Kai Ju,

Where did you get the Schrader valve and even more importantly, how did you mount it? I'm down to the last few bits of plumbing and it'll be ready to pressure check.

 

It's a schrader valve out of a goldwing rear wheel, if I remember correctly.
I drilled a hole, the size of the valve stem, into the highpoint of the radiator endcap, threaded safety wire though the hole out through the hose spigot, wrapped the wire around the valve stem threads and pulled it through.
Look at post # 89 for detail shot of the installed valve stem.
I used the existing gasket ( o-ring ) on the inside and it has never leaked, as a matter of fact, none of the plumbing has ever leaked.

Let me know if you need more info, and good luck.

Kai Ju

 

I'm now in need of a rear hugger, but since this bike was highly modified when I got it, I need help determining which one will fit. Looking at the pictures, can anyone tell me which style hugger will fit?

 

It looks like a 900RR brace so that's probably the best bet...

 

+1

 

With that said, does anyone have a spare CBR900RR hugger setting around?

 

Kai Ju,

I've made tons of progress. Got the radiator mounted, 2 fans wired and mounted, little black boxes relocated and wiring rerouted, battery box trimmed, mounted and wired, thermostat cap flipped, and most of the hose rerouting done. I've got the right side, out of the water pump (same route you used) and between the cylinders. I've also got the rear section, from the back of radiator, thru the neck and cap and down the left rail. Also the elbow out of the bottom of the radiator. The part I'm having issues with is getting those 2 aluminum hardlines between the left frame and left side of the rear cylinder. I would rather use hardline since it's passes very close to the cylinder and the exhaust. Using the factory manual as a guide, I'm routing out of the thermostat housing, into the top of the radiator at the rear of the bike, then out of the bottom of the radiator at the battery, into the water pump inlet.

Would it be too much of an issue if I routed the coolant in the reverse order thru the radiator? It would certainly make routing the hardlines easier. I have a few things working against me. The biggest deal is that the gas reservoir for the fox shock is mounted on the left side, exactly in the way. Second, I'm using 1" hardline and hoses. Alot of the stock stuff was .75, but since the water pump, thermostat and both fittings on the radiator were 1", it made sense at the time.

Do you have any pics of the area in question? If not, can you remember any tricks that would help? I'm on the hunt for a conduit bender to help in getting the correct angles.

 

I only have one shot of that side and as you can see it's a hose coming from the rear that changes to a shaped hardline between the frame and the rear cylinder.
The two lines actually go over / under just before they disappear behind the frame. This allows the lines to go to their correct locations.
Have you tried to take the shock and to rotate 180 deg to move the resevoir to the right side? That's how my Penske is set up.
I've thinking about replacing the hose on the left with a hardline, especially since I can buy an 8 foot length of aluminum tubing at Lowes for about 20 bucks.
But everything has worked so well for the last three years that I've just been too lazy........
I'd like to see your GSXR headlight, have been thinking about one of those as well.
But again, I'm really happy with the 599 headlight so I'm leaving well enough alone.
Plus it has a housing to stash the harness and mount the headlight ears and turnsignals to.

I'll take a look in the daylight tomorrow to see if I can get you another pick of the left side plumbing.

Kai Ju

 

I thought about spinning the shock around to the other side. I wonder if I could loosen just the top nuts and spin the top half without removing the lower mount to the swingarm? Is there any reason I can't do that?

 

No, unless you dont have the space to do so, but rotating the shock rod should not be an issue.

