My cooling fixes and misc stuff

I have had a cooling system problem ever since I bought my '01 VFR. My main problem is it has trouble holding a warm temp during winter. I've replaced the T-stat before and that helped the initial warm up time 10 fold. Works just fine during the summer and so does the fan, but when winter hits (doesn't even have to be that cold) the bike can barely hold 170f on the highway. What's an even bigger problem is when the temp stays like this, my fuel consumption just sucks. So it is time to start replacing some parts.

Parts ordered:

1. OEM T-stat - I have currently a Honda civic t-stat installed that I made fit. I know it's working since the bike warms up faster than what it would when the old t-stat was stuck open. From memory, I think the middle opening is a tad bigger on this one and may be allowing too much flow. I'll see when I pull it.
2. Water pump - About 2 years or so ago it started to weep for a couple days then it stopped, then a month later it weeped a little, then stopped until a week ago. So almost 2 years with no problems. Went ahead and ordered a new one. I just got down pulling pump. Some build up between the top plate and body (& O-ring). The shaft does have some resistance. Turns a fraction, then resistance, turns a fraction, then resistance, etc etc.
3. Radiator cap - Had mine tested and the guy said it was leaking just a tad. Might as well replace.
4. Misc. O-rings
5. 4 T-body insulators - When I replaced the t-stat last time, the insulators were a tad on the hard side. Might as well replace them with some soft ones and not worry about cracking one or air leakage.

Going to flush the system tomorrow. Too lazy to go get some distilled water right now.



That's just to flush it. I always use the 50/50 mix.


Original pump that I know of.




You can remove the drain bolt while the rad cap is still on. Just be on the left side tilting the bucket towards the pump and reach over the bike to open the rad cap. The stream comes out full blast.

 

Well. There's my weeping problem.







Seal was still good. Of course it gets lubed from the engine oil.

 

So now it's 1. cooling, 2. fuel, and 3. clutch.

I got the new pump installed. Sorry I'm going so slow, but work is taking up more time. Going to fill up the system with distill and flush. Then I'll get to replacing the T-stat, rad cap, and insulators.

The last time I cleaned the front sprocket cover was when I replaced my chain back in the summer. Man that thing was already gunked up!


Here's some pics of the "Black" plug O2 sensor. I couldn't get the other one off without making a racket.


Seems a little dirty. Here's the kicker. These looks EXACTLY like the ones that were on my '98 chevy tracker engine I rebuilt. Same shape, same 4 wires and I think even the connectors. From Bosch the "black" wire is signal, "whites" are warmers, and "grey" is ground. The only thing I don't know is what range these O2 sensors read. I've been told that most OEM O2's have a range of say 6 - 16 or something. Then you have those aftermarket O2 kits with gauges that have a wider reading range for lean and rich. I have a new universal Bosch 4 wire O2 that I might hook up for giggles.

 

Jeez la Weez! My girl is in pieces now. I have a bad problem with taking one piece off, then another, then another and so on.

Here's a comparo of the oem t-stat and a cut down honda civic.













All this work to get to this.

 

This far. Might as well clean the throttle bodies.


























The crud is probably from me cleaning.
















This would really be a good time to check the valves.

 

impressive my friend. i just changed the stator on my bike. the manual called for pulling the throttle bodies off. i looked at that rats nest of vacume lines and how far down there the throttle body clamps were, and thought, "fuck that"... lol
i just cut the old stator wires, tied a string to them, and then pulled the new wires though.

 

Your bike is still "new", but I'm going to go ahead and replace as much vacuum lines as possible. I'm about to check my valve clearances. Just trying to figure out if I'm on TDC "compression" or not.

 

its not that new. its already fried a stator...

 

Talking about rubber parts are still on the new side. Your vac lines probably aren't as bad as mine.

 

yeah hopefully... im trying to do alot of preventative maintanance on her. while i had the bike apart, i took every single electrical connection i could find apart, inspected it, cleaned it, and then packed it full of dielectric grease and reassembled. also flushed the coolant, changed the oil/filter, serviced the air filter, cleaned/lubed the chain, and cleaned as much crud out around the chain as i could.
throttle boddies and vacume lines... im not gonna touch that for a while. lol

 

Did ya take off the front sprocket cover and clean that? I replaced my chain not too long ago, cleaned it and checked it out a couple days ago. Sucker was full of gunk.

 

yup nasty...

 

Woke up late today and didnt get a lot done. Popped the PAIR stuff off to see whats up. I think I cleaned this two years ago. I guess I'm running a little rich.

 

i blocked mine off about a year ago and havent worried about them since.

 

Here's my valve clearances.






Looks clean.

 

Went ahead and just removed the rads.




Looks a little SV'ish now.

 

damn dude youre not playing around huh?
is the riding season already over in texas? lol

 

Wow, really does look SV ish... That civic t stat looks like a no go to me, whats the temp rating on it compared to the OEM one? I have an OEM t stat ready to go into mine this winter as mine is stuck open and likes to run around 150. I put some cardboard over the rad that doesn't have the fan for now so I can ride until winter comes. It works quite well and usually keeps the temps around 170. Course, it still warms up slowly. I'm interested to see how it all turns out, your doing quite an overhaul there. I'm jealous of your mileage, I'll get there in a couple years. I just picked mine up this summer with 13k on it, so I've got some riding to do.

 

Well when you get this dead into the engine, you might as well do as much as you can. I bought her with 20k miles, then I've added my 25k'ish miles and I have no clue if the valves have been checked before. This is my first time to do it. Luckily Honda does a good job putting them in spec and they stay that way for a long time it seems. I've read a lot from guys that haven't checked there's till 60k or so and they were in specs or up to 2 out of spec. Shims beat the hell out of lock nut adjustment valves.

The OEM t-stat is 82C (179.6F) and the civic is 180F, so they're the same temp open/close wise. I know it still works since the bike warms up in normal time. The shape and the holes in the bottom of the oem might come in play. OF course a leaking rad cap and water pump dont help so I'm hoping the coolant system was having a pressure problem and this will fix that. Of course now I have an RC51 oil cooler and I don't feel like swapping the OEM one back on so I know I'll have to block at least half of that during the winter.

 

Very nice, I decided I'm not going to pull my valve covers this winter as I'm sure the valves need no adjustment. From what I've heard is that even with the t stat closed, coolant flows through one of the radiators all the time. Kinda seems like a not so good design to me.