Thermostat removal

  I have a Triumph T-Bird that runs hotter than I would like it to. I
was considering removing the thermostat to see if I can get increased
cooling system flow to help alleviate the issue. I have done this with
cars and compressors and have never had an issue, in fact, it has
worked well, but I have never done it on a motorcycle. I have read
about some KTM's (recent EXC's?) that can benefit from this procedure.
 Has anybody ever done this on their bike? If so, what were the
results?
 Thanks!

 

How hot, and what temperature would you like it to run at?

I'd recommend you leave it alone.


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 britbike900@yahoo.com wrote:

One time I had a T-Bird (Ford, that is) that kept boiling out all its coolant
and I kept replacing the coolant. I tried removing the thermostat and
rebuilding the water pump, but it didn't help. Turned out that the radiator
was all plugged up.

Modern engines usually have a thermostat which makes them run hotter than
older car engines. And they run high pressure radiator caps to raise the
boiling point of the coolant.

Hinkley sent their engineers to Japan to study how Kawasaki built motorcycles
and some Kawasakis (like the original 900cc Ninja) ran so hot (around 275
degrees F) they scared riders and Kawasaki recalibrated the temperature gauge
with a 1 ohm resistor so the gauge wouldn't go into the red zone.

Before I would remove a thermostat from my motorcycle, I would research what
the normal running temperature was supposed to be, what temperature turned
the fan off and on, what pressure the radiator cap was supposed to be and
what temperature the thermostat was supposed to open at.

Then I would attach a cooking thermometer to the coolant hose and see how hot
the hose was getting.

I would check everything before removing the thermostat.

One time I had a Suzuki Water Buffalo that wasn't pumping water. Turned out
that the water pump was full of a fibrous leak sealing material, so it
couldn't pump.

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 I have a CL350 Honda. I replaced the carbs, and now I have a VERY
strange problem. On the right side of the engine, the bike will start,
but you can tell by holding the exhuast pipe on the right side, it is
not firing. If i take off the plug wire on the right side and hold it
3/4 of an inch away, with the electric 3/4" zap, the cylinder fires
and the bike idles and runs fine. Any ideas?

 
 Yes, I have read about that issue on Triumphrat.net and I cured the
annoying warning light by removing said offending bulb. :-)
 There is surely a lot of good information in these responses. I was
just curious to see if anybody here had done this (T-stat removal) on
a bike and what the results were. I have often thought about doing it
to my DRZ-S, but that bike makes a lot of short trips, so I figured
that I'd leave it in.
 The cooling system on the T-Bird seems to work just fiine, it just
seems a bit marginal in size.
 Anyway, I bought some water wetter type stuff to try. I'm sure that
there are lots of opinions on this stuff....
 Thanks for all of the responses!