Coolant Questions

[kc50lx]

This is on my 954RR. I went out yesterday for a little ride and man was it hot. After some highway work, I got stuck in some traffic on the way home. I saw temps of 220-226 on the high end a couple of times. I did a little research this morning and apparently the 954RR is known for running a little hotter than other street bikes. I have to consider that the bike is 6 years old and probably still has the original coolant. I'm hoping that this has a little something to do with the higher temps, but I would like to see a decrease of hopefully 10 degrees in a similar situation after changing the coolant.

I went to Honda Suzuki North today at lunch and picked up a couple of quarts of Honda HP Coolant. I got to thinking just now that maybe I would give Water Wetter a try. I called the tech line and asked them what they recommend and was told to run distilled water with 1 oz of WW per qt of water. I feel a little uneasy about this so I'm looking for opinions. I was thinking of maybe running 1 qt of premix Honda HP Coolant along with 1 qt of distilled water with 2 oz of WW. I figure this would be the best of both worlds. The coolant provides the lubrication needed in the cooling system and the distilled/WW mix should hopefully help drop my temps a bit. Would there be any issues with freezing come this winter with only 25% antifreeze in the 2 qt system?

What would you do?

I did verify that the fan is coming on and the coolant level is right where it should be. I think Texas summers are just a bit more than the cooling system can handle. I was seeing highway temps of 188-194 and as long as I'm moving the city temps are 194-210. The 220-226 only came around when sitting at those lights that hold for 3 minutes at larger intersections. The higher the speeds the more temp drops. I can be doing 50 mph and see the temp at 200*. I feel this shows that the system is working, but maybe I can help the efficiency some how...??? :confused:

[momo stallion]

i am running distilled water and water wetter, no coolant. i even flushed 3-4 times using distilled water. i wish i had a better baseline of what my numbers were before the swap. i do know for a fact that while i can still hit my highest temps (213* then the fan kicks on) if it's balls hot outside and im stuck at several lights but it takes a lot longer to get there. when im actually moving it really has a hard time breaking 170*


http://www.dfwstangs.net/forums/showthread.php?t=365466

[evil jose]

Honestly I think your fine. I've seen those sort of temps on both of my R6's during hot summer temps and while sitting in traffic. I remember the first time it happened I posted over on an R6 board and they said it was normal and that I'm just used to seeing "car" temperatures.

I would be leary of running 100% distilled water though, I'd mix it up with something that has "anti-freeze" capabilities. Although our winters are usually pretty mild, I do not have a garage (I've got a "storage shed" that's enclosed but not insulated) and if cold weather creeps up on me I may not have time to rush and put anti-freeze in my bike.

So I trade off having ultimate cooling capabilities with knowing I don't have to do a quick coolant swap if a cold front pops into town but that's just me.

[kc50lx]

Thanks guys!

[dville_gt]

That is exactly how my 05 gsxr runs. 227 then back down till the fans turn off then back to 227, been like that since new.

[slowimport96]

I run water wetter and antifreeze, it helps by a few degrees. I also installed a fan switch so I can turn on my fan whenever I want, the fan still comes on when it gets hot if I forget etc, I did not change the factory setup.

[kc50lx]

here are my results from this whole thing. just sitting in the driveway, i let the bike run at idle the whole time. the temp would get to 213 and the fan would come on. it would maybe see 214-215 for a couple of seconds and then start falling. at 208 the fan turns off and it slowly starts climbing again. hits 213 and repeats!

i used 1 qt of honda hp coolant (its a 50/50 mix), poured in two ounces of water wetter, and topped it off with distilled water. i used the same mix in the overflow bottle too. i'm going to take it out in the heat of the day tomorrow and will post up my findings.

[ZXDusty636]

My 06 ZX636 runs between 195-220 ALL the time
and all I have is anti-freeze NO water!

[BradsBlue90]

I've got an 07 R1 and it runs warm as well. Kinda freaked me out at first, I wasnt used to seeing temps that high.