Kai Ju

 

Ok, it's finally back on the road, and wow. I went ahead and did a tuneup and made a set of DIY manual CCT's and installed those. The mounting went pretty easy. I used a lower front mount that Kai Ju did, so I'm able to fit the VTX1800 fan in there without raising the seat. It gained me 12-15mm of clearance. I replumbed the whole system with 1" aluminum tubing (lowe's) and a few 1" preformed hoses from Advance Auto. I found a shape that was basicly a question mark. Cutting that in 2 peices yielded a 90 degree "L" and a 180 degree "U". I used 2 of those and a the few 1" pieces that were on the bike. I shortened the small hose from the front cylinder to the thermostat housing. That turned the top of the housing to face straight back instead of pointing into the rear cylinder. I used a conduit bender to get the slight curves I needed. I also trimmed about 40% of the curved output fitting on the radiator. It made the transition easier. I've done this before without problems, as long as the outside curve is a little longer than the inside and there's enought room to get a large hose clamp in there. Right now I'm using the stock 210 degree switch for both fans, I'll see how that turns out. The fans kicked on at 210 then off again at 205. I decided against the schrader valve, instead I filled the system and inserted a short section of vinyl tubing thru the neck and the "U", up into the top of the radiatior. Then I siphoned the air off and filled a little, repeat. It worked great and that's good, because I ran out of room to fit the valve. I still plan on moving the oil cooler down behind the front header as well as cleaning up the wirnig and removing some unnecessary bungs.

Thanx for the help Kai Ju.

 

more pics

 

a few more

 

lastly

 

Just found your updated thread, nice job, it's weird to see a twin of my twin...........

One thing I noticed is that the front fan has a puller blade.
Which direction are you running the fan ?
The puller blades don't work all that well as pushers and I'd recommend getting another pusher blade.
I like the hardline going down the subframe.
You have no idea how many times I've had that 8 foot long tube in my hand at Lowe's.
If I ever replace my clutch cover and have to drain my cooling system I'll be going that route.
Let me know how it all works out for you.

Kai Ju

 

NICE!

 

That's pretty crazy awesome looking!

 

Any guess as to the CFM rating of these fans? I am thinking about improving airflow.

 

Which way are they blowing ?
The stock VTR fan blade is designed to push air through the radiator, that's how both of mine are set up.
If one of your fans is designed to be a puller it will not work all that well as a pusher.
If you are pulling air from the wheel area and exhausting under the seat you need to give the air a place to go and use two puller blades. ( see my vented tail section )

My cooling system cycles all day long between 207, when one fan kicks in, to 194, when it turns off.
If the temp does go above 208 the second fan kicks in till the temp drops back down below 207.
This only happens in high ambient temps at high speed for extended periods of time.

I've been running this set up for 4 years now with no overheating.

As far as the answer to your original question, I have no idea how many CFM's they move, sorry.

Kai Ju

I just looked at your pics again, the forward fan is definitely a puller.
If you're using it as your primary fan, but as a pusher, it won't move enough air to do the job.
Take a look at the rear fan blade and you'll see the difference.
You might be able to flip the fan blade over, but it still won't work as well as one designed to be a pusher.

 

both are wired as pushers. I had good luck running this spring, but the hotter summer weather is a bit much. I am definitely going to replace the front fan. It's just not moving enough air. You are right about that. the rear fan is currently on all the time. The front is wired thru the temp switch. I've been running between 207 and 218 until recently. Now I'm running 220-235. It's too hot. I'm on the hunt for another pusher fan. In the meantime I found these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEWAX%3AIT

2 will fit, but just barely. They can be used as pushers or pullers, and the seller says 1250CFM each. Any comments?

Lastly, what are the downsides to running without a thermostat? Would removing it improve coolant flow?

 

I should start with an apology. Sorry Kai Ju, but it appears that I'm getting closer to copying your design. While riding this weekend, I put my hand on the rear fairing, just below my left buttock. I found lots of air turbulence against the fairing. The temp has been varying between 225 and 235 depending on how hard I was riding. I decided to cut the same vents you have in your rear fairing. I found some expanded metal and broke out the angle grinder. After 24 hours to allow the silicone to cure, I took it for another ride. Same conditions, same route. The temp dropped quite a bit. It varied from 210 to 222. And it seemed to stay more towards the lower end of that scale and recover more quickly while moving. So I must conclude that the addition of your vents are indeed useful. I'm still waiting on another pusher fan to arrive, to replace the one puller that I'm using. That should help even more. I'm going to hate to sell this bike....

