| Author | Message | ||
     Buellmonkey |
I'm not sure where most of the members here live, but I live in hell, I mean Los Angeles. It's almost always warm to hot. Anyhoot, while scooting through gridlock, the cooling fan will kick in as I'm in second gear and not going very fast. What I notice is that as the engine gets hotter faster, gearing is affected; I'm assuming the cooling fan is linked to the DDFI and this changes the bike's response. I think I'm the only person here with a stock bike with nuthin' cool, fancy or fast on it. What happens if I modify the engine to make it vroom vroom faster? Sure, if I'm flying at 100mph with a modified engine/bike the cooling isn't an issue but what about low speeds with an engine that's now revving higher, pulling torque faster? Is there a more efficient cooling fan out there, much like the (improved) velocity stack for the airbox? (I keep thinking of a "cyclone" kind of fan that swirls the air into a point for efficiently cooling the engine but this could just be carbon monoxide poisoning from the traffic.) | ||
| Enduro261 |
If you have your header ceramic coated that will help keep your engine cooler. If you cut the airbox this will also help. And last but not least, if you add a TFI or Race ECM the extra fuel will also help cool the engine. Since I modified my bike it runs much cooler than it did when it was stock. When the bike runs lean it tends to get hotter faster and the fan turn on a lot more often. | ||
| Joele |
Ceramic coated headers keep the engine cooler? I don't think I've ever heard that before. I've heard of keeping the ambient temperature around the motor cooler though. | ||
| Fullpower |
ride, fuel, eat, sleep, repeat. dont worry too much about the weather. your Buell can handle it. | ||
| Tomzweifel |
I know ceramic coating the headers makes the right leg heater not work as well. The left foot heater still works OK, though... | ||
| Ejiii |
I'm with Fullpower. Gas it and go and don't worry about it. This engine platform has been around a long time. Many HD products used in the LA area for years. Run a good synthetic oil and remember this "when in doubt...Gas It!" | ||
| Lovematt |
I was kind of worried about this last year when I did a track day at Buttonwillow Raceway on July 4th near Bakersfield, CA. 105 degrees in the shade and 115 degrees on the track (there was a gentle breeze). I was thinking air cooled bike and it may not be happy. Well I was definitely proven wrong...if anything my bike ran better...probably since I was pushing it harder than normal the engine parts were heated up good and the tolerances closed up more. It was a pleasant surprise. | ||
| Buellin_ri |
Don't think you have much to worry about. I am sure LA has had plenty of lightly modified buells that haven't had a melt down. | ||
| Enduro261 |
From the knowledge I have gathered having the headers ceramic coated keep the engine cooler. It helps to dissipate heat from the headers which will keep the engine cooler. It's all about moving the heat away from the engine. | ||
| Brucelee |
Buy a right side air scoop from Trojan Products. I put mine on three months ago and the fan has not come on since. | ||
| Brucelee |
And of course use a quality syn 20-50 oil. | ||
| Xbolt12 |
Al at American Sport Bike was working on some nice autoclave right scoops a few weeks ago...... | ||
| Briz31 |
Hey Buellmonkey, I say don't worry about it.. I live in Tropical Queensland, Australia.. The sun shines 336 days of the year, the other 20 days it's either tropical cyclones or maybe a summer thunderstorm. pretty much a yearly range of 78f. to 110f. with high humidity. Bring it on, the long endless summer. Enjoy your bike, I'm sure it will be fine.. I would be more concerned with F R E E Z I N G temperatures than the heat. Cheers.. | ||
| Nevar |
I rode my 03 XB9S for the first time today. I rode it twice, each about 10 miles, and the fan came on both times right when I stopped the bike. It didn't come on while riding. It's pretty cool how it comes on high for a few seconds, then switches to a lower speed, then quits. At least I hope that is how it's supposed to work???!!! Tim | ||
| Al_lighton |
The first article right side scoop looked beautiful, and fit the XB9 pretty good, but was a little too close to the pipe. Trial fit it to an XB12, was WAY too close to the pipe. It's going back into tooling, round 2  Al | ||
| Brucelee |
Eric Buell has been very clear on why the fan is there, to keep the back cylinder head cooler after bike shut down. Since I have added the right side scoop, the fan has not needed to come on at all, even after 2 hours of hard riding. Love it! | ||
| Glitch |
Erik Buell | ||
| Odie |
Al, what's your timeline looking like on the revision? Any pics of the first one?? Thanks, Odie | ||
| Bbstacker |
Brucelee, are you sure your fan still works? Just kidding. I wasn't able to find an over-sized right side scoop at Trojan. I don't mind the fan so much. I just want a C/F right side scoop that matches the left side. I'm all into the symmetrical look. Someone posted a pic of one they put on their bike and it looked mucho cool. | ||
