O.K. now would it really add on too much to the cost of the new model to put a damn temp gauge on it?
It was like 80F, not that hot out, and i was returning from my longest ride to date, Boston to NYC and back. After about an hour on the Cross bronx expressway during GRINDING traffic ( you know, when its neither stopped nor going slowly but steadily but instead riding your clutch until your hand turns blue doing the stop and go stop and go for all eternity...) my damned bike stalled. Fortunately I pulled it off to the side and let it cool for about 20 minutes. Managed to then pull into a gas station off the nearest exit ( I would've waited a bit longer for it to cool off but was chased away by an NYPD tow truck). When i opened the oil cap it was SMOKING like a volcano. It still had ample oil but i topped it off anyway with some fresh oil, then started to flick water on the cooling fins. I swear, if it was dark out I probably seen that sucker glow! When i opened the gas cap to top off i was then greeted by copius amounts of white gasoline fumes! damn, it was that hot. :o
After awhile I managed to get going again, however, now the gearing is acting a bit differently, even when its cool. It tends to overrev more easily when I upshift and I have to let the clutch out alot more to get 1st to engage. :? Question: What do you think needs adjusting?
And just to add insult onto freaking injury, another major traffic jam occurred somewhere in Connecticut. So to avoid another breakdown I decided to just say f%$k it, and slowly lanesplit my way outta there, which, BTW earned me heaps o' verbal abuse from stalled truckers (!?) Man, i was so pissed at these guys ignorance I'm surprised i didn't pick up a rock and....ah, never mind. :guns: :nana: :guns: :nana:
That was my weekend. How was yours? :)
interesting that the 04 actually overheated.. you would assume that the oil cooler would do some help.. but then you werent moving and the plastics on teh side dont let heat escape.
I love the idea of lane splitting.. very very handy!
Thank god i live in CA
ive seen mine smoke out of the oil cap too....so i added some oil....is there a problem running extra oil in a gs?
yeah, those air-cooled engines are worthless in traffic.
I've had two bikes that were liquid-cooled with temp guages, and on an 80 degree day either of them took only about 5 minutes at a stoplight or in traffic to activate the cooling fans.
it would suck, but it sounds like the best solution in the future would be to shut off the bike and go under flintstone-power for a while until traffic loosens up :dunno:
I wonder if you can mod out the '04 by mounting a cooling fan under the fairing. You could have it switch on by attaching a thermocouple to the outside of the engine.
Could that work????? :roll:
design an electric fan, produce it and market it... i'll bet you could sell one to every commuter on this site :thumb:
I had it in traffic in Manhattan at over 95. I never had a problem but I never just sit in traffic. I alway move a little no matter what. Lane splitting is a fact of life. That is one of the reasons why I take the bike.
If I wanted to sit in traffic I just take the cage and turn on the music and the A/C.
Quote from: ollie357I wonder if you can mod out the '04 by mounting a cooling fan under the fairing. You could have it switch on by attaching a thermocouple to the outside of the engine.
Could that work????? :roll:
Go to your local motorcycle salvage place and see if they have any used cooling fans for cheap. I picked one up for my water cooled bike that did not have one and mounted it behind the radiator and it does wonders in traffic to bring the temp down by a flick of a switch. I mounted the fan and ran the ground wire to the frame and ran the other wire to the positive on the battery when my bike used a battery. I installed a switch and a inline fuse on the positive wire to the battery. The switch is mounted near the upper triple clamp so that I can turn it off and on as needed.
On the GS you might want to install a relay so that the fan can only be on if the motor is running so as to not leave it on and run down your battery. You would still run the positive wire to the battery but it would go through the relay which would have the switch hooked up to a source of power that was only on when the motor was running.
On the water cooled bike I installed the fan on there is no battery so I do not have to worry about draining the battery and when it did have a battery there was no problem either since the only way to start it is by a kick starter.
Quote from: ollie357I wonder if you can mod out the '04 by mounting a cooling fan under the fairing. You could have it switch on by attaching a thermocouple to the outside of the engine.
