At my wits end

Rakefish · Post by **Rakefish** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 4:46 pm

Hey Bweight
I was talking to you a couple of weeks ago at the bike show in Sudbury and got to thinking about your problem.
Make sure you check your coolant cap as well. The cooling system is pressurized and if the cap isn't holdng pressure it will overtemp. Sometimes it's the simple things we overlook.
By the way, if you need tires, i have a set of bt014's and a set of bt 090's with a few race weekends on them. Still lots of rubber for the street. I use race castoffs from my buddy's bike on my ZRX1100 street bike. let me know if you're interested.Cheap!
Good luck with the cooling problem.
Dennis

PS I like the website

Post by **bweight** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 5:10 pm

Hey Dennis.. good to see you finally joined the site.. Post in the introductions forum and get to know everyone here.. Or at least the "usual suspects" ...

Don't forget, everyone here is horny for pics of the bike

I've checked the rad cap before but it doesn't hurt to check again I suppose, but unless we have nicer weather than this, I'm afraid she's parked until spring anyways.. As for the tires, I'll also have to look into it. The ones I've got now were brand new when I bought the bike last year, and I haven't even put 2k on them yet.. But I'll definitely keep them in mind..

narfed · Post by **narfed** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 5:36 am

Hey, I am having overheating issues so I thought I should let you know, if it's overheating you can definitely tell from more than just the temp gauge. On my bike I can feel the heat radiating through the tank and around my legs and I can smell something wrong! If your bike seems to be running normal and you don't feel extra heat coming out around you, then it's probably a faulty gauge.

modkingfzr600 · Post by **modkingfzr600** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 10:59 pm

Don't forget that running too lean will cause overheating issues as well, if you have a decent hardware store near, you could go buy a peice of clear vinyl hose and temporarily replace the return line to the water pump with the clear hose (i have done it before ) , this would allow you to see firsthand if you have proper flow from the radiator. I would use a handheld temp gun or thermometer to get the "real" water temp before going any further.

Post by **sweekster** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:08 pm

Wow....old thread. That motor threw a valve a few months ago. He's since put a 600 motor in it..

modkingfzr600 · Post by **modkingfzr600** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:29 pm

SWEET JESUS ! I didn't realize that i was replying to such an old thread, I put real wear and tear on my 10 year old keyboard dammit.

mossy1200 · Post by **mossy1200** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 1:03 am

Assume you have run it without thermostat and its the same.
Assume your bikes not running real lean.
Have you done carb work and checked you dont have blocked primary and main jets etc.
Hows the power?

Post by **bweight** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 11:57 pm

hehe just a little old guys

I had determined the problem in April of this year when I changed the head gasket. It was infact allowing coolant to pass into the #3 cylinder.. not enough to puff the white smoke because we never saw white smoke, but enough to pass through and I would imagine get burnt off in the cylinder. What baffled me the most was the lack of signs pointing to the head gasket. There was never any coolant in the oil and like I said, no white smoke. I had gone through absolutely EVERYTHING imaginable. Changed the thermostat, thermal unit, thermal switch, radiators, rad cap. Ran 2 fans, ran the radiator with 50/50 mix coolant, water + water wetter, engine ice.. but there was nothing that would work and keep that thing cool. Didn't matter whether it was blistering hot outside, or whether it was fuggin cold. It would still overheat.

So at the end of April, I finished putting the motor back together and voila, the overheating issue was resolve. However, after having multiple issues with the timing and finally getting THAT right, I went to take it for a ride and put a valve through the piston (can only speculate but we think that one of the valve shims became dislodged under the cap while I was cleaning the valves off and during engine operation she blew..

So now I've got the 600 motor off a 91 FZR and dealing with a few issues that I should have a handle on sometime soon.. I believe the head gasket on the new motor is likely gonna need changing. Not because I notice any smoke or anything detrimental to the motor as drastic as the 400 was, however it is running warmer than it should so once the riding season's over, I'll be stripping the motor down, checking the clearances in the valves, shimming if necessary. I'm gonna do rings and hone the cylinders out and change the head gasket.

It just took too damn long to get the bike running this season and I just wanted to get it on the road..

we'll see what happens

shredex · Post by **shredex** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 12:20 am

no smoke like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ESPb3fqHhI

reelrazor · Post by **reelrazor** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 5:01 am

The head gasket can have a 'one way' leak....it's pretty common in automotive stuff.

Won't leak coolant into the jug...but WILL leak combustion gasses into the coolant passages.

You get the overheat...no smoke (or sporadically a weird white puff out of the blue) and NO other real symptoms.

I posted on another thread about carbon monoxide testing the cooling system.....that test takes minutes at most and will positively identify this kind of head gasket failure.

KASH · Post by **KASH** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 6:58 am

well i was going 2 say an air bubble would have been my guess. looks like i would have been wrong

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