Floridaized the 80 1100

[jpwinger]

Took a little trip up to Tifton Ga. from Citra Fl. about 180 miles to see Joe. Ran hard 80 or so most of the way, it liked it or so I thought. When pulling off interstate to meet up with Joe (wrong exit !!!!!) not my fault!!!! While waiting for Joe to come and fetch me. Saw a puddle antifreeze on ground small leak in radiator. Got to Joe's ok. Hated to do it but put some good copper stop leak in it. It worked stopped the leak just fine. Drained and changed antifreeze when I got home.Then Joe said we need to Floridaize it. So out comes the thermostat and heat shield. New radiator cap, up graded to 16 lb cap. New hoses to tank. Now temp gauge runs way low. There is the blue cold line then a narrow white line then the thick white operating line then the red line. It now runs in the thin line about half way before the thick operating line. It runs fine but the mpg is lower now 32 or so from around 38. What do you all think about running it at this much cooler temp. All comments are welcome. Thanks Jerry

 

[Terry]

On auto's running a lower temp tstat is a common power increaser along with power tuner's.

In hot weather it should be a good thing, never heard of that affecting mpg's ?????


The trade off:
In winterlike cold weather, it will negatively effect warmup time and cold temp performance some.

 

[jpwinger]

Bike stays in Fl. winter is not much.

 

[slabghost]

Lower running temp will help the motor last. A summer restrictor plate in place of a thermostat may be needed to bring it up in temp a bit. I'd try tuning the carbs first though.

 

[joedrum]

what can happen is that bikes in hot humid weather like fla will get hot ...this allows the goo around the piston ring seal to relax and start to push some pressure into colling system ...this in turn builds pressure in cooling system and it pushes coolant out the cap or resivor .....and no other symptoms to be found ....theres a slight chance in my eyes that jerrys head gasket is slightly blown ...i am hoping not ...on 1000s and 1100s i would not have a thermostat in my bike ..the 1200 is a different story ..they have 11% more volume in flow per minute in there cooling system and radiator is smaller not sure whats best path here ...as in fla riding set up

 

[jpwinger]

goo what goo It did drip once from cap a little but stoped

 

[jpwinger]

Yes carbs not 100 % after market float needles but that another thing to do. But starts and idles without choke without touching throttle so not much wrong there. Running 82 carbs and coils.

 

[joedrum]

goo the head gaskets are made of .... not sure what poper name for the stuff head gasket are coated with

 

[jpwinger]

Oh that goo It has original head gaskets so they may be bad