| Author | Message | ||
     Duanelr |
Yesterday I was caught in stop-and-go-highway-traffic and the ambient air temperature was 90 degrees. There was no exit for me to escape to and for the first time ever, my coolant temp went to 230 degrees. I'd never seen the engine temp warning-light come on before, but this reminded me the ECU should cut the spark on every-other pulse. I just kept going. Has this happened to anyone else? Can idling your bike, when over 230 degrees, hurt it? How? | ||
| Coastrambler |
If you can keep moving the overtemp will clear. That can be a big if of course. I've had it go to shutting down a cylinder a couple of times. Once you come off idle it goes back to both cylinders firing. Lane splitting has been a major boon. I did get a very large water blister on a thigh while riding the temp down once. | ||
| Thefleshrocket |
I wouldn't worry about 230F as long as the bike wasn't that hot for more than a few minutes and you weren't running it hard.. Not that it's apples to apples, but I once had my DRZ-400E dual-sport up to 270F for a minute or so. Not on purpose, and I felt bad about it, but it was unavoidable. Still have the bike and it runs fine with no apparent damage. | ||
| 1_mike |
Yea, as long as there is water/coolant in the system, keep going. It will normally slowly get better as soon as you can get back to a good speed. The cooling system in this bike is not the best for traffic, I know, I drove mine in 100+ degree SoCal, summer traffic (almost 80 miles a day) for years without any actual problems. A mixture of about 20% or 25% anti-freeze is better than 50%-50%. Anti-freeze does NOT transfer heat like water does. More water, less anti-freeze helps a lot. Mike | ||
| Shoggin |
I agree 230 isn't hot enough to stop. At 270 I would assume theres a problem with the cooling system and stop or be willing to risk engine damage. Water-wetter works very well for me on the track bike. I keep a splash ion anti-freeze in the road bikes just for minor corrosion protection, but they will never see even close to freezing temps. | ||
| Thefleshrocket |
The DRZ-400E doesn't have a cooling fan on its radiators (it also doesn't come with a thermostat), and I was stuck in some slow-going trails for longer than I'd like to. I kept going and when things opened up, the coolant temp quickly dropped back to a reasonable level. Not ideal, but I also wasn't terribly concerned about engine damage either. |
