Thermostat removal

<britbike900 DeleteThis @yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1192556101.323208.290170@k35g2000prh.googlegroups.com...
> I have a Triumph T-Bird that runs hotter than I would like it to. I
> was considering removing the thermostat to see if I can get increased
> cooling system flow to help alleviate the issue. I have done this with
> cars and compressors and have never had an issue, in fact, it has
> worked well, but I have never done it on a motorcycle. I have read
> about some KTM's (recent EXC's?) that can benefit from this procedure.
> Has anybody ever done this on their bike? If so, what were the
> results?
> Thanks!
>

I had an '01 Thunderbird and the temperature warning light would often come
on if stopped in traffic on a hot day. About the same time the fan would
come on, cool things down, and then the light would go out. I did some
research and found that this was normal behavior for this bike. The warning
light and fan, while triggered by separate sensors, were both designed to
come on at the same temperature. If this is what you're experiencing, I
wouldn't worry about it.

Martin
 >> Stay informed about: Thermostat removal 

britbike900 DeleteThis @yahoo.com wrote:
>I have a Triumph T-Bird that runs hotter than I would like it to. I
>was considering removing the thermostat to see if I can get increased
>cooling system flow to help alleviate the issue.

One time I had a T-Bird (Ford, that is) that kept boiling out all its coolant
and I kept replacing the coolant. I tried removing the thermostat and
rebuilding the water pump, but it didn't help. Turned out that the radiator
was all plugged up.

Modern engines usually have a thermostat which makes them run hotter than
older car engines. And they run high pressure radiator caps to raise the
boiling point of the coolant.

Hinkley sent their engineers to Japan to study how Kawasaki built motorcycles
and some Kawasakis (like the original 900cc Ninja) ran so hot (around 275
degrees F) they scared riders and Kawasaki recalibrated the temperature gauge
with a 1 ohm resistor so the gauge wouldn't go into the red zone.

Before I would remove a thermostat from my motorcycle, I would research what
the normal running temperature was supposed to be, what temperature turned
the fan off and on, what pressure the radiator cap was supposed to be and
what temperature the thermostat was supposed to open at.

Then I would attach a cooking thermometer to the coolant hose and see how hot
the hose was getting.

I would check everything before removing the thermostat.

One time I had a Suzuki Water Buffalo that wasn't pumping water. Turned out
that the water pump was full of a fibrous leak sealing material, so it
couldn't pump.

--
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 >> Stay informed about: Thermostat removal 

On Oct 16, 4:42 pm, "Martin Walker" <sorrychar....TakeThisOut@nospam.net> wrote:
> <britbike....TakeThisOut@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> I had an '01 Thunderbird and the temperature warning light would often come
> on if stopped in traffic on a hot day. About the same time the fan would
> come on, cool things down, and then the light would go out. I did some
> research and found that this was normal behavior for this bike. The warning
> light and fan, while triggered by separate sensors, were both designed to
> come on at the same temperature. If this is what you're experiencing, I
> wouldn't worry about it.
>
> Martin

Yes, I have read about that issue on Triumphrat.net and I cured the
annoying warning light by removing said offending bulb.
There is surely a lot of good information in these responses. I was
just curious to see if anybody here had done this (T-stat removal) on
a bike and what the results were. I have often thought about doing it
to my DRZ-S, but that bike makes a lot of short trips, so I figured
that I'd leave it in.
The cooling system on the T-Bird seems to work just fiine, it just
seems a bit marginal in size.
Anyway, I bought some water wetter type stuff to try. I'm sure that
there are lots of opinions on this stuff....
Thanks for all of the responses!
 >> Stay informed about: Thermostat removal 

britbike900 RemoveThis @yahoo.com wrote:
> The cooling system on the T-Bird seems to work just fiine, it just
>seems a bit marginal in size.

Correct.

The cooling system on most Japanese motorcycles (or motorcycles influenced by
Japanese design concepts, like the Hinkley Triumphs) are really just
temperature stabilizing systems that allow the engineers to meet their EPA
emissions goals.

A real liquid cooling system like the one on my 1974 Suzuki GT750 had a
radiator that was two or three times as large as the typical 4-stroke
sportbike's, and two 1973 Water Buffalos were once placed on the roof of the
US Suzuki warehouse and allowed to idle for half an hour in the hot summer
sun and the
cooling fans never even came on.

Suzuki determined that the cooling fans were superfluous and left them off
the 1974 and subsequent models.

Water Buffalos mostly ran too cold, they would barely open the 180-degree
thermostat in the summer.

OTOH, my Yamaha FZR-1000 has a thermostatically controlled fan and it will
come on at 205 degrees in traffic.

--
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 >> Stay informed about: Thermostat removal