Why go to all the trouble and not replace the thermostat? Leaving it out just causes more cyl wear and worse fuel economy. Mine was stuck open on my honda when I got it. Its not as big a deal as you’re making it out to be.
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eliminate T-stat on motorcycle?
- Thread starter GAgunLAWbooklet
- Start date
It's a Big Deal-- I don't want to strip the bike down to get to this part myself, most dealerships won't work on a bike this old and if they did it would probably be a $400 repair job just to swap out the thermostat
ps: It's a 1996 Honda shadow-- obviously built before anything on a bike was computerized.
I cant get my head around the notion that having a free-flowing cooling system will do a worse job of cooling then one that has the flow of the coolant 90% blocked when the thermostat is fully open and 100% blocked when the thermostat is shut.
The idea of the hot water won't spend enough time in the radiator to cool off makes no sense because similarly that same water would not spend enough time in the engine block to get hot in the first place!
But, I can see how the vehicle's
water pump may not be spec'd to operate properly with an unrestricted system-- the flow volume of the water pump and the pitch of the impeller it uses to push the water might be designed to work with a serious restriction in the coolant lines located where the thermostat goes.
The idea of the hot water won't spend enough time in the radiator to cool off makes no sense because similarly that same water would not spend enough time in the engine block to get hot in the first place!
But, I can see how the vehicle's
water pump may not be spec'd to operate properly with an unrestricted system-- the flow volume of the water pump and the pitch of the impeller it uses to push the water might be designed to work with a serious restriction in the coolant lines located where the thermostat goes.
The bike not reaching operating temp is the problem. Until you’re cruising the highway in the summer and traffic comes to a stop and actually you get some heat in it. Then you’re working with a runaway cooling system so to speak. Where the water isn’t spending enough time in the rad to cool and semi cooled water isn’t spending enough time in contact the the head and block to cool it off. The best thing you can do is install a flow restrictor plate that emulates the full flow of the thermostat being open. While it will still take your bike forever to warm up on chilly days, it won’t hurt you in the summer.
It’s not a performance bike though so taxing the cooling system is not really an everyday occurrence. Unless someone tries to reengineer the cooling system on a vehicle without accounting for all conditions as the factory did. Only to make i a less reliable piece of machinery. My question for people modifying a stock cooling system on a stock vehicle is always, do you think it was a personal affront? Like Honda just installed this thermostat waiting on the day when yours broke to give you an opportunity to fix the flaw in the cooling system on the flagship bike of a multi billion dollar company? Or do you think they paid the engineers to find the optimal location to increase reliability and longevity of their product. It just so happens to be in a location that’s not readily accessible.
At any rate. Good luck me personally a t stat and seals can’t be more than 30 bucks with a service life of 5 years with a properly maintained cooling system. I’m not willing to deal with unreliability at such a low cost of repair.
It’s not a performance bike though so taxing the cooling system is not really an everyday occurrence. Unless someone tries to reengineer the cooling system on a vehicle without accounting for all conditions as the factory did. Only to make i a less reliable piece of machinery. My question for people modifying a stock cooling system on a stock vehicle is always, do you think it was a personal affront? Like Honda just installed this thermostat waiting on the day when yours broke to give you an opportunity to fix the flaw in the cooling system on the flagship bike of a multi billion dollar company? Or do you think they paid the engineers to find the optimal location to increase reliability and longevity of their product. It just so happens to be in a location that’s not readily accessible.
At any rate. Good luck me personally a t stat and seals can’t be more than 30 bucks with a service life of 5 years with a properly maintained cooling system. I’m not willing to deal with unreliability at such a low cost of repair.
