine. Of course, maybe I am just being paranoid and should simply learn to relax.

Mikstr

 

My guess is that we are just paranoid about overheating. What about the aircooled bikes? They are having an even worse time with it. I suspect if it just had an idiot guage (no temp, just a light that comes on) nobody would even give it a second thought.

 

You ARE being paranoid. The fan is there for a reason, and Honda engineers designed the cooling system with longevity in mind, trust me. The aftermarket pieces you are thinking of are for the RC51. Now the RC has an inherently bad design. Honda DID screw this pooch. The RC has a fan on each rad. When they turn on they blow IN towards the engine. Why? I have no idea. I modified my SP2 (when I had it) with an older F2 fan (I think), so that one fan blew in and the other blew out, or essentially flowing across. Now the Superhawk only has one fan that blows out, and with the power that we're making, and the fact that she's half-faired which helps get a lot of the heat out, that makes that one fan more than enough to handle the heat load. If for some reason you find yourself above 3/4 on the temp gage there's probably something wrong. Check for no air in the rads or bad thermostat.

That's probably more than $0.02, but I'm feeling generous today!

 

The Moriwaki fins were for the RC51 only.
The funny thing about the cooling fan is that it runs backwards, pulling air through the radiator. I guess the fan must work better that way. Anyway, that's what it's for and it probably works fine. Mine always turned off after running for a couple minutes in traffic, so it keeps up with the heating load.

Better to keep the bike out where it can run, in more ways than one!

I sometimes took the fan off for hot track days, to improve cooling when running hard and fast. Not sure if it helped.

 

why not just add a switch to the electric fan (that won't interfere with the auto on either, I used to have directions but lost them)

 

I have Water Wetter in my bike (as per the directions...IIRC it is 1 ounce of WW per liter of distilled water). I haven't had any problems with overheating, but on really, really hot days the needle does go past the half-mark. As for the fan kicking in, just check every so often that it does work. Didn't someone on this forum (or maybe it was the RLZ-email-group) that had a bug stuck in their fan, which kept it from turning on?

 

wow that must've been a big frikin bug... sure it wasn't a small bird?

 

Better in the rad-fan than on my helmet!

 

Hehe. Yeah I had one of those bugs hit dead center on my face shield. Pretty well disrupted my train of thought and focus. I had to wipe it off, I couldn't see, but that didn't make it any better!

 

Butterflies make huge splats, too. :O

 

I had something early spring hit me in the shoulder and it hit so hard that I let go of the left clip on. felt like a frikin baseball. I saw it come out of the corner of my eye - just a big black thing and WHAM!!!

 

Yeah maybe a little paranoid in terms of the cooling of the bike. My last ride to work aboard the FJ was hotter than hell. Traffic crept along at less the 1 mph and I thought the bike would melt so the SH should be a welcome change for me.

 

Speaking of cooling. I was riding across the San Joaquin Valley in July after Laguna Seca a few years ago on my Super Hawk. It was way over 100 degrees and flat, straight road. I took my gloves off and was hanging on to the fairing with my left hand and diddling around, passing the awful miles before I got back into the mountains.

I noticed that there was a boundary layer of "cool" ambient air flowing over my legs and about an inch further out was absolute roasting air coming off the radiators. That's what those ducts are for in the nose of the fairing and they work beautifully. An RC51 would have been miserable.

 

Nope, it was a pebble. Don't remember who it was...from back in the RLZ days.

 

A pebble! :O I get hit by those everyday. That's why I like leading rides...no pebbles from the front.

 

or ride behind people who don't have stone throwers as tires. granted it seems everyone has them now