Could that work????? :roll:
call me a pessimist, but I don't think an electrice fan will do much to cool down an overheating engine block. They are pretty much designed to help remove heat from the radiator fins. It may help dissipate heat from the fairing enclosure but I doubt that would be of much use in prolonged traffice jam.
BTW. I was thinking of welding an oven termometer (the kind we use for cookin steak) to a metal part of the engine to gauge the temp. wonder if it will work. :dunno:
a cooling fan will help air cooled engines cuz its moving air. an Air cooled engine needs atleast 20 mph to keep cool. the problem comes in with all the cars and trucks kicking heat out in large groups, air cooled engines have a harder time with it. Damn right i will lane split to get out of the jam inorder to save my engine. no one has the right to force me to meltdown my transpo with 5 mph intermittent movement of traffic jams.
Sorry, hit submit instead of preview
water cooled engines rely on the cooling systems to be both pressurized raising boiling point, and mixed with a coolant, also raising boiling point.
water Boils at 100/c right? by mixing the water with other elements the water doesnt Vaporize as easy and will conduct heat more effectivly. Now i dont remember the formula, but with every 1 pound of pressure you raise the boiling point of water. most cooling systems can handle 16psi before the Radiator cap lets some steam off. Your average thermostat Opens at 160/c some less, and quite a few handle more. Water cooled engines run at Higher temps if im not mistaken. it doesnt take much to cool them down compaired to Aircooled. water is one of the best mediums for heat transfer. very efficient at taking heat away from metals, the best way to remove heat from water is Air. a radiator will slow the water flow down and allow the air to remove the heat from the water through thin walled tubes. Oil can do this too but water seems to work better. I just got another idea that might help all GS's with and without fairings. Oh Bob B, we must converse me amigo.
Quote from: BlueknytSorry, hit submit instead of preview
water cooled engines rely on the cooling systems to be both pressurized raising boiling point, and mixed with a coolant, also raising boiling point.
water Boils at 100/c right? by mixing the water with other elements the water doesnt Vaporize as easy and will conduct heat more effectivly. Now i dont remember the formula, but with every 1 pound of pressure you raise the boiling point of water. most cooling systems can handle 16psi before the Radiator cap lets some steam off. Your average thermostat Opens at 160/c some less, and quite a few handle more. Water cooled engines run at Higher temps if im not mistaken. it doesnt take much to cool them down compaired to Aircooled. water is one of the best mediums for heat transfer. very efficient at taking heat away from metals, the best way to remove heat from water is Air. a radiator will slow the water flow down and allow the air to remove the heat from the water through thin walled tubes. Oil can do this too but water seems to work better. I just got another idea that might help all GS's with and without fairings. Oh Bob B, we must converse me amigo.
Are you thinking about an oil cooled GS with electirc fan....he he... :mrgreen:
Quote from: kyzeeQuote from: ollie357I wonder if you can mod out the '04 by mounting a cooling fan under the fairing. You could have it switch on by attaching a thermocouple to the outside of the engine.
Could that work????? :roll:
call me a pessimist, but I don't think an electrice fan will do much to cool down an overheating engine block. They are pretty much designed to help remove heat from the radiator fins. It may help dissipate heat from the fairing enclosure but I doubt that would be of much use in prolonged traffice jam.
BTW. I was thinking of welding an oven termometer (the kind we use for cookin steak) to a metal part of the engine to gauge the temp. wonder if it will work. :dunno:
you would be amazed at what an electric fan can do. Before I got into the bike scene I used to race a 93 SE-R it was a very high output car with a JDM sr20DE and lots of extra mods. somtimes the car would begin to overheat in traffic. with the flick of a switch . the electric fans would kick in. as I watched that needle go way down within moments. Believe me a fav will do wonders. this is actually a very good suggestion. and I will be using a small electric fan i have sitting around to play around with.
Sounds to me like the clutch may be cooked, or at least well on its way. Stop-n-go traffic where the clutch is held in for a long time without using neutral really heats up the plates and thus the oil. Cooling the engine with a fan may help a little, but concentrating on keeping the oil cool to start with could be a better initial step. I would use a motorcycle specific synthetic, let the clutch out when not shifting or slowing, and make sure the oil cooler is free of debris. If its still an issue, then I would add a small fan over the oil cooler itself.
