RoninJames
New Member
yea like i said not sure if he was giving me the actual or just giving me a number as an example. i am taking my bike in for service this week so i will try to get specific details then
Hot Running Mama!
- Thread starter commandodave
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- day fan gauge run temperature
yea like i said not sure if he was giving me the actual or just giving me a number as an example. i am taking my bike in for service this week so i will try to get specific details then
ArkansasDave
New Member
Thanks, I'm excited to see the results.
Calibrated my GPX Pro on the temp sensor on the back on the engine. Used a IR Temp gun pointed on the hottest point on the temp sensor bolted to the engine. Took 10 readings from 100-200 degrees.
The GPX takes the temp inputted and the current voltage coming out of the temp sensor and interpolates the temperature against the output voltage to give a current temp reading.
SO its only as accurate as your inputed values and where you're getting the temp readings from.
At 2 bars below the "Hot" line was reading about 190 degrees.
The GPX takes the temp inputted and the current voltage coming out of the temp sensor and interpolates the temperature against the output voltage to give a current temp reading.
SO its only as accurate as your inputed values and where you're getting the temp readings from.
At 2 bars below the "Hot" line was reading about 190 degrees.
ArkansasDave
New Member
So what your saying is two bars below the hot line is completely normal and not running hot at all.
Fasteddy
Member
FWIW, this also agrees with live OBD data directly from the ECU which actually controls the van, the ECU seems to be adaptive in it's approach to controlling the fan as it knows other factors such as speed , load, ambient air temp etc.
ArkansasDave
New Member
So back to my original question is there actually an overheating issue or are people just annoyed that the fan comes on?
Only time they overheat is when cooling fan dies/breaks. No one in this whole thread ever mentions the thermostat.... The bike is functioning properly running at that temp "shown'' by bars on dash. End of story. The hotter they run it the leaner it will accept, for EPA mainly.
ArkansasDave
New Member
Thats what I thought.
reenmachine
Member
Yeah, I've been too lazy/reluctant to chime in with the whole explanation of what the cooling system is doing, how it works, and how meaningless it is how many bars are showing on the gauge (unless it's all of them I suppose).
However, I have overheated the bike but my use case is pretty hard -- SoCal heat & dryness in what's essentially a hillclimb situation. I'm confident that a switch to distilled water with MoCool will take care of that.
ArkansasDave
New Member
You also have green sludge for coolant and who knows what the dealership put in there.
reenmachine
Member
Exactly. The more antifreeze is in there the worse it cools, so being safe to negative 75°F or whatever it probably is isn't helping me. This bike will never see freezing temperatures.
Question: Was this "overheating" after you stopped and had shut down the motor, and not while running? Not "stop and go" or idling, yes?
So shutting down a hot motor before running at a lower load and allowing it to cool down, can/will cause the coolant to potentially spill, or "puke a puddle" as it were. The heat has nowhere to go, and the fan isn't running... so thermal dynamics wins. Liquid expands when heated, and if your overflow tank was already at/near full, well... it's gonna spill out. Now, if it puked while the motor was actually running, in stop and go, or while running hard, that's different.
reenmachine
Member
I have no way of knowing if it puked while I was still riding. I guess I didn't lose rear wheel traction and there doesn't appear to be residue all over the place. When I stopped the gauge was pegged and I could hear it simmering away. It wasn't a disaster, it was just hotter than I thought it would be. I've run plenty of other bikes up this hill dozens of times under hotter conditions and never had to even think about the temps before.
I feel like my experience (and my level of concern about it) is getting blown a little out of proportion, especially since I seem to be the one data point. I rode the bike hard up a tall mountain. It got too hot for my liking. I'm gonna fix it.
commandodave
New Member
I was concerned, not annoyed. Now that I know this is normal for the RC390, it is a non-issue.
ArkansasDave
New Member
It's not just you, anyone I talk to about the 390 mentions wait till next year and maybe they will have the overheating issue fixed.
Willasan
New Member
Mine did the same coolant puke the other day. I was riding up the tight twisty side of Mt. Palomar and it was about 90 degrees outside. When I stopped it started puking immediately. I guess the combination of the high air temps, relative low speeds with high engine load was too much for a tight new engine with green sludge in it. No problems since though. Going to put MoCool in it when I do the first service.
reenmachine
Member
So I drained it last night (see pic of thick green coolant) and filled it with distilled water plus 60ml MoCool (20:1 ratio as recommended on the bottle). There's definitely a difference, but it's not drastic. I would say that overall the cooling is much more stable and consistent. It appears that normal operating temperature is two bars short of the break in the gauge and it sat right there all day, which was about 130 miles of hard mountain riding plus another 40 on the freeway.
However, on an exact duplicate of the run that made it puke the first time it did it again. This time I pulled up (once again, at the end of a hard 26 mile uphill run) with the gauge showing two bars below the break as it had to that point. It puked a small puddle and could be seen and heard bubbling away in the reservoir. That was the only time it puked, but at a couple other stops it was bubbling away in there. It was probably only 70°F out but at ~5400' altitude, which may have something to do with it, as the boiling point is about 10°F lower at that elevation.
I had filled the reservoir to the 'MAX' line cold as instructed in the manual.
Occasionally the gauge would go to one bar shy of the break, but that's as high as it got today, which is a definite improvement.
The fan still came on in stop-and-go traffic on the way home as usual. I think the fan set point is just barely above normal operating temp and so that operation is probably normal.
I'm going to quit worrying about it. It's not overheating, so there's no cause for concern.
However, on an exact duplicate of the run that made it puke the first time it did it again. This time I pulled up (once again, at the end of a hard 26 mile uphill run) with the gauge showing two bars below the break as it had to that point. It puked a small puddle and could be seen and heard bubbling away in the reservoir. That was the only time it puked, but at a couple other stops it was bubbling away in there. It was probably only 70°F out but at ~5400' altitude, which may have something to do with it, as the boiling point is about 10°F lower at that elevation.
I had filled the reservoir to the 'MAX' line cold as instructed in the manual.
Occasionally the gauge would go to one bar shy of the break, but that's as high as it got today, which is a definite improvement.
The fan still came on in stop-and-go traffic on the way home as usual. I think the fan set point is just barely above normal operating temp and so that operation is probably normal.
I'm going to quit worrying about it. It's not overheating, so there's no cause for concern.
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