Turn your Rolls Royce(grill) into a Bentley...

...sorta....more like a hybrid grill.... :yes:
Rolls Royce grill...

Bentley grill...

I have one of those goofy "Rolls Royce" style grills on my '81.
It looks kewl and all, but it does restrict airflow somewhat. Most of ya'll know I have an issue with thinking my 1100 runs a little hotter than it should, even tho actual temp readings prove otherwise. Be that as it may, I wanted to try to modify that grill by removing some of the vertical bars to allow more airflow, but I was worried about not having enough protection for the radiator if I did. I recently came up with a solution, and I got the deed done today.
To start with, I got one of those cheesy paint can shelves that attach to a ladder, made of an expanded metal. It appears to be a close match to what the factory rock guard is.
It is the correct size, both up/down and side/side to cover rad, and fit behind the RR grill. Then, I had to remove selected vertical bars from the RR grill, which I did by drilling down thru the small staked edges, and then knocking the bars out.

And this is what I wound up with....a Hillybilly grill.... :smilie_happy:
This should still give the rad some serious protection from larger objects that might hit it.

With the paint can holder sitting behind the RR grill.

The paint can holder has two folded tabs on it to hang it on a ladder. I flattened them both out, then mocked it up to mark where to cut them off.

With the tabs cut down, I could insert them behind the lower rad bracket to hold the bottom.
(The top is left loose for now....I want to make sure this mod works, and once I do, I'll remove it and rivet some upper "tabs" to it, and then rivet the whole thing to the RR grill.)

Finished install...should allow much more airflow...

Plus...I loose about 3 pounds of metal from the grill!! No kiddin...these RR grills are HEAVY. Taking these bars out made a HUGE difference in the weight of that thing.

I'll know tomorrow evening how much this mod helps with my engine temps....wishes me luckies!! :BigGrin:

Interesting. I look forward to your results. I have the heavy bar grill on my 80.

Looking good Joel! :good:

Good idea, Looks great.

I love the hillbilly ingenuity!! :good:

opcorn: opcorn: opcorn:

The ride to werk this am was nice. Not much traffic to deal with, but the grill mod seems to have make an improvement, for sure. Gauge never even got to the half way mark. This afternoon's ride home will be the true test tho.....assuming it doesn't start RAINING... :rant:

I know this Joel, when I removed my RR grill and installed the good old fashioned OEM rock grate, my temps dropped quite a bit on the highway! :yes:

(BTW, I have one of those RR grills sitting all purdy in my garage waiting for a buyer if anybody else wants to try this!)

well it is that time of yr ...where temps can be a problem ....the hooch bike is on full flow no thermostat operation right now .....no heat shield ....seems to run cool ,,,,i have no temp gauge on hooch ....hooch also has a front pusher fan installed and covers the front of radiator quite a bit ....hmmmm well all i can say it been no problem at all ...now that im back down in fla the traffic will pose quite the test ....as it been so far fan hardly ever comes on ...

Well, it's been a few days since this mod was done. The results have proven that it works....not quite the dramatic difference I was hoping for, but it does run cooler on the road. Before, I was having to turn my cooling fan on and leave it on almost the entire ride(34 miles) home in the evenings once I got in traffic. It would not cool back down once I got out in clean open air, either. Now, I am only turning the fan on for a short time, and once I do get moving again, the temp does come back down.
All that being said, I gotta say that my temp wasn't getting to the point of being dangerous....just higher than I wanted. Last summer, in traffic, the gauge was getting to about halfway between half gauge and HOT. Now, it is only going to just past halfway, and that's only in heavy stop-go traffic. Even after getting moving again, it stays right at half gauge. So, if I go back to my testing from 4 years ago, I can see that half gauge is 180*


And with the needle a bit farther past half, the temp is 190*.


Best I can tell at this point is my average temp while riding after this mod is right around 185*....I can live with that. We'll see how it does once the ambient temps around here get up above 100*....it's been in the mid/high 90's the past week or so, with high humidity. I may also finish the bracketry for the mesh grill, and remove the RR grill all together, and see if that makes even more of a difference. Even tho I know this thing isn't really running hot, I still get uneasy seeing the gauge go past halfway for some reason...just a scaredy cat I guess.... :hihihi:

What temp is your t'stat?

180* NAPA #THM 101 :yes:

Thanks, sounds like it's working per manual. Manual states 'starts to open: 176 - 183F'
'full open: 199 - 206F'