The revving and smoke you mentioned points me toward the cooked clutch diagnosis. When you need to replace it, make sure you do the metal and friction plates both, since the steel ones have been heated too far.
Hope you are able to work it all out.
Aaron
Quote from: Susuki_Jah
you would be amazed at what an electric fan can do. Before I got into the bike scene I used to race a 93 SE-R it was a very high output car with a JDM sr20DE and lots of extra mods. somtimes the car would begin to overheat in traffic. with the flick of a switch . the electric fans would kick in. as I watched that needle go way down within moments. Believe me a fav will do wonders. this is actually a very good suggestion. and I will be using a small electric fan i have sitting around to play around with.
For cooling a radiator yes that would make a big difference, but pumping air directly onto an overheating engine block (in a traffic jam) itself may not be that effective.
Anyhoo... we need someone to do the mod and quantify the result don't we? that's where the temp gauge will come in handy. btw don't we have a temp gauge on our GS??? ha ha. :lol:
Quote from: aplitzSounds to me like the clutch may be cooked, or at least well on its way. Stop-n-go traffic where the clutch is held in for a long time without using neutral really heats up the plates and thus the oil. Cooling the engine with a fan may help a little, but concentrating on keeping the oil cool to start with could be a better initial step. I would use a motorcycle specific synthetic, let the clutch out when not shifting or slowing, and make sure the oil cooler is free of debris. If its still an issue, then I would add a small fan over the oil cooler itself.
The revving and smoke you mentioned points me toward the cooked clutch diagnosis. When you need to replace it, make sure you do the metal and friction plates both, since the steel ones have been heated too far.
Hope you are able to work it all out.
Aaron
I totally agree with you. The small GS engine should not build up so much heat so soon in the first place. :thumb:
my bad...i didn't realize the bike in question was a 04 with the oil cooler. hence the idea of an electric fan.
I haven't heard of this happening to any pre-04 GSes, so either the stop-and-go was worse than others have experienced, or else the 04 has a weakness there.
I wonder if you could spray the fins down with water to cool them off. Maybe even drip water onto the fins? Sort-of like Loobman with water.
QuoteI wonder if you could spray the fins down with water to cool them off. Maybe even drip water onto the fins? Sort-of like Loobman with water.
Heh. I can just imagine Joe Slick in stop-and-go traffic, making passes at a pretty young blonde in a convertible.
Joe: Yeah, thanks, this bike really is one incredible machine. Whoops, hold on, I think it's starting to overheat.
* Joe sprays his engine block down with a pink squirt gun
Joe: So, where were we?
Thanks for the input guys. I think I can make do for the time being by adjusting the tension on the clutch cable or just doing what i'm doing now, ie; being gentler with the clutch lever. BTW, would something like this be covered under Suzuki's warranty, if stuff needs to be replaced?
Adjusting the clutch will probably do you no good. If its slipping now, that means tha the friction plates are worn to the point that the springs can no longer force them together completely. The only remedy is to replace the clutch, which is most definately not covered under Suzuki warranty.
When the clutch get heated up from being pulled in for an extended time (at this point the plates are released but still rubbing), it heats the oil, which heats the engine, which got you to overheating. I'm sure that the fairing had some influence on the problem, but working on clutch control, and shutting off the engine when sitting for more than a few moments would help alleviate the problem.
The fairing has sorta made it mandatory for the bike to be moving to get any cooling... so sit in 1 spot and the dead air around the motor never gets swapped out for different and hence cooler dead air...
Cool.
Srinath.
Okie doke. I'm gonna order an OEM clutch clutch plate kit/gasket from bike bandit....
and wheelie my ass through traffic at 100mph next time. YEAH BABY YEAH!!!! :nana: :mrgreen: :nana: :mrgreen:
You may want to splurge the extra few dollars on new springs too. When you are ordering, make sure you get the little washer that gets bent back to hold the hub in place. It right there in the schematic.