posted July 03, 2006 06:13 PM
Engine temps It has worried me that this bike always seems to run hotter on the temp gauge than my other water cooled bikes. Is the bike really running as hot as It seems or is the gauge just calibrated conservatevly? I decided to measure the coolant temperature as well as possible without actually welding a sensor fitting into the bikes cooling system. I used a thermocouple surface probe strapped to the steel outlet elbow at the bottom outlet of the radiator and insulated the steel elbow over the probe. The temperature meter used was a Fluke commercial temperature meter and the temperatures were taken with the bike idelying on the stand with no fans. The 1st bar on the temp guage has a C in it and is on as soon as the bike is started. The coolant temp. was 83 degrees when I started the bike. The second temp bar came on at 100 F. The third bar came on at 149 F. The fourth bar came on at 175 F (this is one bar above the middle mark). The fifth bar never came on. The fan started at 195 F and the temp slowly went down to 175 F where the fan shut off. My Yamaha FJR 1300 runs at 185 degrees with the temp guage 1 bar below the middle of the guage range so it appears to be running cooler based on the temp gauge but it is actually running hotter. Nothing to worry about here.
posted July 03, 2006 06:54 PM
I'll vouch for that. I haven't ridden anything hotter than my '05 FJR. Not for general cockpit heat. A couple of CBR's would toast your inner thighs, but the FJR is steamin' hot, and a lot of it. Hope they really fixed it for '06...
posted July 04, 2006 11:46 AM
I'm rapidly approaching the conclusion that no one really knows what the temperature really is and what the marks mean on the meter. There's a lot of confusion and conflicting measurements. IR Gun was used to measure the temps at the radiator inlet and exit and are reported as :
quote: I have temp checked the rad. when the 3rd bar is lit, 1 aboue center. with the fan on, coolant on the inlet side (riders left) the temp is 212 degrees. On the out let side 198 degrees.
The 3rd bar reading of 212 F in and 198 F out corresponds to your 4th bar reading of 175 F as best I can tell. Both are referenced as being 1 bar above the middle mark. Big temperature discrepancy between these two readings. The service manual does state that the fan turns on at 203 F and turns off when the engine has cooled to 194 F. Owners manual states that all segments are lit and the meter starts flashing if the temperature hits 248 F. Then its time to pull over.
Per your scheme, my 14 runs on the 3rd bar regardless of ambient temp at 60+ mph. Below 60 it runs on the 4th bar. Hit the 5th bar (1 below H) once when stuck in traffic. I've decided to just ride the thing and enjoy it. Being paranoid about the temperature was ruining my fun.
quote:I'll vouch for that. I haven't ridden anything hotter than my '05 FJR. Not for general cockpit heat. A couple of CBR's would toast your inner thighs, but the FJR is steamin' hot, and a lot of it. Hope they really fixed it for '06...
My 04 FJR was hot, but never threw heat while riding at speeds like this puppy does...the 14 throws heat while doing 60MPH...not much, but still there; the FJ would never throw heat on me unless I was stopped.
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FYYFF!!!
posted July 04, 2006 04:07 PM
Just get a manual fan switch and run the fan before you encounter traffic or if it ever gets hot...problem solved.
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www.nonationalid.com
Needs a job
Didn't read the owners manual
Posts: 2207
posted July 04, 2006 04:14 PM
i guess none of you have ever ridden a zx-12?
this is the largest displacement streetbike available- so it should be a bit warm. mine seems fine thus far.
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Scott
Long Island, New York
2006 ZX-14, 2003 ZX-12R
posted July 04, 2006 05:49 PM
Was just out riding with my buddy, 01 12r his temp was reading below half. Mine was reading half. I'm with Raptor, Worrying about the heat was messing with my fun. Ride it till the wheels falls. (I wasn't implying that I think my wheels were falling off) I see a new thread coming
Needs a job
Didn't read the owners manual
Posts: 2207
posted July 04, 2006 06:06 PM
i guess im the only one who isnt worrying about this "heat problem"...
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Scott
Long Island, New York
2006 ZX-14, 2003 ZX-12R
posted July 04, 2006 06:21 PM
The "heat problem" deminishes over time with miles and oil changes. Be patient...
Our "perception" of the heat problem may never go away because that stupid bar-graph gauge is nearly useless. Why couldn't Kawi have given us a simple temp number on the display???
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'06 Passion Red ZX-14 | Black D&D Slip-ons | Speedo Healer | V1 | zumo 550 | Heli-Risers | PhantomX
posted July 04, 2006 08:00 PM
The gauge isn't the problem, the heat is...not a huge one, but still uncomfortable. Now, my Busa's were never even warm...they have great heat management...probably ran as hot as the 14, but never hit the rider with heat...why is that?
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FYYFF!!!
posted July 04, 2006 08:01 PM
I put brocks pipe on and the bike will not cross the half mark on the temp. I can leave it to idle and it stays the same. It never did this when i had the original pipes.
posted July 05, 2006 03:49 AM
Edited By: TeamSpeed on 5 Jul 2006 04:52
Since it is discussed above about how people are checking their radiator temps...
I just picked one of these up. I went to Frye's and found that Raytek MT6 and the Fluke 61/62 are the same. This ends up costing $55 shipped in the CONUS, for anyone that wants a great little IR/Laser thermometer for checking their temps easily. I tried out the Fluke and it worked pretty well, and very fast. It is only 10:1 (every 10 inches from the object being measured, the sensor picks up the heat of a 1 in. circle.), but the 100+:1 are several hundreds of dollars.
posted July 05, 2006 03:52 AM
serius blk did you also install the power commander with Brocks program? My 00 ZX-12 immediately ran cooler when I took the stock catylist equipped pipe off and install a Muzzy and PC. I did not measure the inlet temp. to the radiator since the bike was on a stand with no air movement but I can repeat the test listing both temps if anyone is interested. I also have a fluke infared thermometer if you prefer the temps be recorded that way.
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2006 ZX-14 (sold)
2012 ZX-14R (Brock's Perf. project bike Louisville Slugger)
2013 Honda VFR1200F
2003 124 C.I. H.D. Super glide
posted August 27, 2006 08:53 AM
My recent oil change with Mobil 1 MTX4 seems to make the engine run cooler??
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1987 Red/White Ninja 750
1988 K1
1991 FatBoy
2004 VROD
2005 K1200S
2006 ZX-14 - Red
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posted July 03, 2006 06:13 PM
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