Cooling my Fury

[sullayton]

Since I bought my Fury I have had concerns with the cooling. At first the temp gauge was all over the place and in checking the stat found that there wasn't one, so one went in - not cheap at £45. Then on the motorway up to Cadwell the temp kept rising to 110 c and at one point up to 120 c where I had to stop to let it cool down. So back out with the stat and thrashed thoroughly all day round Cadwell with the temp at 40 - 60 c, not ideal but better.
So what's going on ? The cooling system is not laid out that well with the radiator lower than the engine and the header tank also lower on the scuttle. I checked the wiring to the temp gauge and bled the system by holding the header tank up high while revving the engine as the manual prescibes before re-fixing to the scuttle. Since bleeding the temp had not risen as high as 120 again but it hasn't been all that healthy.

As part of my 'winter upgrades' I have fitted an ally under tray from behind the front valance(?) under the rad and back to the engine with an upstand to the rad to close the gap and stop the air flowing underneath - this didn't seem to make any difference! So before I start to redesign the whole system I thought I would make a radiator cowl to maximise the air flowing through the radiator and yesterday went for a test drive, 20 miles with a good 10,000 rpm (bike motor) thrashing up a long hill and the temp went to nearly 100 c but never above before cooling on the fan and generally showing 85 - 95 c so not production car stable but so far so good.
Of course I don't know for certain that the temp gauge is accurate but this is progress in the right direction as at least now the thermostat is metering the coolant flow through the engine.
If anyone's still reading, thanks for listening and I hope its of help.
P.s I would like to post a photo but don't know how. Anyone?

[dopdog]

At the bottom of the reply page next to options is the upload tab, let's see some photos.

[RobMsport]

I've never run my car without including waterwetter from Redline also no antifreeze for optimum efficiency (can lower temp's by 10 to 20 degrees). Sitting around in a line waiting to go sees the highest temp's at up to 100c but once thrashing around on track it seldom goes behond 90c . In the winter(no antifreeze)it gets wrapped up in the shed without issues. Regarding the radiator , mine sits 25mm's above the bottom of the lower chassis rail and tilts forward at the top . The header tank sits level with the engine cam cover.

[pigeondave]

What type of rad is it?

I don't know a lot about bike engines, but I have heard that it's better to keep the bike rad with the engine.

I'm guessing this is due to the bike engine water pump working more effectively with a bike rad.
If you're using a polo rad this might be causing the water to flow too slowly round the system or something.

Its always a good idea to make a cowl. I had my rad fan infront of the rad. What I found with some smoke pellets from the diy shop is that when the fan was turning on it was pulling air from the engine bay through the corners of the rad (where the fan wasn't) and pushing it through the rad.

I changed the fan from blow to suck and made a cowl. This improved things but Im still not happy as its holding a temp but doesn't appear to cool when stuck in traffic.

[sullayton]

Thanks RobM I'll try the water wetter but I think I'll leave the antifreeze in and just park that bit of knowledge for the future. Here is the pic - hopefully.
Dave - the rad is unknown it's 540 x about 250 x 40 thk which I guess is the ubiquitus polo rad, I didn't know it was restrictive but I am starting to think along these lines. The bike system positions the rad high and relies on the thermic cycle;- so that the hot coolant rises from the engine to the rad then the cooled water sinks down the return pipe to the pump and completes the cycle. Bikers don't report any problems in standing traffic.

[matt_gsxr]

Bikers don't report any problems in standing traffic.

In my experience bikes don't stand in traffic, they just drive around it or between it.

[pigeondave]

I don't think its restrictive as such.
I think that there may be too much water in the rad for the pump to pump.

Do you have the bike rad so that you could test the theory?

Im sure some of the bike engine guys will be along soon to tell me im talking rubbish or confirm my thinking.

[jeffw]

. The bike system positions the rad high and relies on the thermic cycle;- so that the hot coolant rises from the engine to the rad then the cooled water sinks down the return pipe to the pump and completes the cycle. Bikers don't report any problems in standing traffic.

So you are saying there is no water pump? If so is the answer not one of these http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorspor ... oster-pump

[sullayton]

In all/most prod' cooling systems the radiator is higher than the engine to maximise the coolant flow due to the thermic cycle and the layout of a bike allows this to be exploited further. Dave Walker wrote in CCC years ago to a Westfield owner with cooling trouble about this so I guess its an age old se7en car type issue.
Anyway this particular engine has a water pump but is probably a bit under capacity as when I removed the stat (which is quite a restrictor) the cooling was too good,and that was wanging it round the track all day. But, it should have a stat - so I have to explore the rest of the system starting with the cheap and quick fixes.
Interesting what Dave said about the smoke stick highlighting airflow around the fan. Here's another photo of the shroud which is the biggest free improvement I've done so far. Oh forgot I also changed the fancy gold expanded mesh which is bad for airflow for some welded wire mesh which should be better.
p.s. Thanks for the pointer Jeff I haven't seen the electric pumps that cheap before, that would help Dave in standing traffic as it keeps spinning at low rpm.

[sullayton]

I forgot to comment about the amount of water in the system and the ability of the water pump to push it round as I have wondered this too. The oil system has the extra oil cooler and pipework as well but lots of people have that too but with longer pipes and the oil cooler with the radiator so is that more work for the oil pump to do ? It is likely that you would improve the cooling by increasing the systems capacity, no ?
Sully.