| Brucelee |
One can never be sure of anything! I did buy it from Trojan it was on there site about 2 months ago anyway. Yes, I did post pics of the scoop and it looks way cool, at least to my eye. | ||
| Nadz |
Al, muh brutha, post pics. My fan runs half the time and it ain't even hot in PA. Ok, how do I ask this question... does anyone know if the engine runs cooler if: A. I'm (stuck behind traffic) going 40mph and turning 2200 revs with about 10% throttle OR B. Same sitch, but one gear lower, so maybe 3300 revs? Let's assume good airflow (no drafting effect) and about 60F ambient. My bike is stock plus synthetic all around. See, when I'm not playing I try to spin lower to save gas. I wonder if this makes the engine run hotter. Experts weigh in... -NadZ | ||
| Lovematt |
Kind of depends...heat for most engines is a combination of outside air temps, cooling method, friction, and the amount of load on the engine per power stroke. The lower revs at the same ground speed likely increase the load per firing of the plugs. However even though the load is less at higher revs, there is more friction (although slightly offset by more "cold" air going through the engine). I would venture to say the revs that give you the lightest load but still decent performance is the best balance. At 40 mph...3300 isn't too bad on a 9...from what I remember on the power characteristics of the 12...2200 might be better for that bike. | ||
| Al_lighton |
pictures below. Some notes: The engine isn't symmetrical in the frame, and the exhaust system is only on one side. There is NO way to make the scoop perfectly symmetrical. This is on a 9. On a 12, there was even less exhaust clearance. Back to the drawing board..       | ||
| Dilysi73 |
AL, What headlights are those? Where can I get some? Oh and sweet looking 9!! Aaron  | ||
| Brucelee |
Al, Scoop looks good! Yes, on the headlights, where can we get them and how much $$$$$$? PS-can't recommend adding the scoop enough! | ||
| Al_lighton |
That scoop was rough trimmed, the frame fit would be a little nicer if I did the final trim. Overall, the part came out beautifully. But none of that matters, the relation of the bottom of the scoop to the exhaust header is not right. The clearance on this one was a little more than 1/4". The clearance on an XB12 was much less since the XB12 header is bigger diameter and has a slightly different bend. Since the engine can jump around a bit, and since it is pretty hot that close to the head, more clearance is needed. So I need to make another tool. It's not a complete start-over, I can use this one as the basis for the new plug, just have to cut, bondo, grind on it for a while. It's an expensive mistake to have to throw away this tool, but quality isn't cheap. Oh well, chalk it up to experience, this is the most complicated part I've tackled since I bought the biz. The headlights are LSL Mig Projector beam lights. Nice units. Pretty much a straight bolt on, but you do have to shorten one of the bolts that are in the lugs on the front of the steering head on the frame that hold the wiring harness plastic clamp. The most difficult thing about the install is the adapting of the harness, but it was pretty trivial overall. See here. The 56mm clamps are available too for the 05 bikes. They come in polished (shown) and black anodized. The light beam is a little more spotlight and less floodlight, like any projector beam light, but they're brighter overall. The look is something you dig or you don't. Very mechanical and evil looking. I like them. Al | ||
| Taxman |
AL, with the aftermarket right side air scoop, would it look more symmetrical with your aftermarket left side scoop? | ||
| Trojan |
Those headlights have unfortunately been dicontinued by LSL. So if you have any left in stock Al you may have a rush on your hands  There are now none left in Europe at all. The last set I ordered from the factory had to be cobbled together from parts. | ||
| Dilysi73 |
AL, How many more sets of the lights do you have in black? Thanks Aaron | ||
| Freyke |
Are you running Synthetic Oil?... I know this made a big difference on how often the fan came on... | ||
| Buellridersww |
Al, I am wondering when is the timeframe to sell the right-side scoop? I wouldn't mind getting one for my XB. Also I am wondering if this product can be paintable... Thanks and take your time to develop it as it sure takes time to get it right. Buellridersww | ||
| Al_lighton |
Well, I hope to get the improved plug to them within a few weeks. But I'm in peak season right now, just keeping up on orders, emails, inventory management and customer service takes 12 hours per day, new product development has to occur after that. And between events (springfast, Fontana, Infineon, homecoming, laguna seca), even weekend time is very precious. Still, I gotta find a way to get that back into the tooling cycle in the next 3 weeks, then another 5 weeks after that it pops out. It'll be a while. I'm quite bummed it didn't fit, there's a lot of time in the one that you see. I won't be out of MIG lights any time soon. Al |