 

Hey Chris,

Don't buy those fans, they are junk in the 8" size.
I bought one only to find out that the blades are only about two inches long and my bike actually ran hotter with the fan than without.
Once you get the second fan as a pusher ( VTR blade ) you'll be getting the temps I am.
Right no, commuting in SoCal on the freeway and surface streets mine runs between 207 and 194, the same way it has for the past 4 years......
..... and we've had temps in the 90 plus range.

Kai Ju

Here is a pic of the eight inch fan installed on the underside of the radiator, while the VTR pusher was directly above it on the other side of the radiator.

 

I know this is a old post but im going to do the vfr tank swap!

Is there any chance you could post some pictures of what you did to your air box, need some ideas

thanks

 

https://www.superhawkforum.com/forum...90&postcount=4

 

Resurrecting an ancient here...

Ok, starting to play with the geometry with Kai Ju's advice. What do you think of one pusher/one puller? I'm thinking of offsetting the fans so they are not aligned with each other and angling the rad just a little. May get a little more airflow with it being slightly (like 2 degrees) more vertical too.





Puller on bottom, (of course!), near the tail

 

7moore7,
cool beans, glad to see you're forging ahead. Just make sure you have tire to radiator/fan clearance. I would run the puller fan as your primary fan since it's more efficient than a pusher.
And make sure sure that you have room for the battery/harness/fusebox.
Looking at the subframe it appears that you can move all the electronics to the outside but you may have to fabricate brackets for the ECM and the Convertor box.
Keep it up, looking forward to see this take shape.

Kai Ju

 

Yep, I took the shock out and pulled the swingarm all the way up so that there's no question as to rear tire/hugger clearance. I found a lower profile puller fan that feels like it blows right up there with Wyoming and think I'm going to wire it in to the stock wiring so that it's my "constant" fan as Kai Ju suggested. Still quite a bit of mounting unknowns, but waiting on and A123 cell battery which will clear up some space... thanks for the help so far, it put me in motion to try this thing!

 

BTW, that fan that your holding against the radiator can be mounted quite easily.
Looks like there's 4 lugs on the fan shroud. Make yourself 8 rubber washers with matching metal washers with an I.D. that's the same as the lugs. Sandwich the lugs between the metal washer and the rubber washer, with the rubber washer towards the radiator. Run a good quality zip tie through the washer/lug/washer sandwich up through the radiator. Slide the other rubber and metal washers over the zip tie that you just pushed through the finning on the radiator and take the buckle/locking mechanism from a second zip tie and slide it over the first one. Cinch it tight, cut off the excess and repeat for the other three mounts.
As a matter of fact, if you look at post 112 you can see the zip ties on mine. Yeah, I know, I cheaped out on the metal washers.
It takes longer to describe than to actually do it. That's how I had mine mounted when I had the puller on the bottom.
Make sure you use good quality zip ties, the ones with the metal locks, not from Harbor Freight or Big Lots.
One more thing, if you can, use the fan blade that came with the stock VTX fan motor, it'll move more air than those stubby blades that I can see in the one you're holding. Again, see post 112.

 

Hmmmmmm... I'll look into switching the blades... the fan is a SPAL brand, I'm not too familiar with the air pusher world but I've heard of them before so I figured it was a good one (found it in the junkyard). What I do know is that when I wired it to a battery it sucked air damn fast. Haven't compared it to the vtr one yet, but I suspect the little blades will do pretty well. All speculation, but in theory... could work!

Thanks a bunch for the mounting tips- seems very intuitive and awesome creative thinking on that one. I'll play around with it after work tomorrow hopefully...

 

I bought a SPAL for the same reason but it didn't work near as well as the stock VTX puller blade, I just kept the shroud and motor.
Can't take credit for the mounting system idea, that's how a new SPAL gets mounted. Their big fans are awesome but the little fan is all hub and no blades, take a look at the VTX blade and you'll see the difference.