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How hot should my fireblade engine be running?
tankplanker - 10/4/17 at 10:15 AM

Sorry for the clueless question, my Mk Indy Fireblade runs at about 90c on the road, when on the track it creeps over 100c after about ten minutes hard driving. I have been doing a couple of slow laps then pitting to cool down, but is that too hot?

My Indy has an old thin radiator at present so I know I could upgrade it if I need to but I'd rather avoid spending money if I can.


nick205 - 10/4/17 at 11:49 AM

What rating is your thermostat?


tankplanker - 10/4/17 at 12:14 PM

That I do not know without opening up the water pump (?) housing. Do you know what it should be?


CosKev3 - 10/4/17 at 02:37 PM

Bike engines run hotter than car engines,pretty sure those temps are fine


tankplanker - 10/4/17 at 03:34 PM

Awesome, thanks for confirming.


ReMan - 10/4/17 at 04:25 PM

what engine/radiator?


tankplanker - 10/4/17 at 04:40 PM

It is a 954. Not sure on the rad, it isn't very thick and its fins aren't very dense either as I can see through it, I think it is from an old Escort or a Fiesta? The receipt for the rad just says radiator on it


LBMEFM - 10/4/17 at 05:43 PM

If you are concerned about your rad, MK supply a VW Polo rad as standard with their kit. I have a VW one on my Indy Fireblade and mine runs at about 90 when driven hard on a track day.


Andy B - 11/4/17 at 06:00 AM

For peak power and efficiency you need to be running around 87 degrees on track - 100 is too high and if waters that hot then usually oil temps are getting too high also.
Venting the side of the bodywork and ducting the radiator to ensure the air must go through it are both cheap and easy methods of making an improvement. Replacing the stock oil cooler with a take off and air/oil cooler is another good way of knocking both oil and water temps down
Regards
Andy


tankplanker - 11/4/17 at 12:43 PM

Dang, Ok, I'm going to go with replacing the radiator first as the one it has currently isn't very good and I know

While I have the system drained I'll replace the thermostat and take a look at the water pump just in case.

I could do with monitoring the oil temp on the engine as I don't have a clue if that is too hot as well, whats the easiest/safest way to do so on my engine? Tap it in via the oil cooler? So I could do that when I upgrade the oil cooler?