Too hot

[chef1366]

Yesterday I decided to go for a little ride to the mountains to see my friend Kris V since it was around 110F here in Bako. As I was climbing I heard a noise that sounded like a header coming loose. I was around 10 miles out from Kris's so I kept going. It got louder and louder and I started losing power. Coasted into Kris's driveway and shut her off.
Pulled the headers and couldn't find anything wrong and reassembled. Leak still there. Blown head gasket on #3 at the rear of the cylinder.
Luckily I had all my spare stuff in his shop so I had a head gasket. Pulled the head and YIKES! The gasket had melted and I had pits on #3 and #2 cumbustion area on the head and pits on #3 piston. I got this baby HOT! The outer two cylinders looked perfect so I was that close on jetting but that far! Got her done in about two and a half hours and headed home.
This morning I pulled her back apart and did valve clearances and retourqued the head. Put in a cooler plug and bumped up the main jet from 140 to 145 and lowered the needle one notch. I'll try and get more color on these plugs to play it safe.
Also on the way home I lost my right frame cover ($75 for a new one with emblem)
When sh!t hits the fan it HITS the fan with me.
At least I didn't blow the bike up!

[hikermikem]

Wow, you were lucky to have the parts you needed, when & where you needed them.

Next time, hang out by the A/C - no head gaskets involved!

[Nessism]

How much compression you running in the beast of yours Bill? Melted parts is NOT good. Makes me wonder if air cooled engines should run in that kind of heat if you want them to live? Especially hot rod air cooled engines.

[Steve]

... Put in a cooler plug and bumped up the main jet from 140 to 145 and lowered the needle one notch.

Please remember that the plug does not determine the temperature of combustion.

A colder plug just has better heat-sinking ability, so it does not run as hot.

.

[chef1366]

How much compression you running in the beast of yours Bill? Melted parts is NOT good. Makes me wonder if air cooled engines should run in that kind of heat if you want them to live? Especially hot rod air cooled engines.

150# accross the board.

Please remember that the plug does not determine the temperature of combustion.

A colder plug just has better heat-sinking ability, so it does not run as hot.

.

The heat range on the plugs I pulled were three to four threads.
I added more fuel to the cooler plug so I'm hoping to run cooler with that combination.
Posplayr is going to design a temp guage for me

[TheCafeKid]

Yesterday I decided to go for a little ride to the mountains to see my friend Kris V since it was around 110F here in Bako. As I was climbing I heard a noise that sounded like a header coming loose. I was around 10 miles out from Kris's so I kept going. It got louder and louder and I started losing power. Coasted into Kris's driveway and shut her off.
Pulled the headers and couldn't find anything wrong and reassembled. Leak still there. Blown head gasket on #3 at the rear of the cylinder.
Luckily I had all my spare stuff in his shop so I had a head gasket. Pulled the head and YIKES! The gasket had melted and I had pits on #3 and #2 cumbustion area on the head and pits on #3 piston. I got this baby HOT! The outer two cylinders looked perfect so I was that close on jetting but that far! Got her done in about two and a half hours and headed home.
This morning I pulled her back apart and did valve clearances and retourqued the head. Put in a cooler plug and bumped up the main jet from 140 to 145 and lowered the needle one notch. I'll try and get more color on these plugs to play it safe.
Also on the way home I lost my right frame cover ($75 for a new one with emblem)
When sh!t hits the fan it HITS the fan with me.
At least I didn't blow the bike up!

That SUCKS Bill Sorry to hear it, but at least you got to it before any serious serious damage occured. The GK pulled a bit of a fast one on me today as well. I was at RageZro's place, and was getting ready to leave, so I started her up and let her run while i got my gear on. Well we got to talking so I shut her off so she didnt get to hot. When I finally went to leave, I turned the key, hit the starter, and...nothing. I had to be at work in 30 mins, and was 20 mins away... Jumped the solenoid, and it turned the starter, so that wasnt the problem. So Rage and I started checking wires, pulled the tank, checked some of the connections to the killswitch...then, I happen to think to check the fuse block. Ignition fuse was blown. But, what the heck caused that outa nowhere? Have to track that down...

[BassCliff]

Mr. chef1366,

Replace a head gasket in an hour and a half? You're a monster!

I'm glad nothing was broken too badly.



Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Steve]

The heat range on the plugs I pulled were three to four threads.
I added more fuel to the cooler plug so I'm hoping to run cooler with that combination.
Posplayr is going to design a temp guage for me

I have seen that 'heat range thing measured by the number of threads' mentioned here before, but have never heard of it before that, so I don't know how to interpret that. I have always gone by the color of the center porcelain.

Adding fuel with the larger main will cool it down for larger throttle openings. In your previous post you mentioned that you lowered the needle. That would lean out the mix in the part-throttle areas where most mortals spend most of their riding time. Not sure how you ride. A colder plug will not get as hot, so it will not burn off deposits as well, and now you are adding more fuel that might add more deposits. Check you plugs to make sure they don't foul out. If they do, just go back to the standard plug without changing any jetting.

A temp gauge is a good idea, but it's also important to know what the temp should be. An example of this: in the trucks I used to drive, we had pyrometers to measure the exhaust temperature. (Kinda important in big diesels.) Some of the trucks had the sensor before the turbo, some had the sensor after the turbo. Since the exhaust temp drops about 300 degrees when exiting the turbo, it was important to know where the sensor was. On one truck it was OK to see 1300 on the gauge, but on another, you did not want to see over 1050.

.

[Nessism]

I'm curious how hot that engine is getting to cause that kind of damage. My "guess" is that the oil temp is north of 300F - and lord knows what the combustion temperature must be? Sounds like a larger oil cooler is in order. Kind of a pain to set up but maybe an Earl's of some sort? Wouldn't hurt and give you something to spend your money on instead of all those head gaskets.

Some oil cooler ideas here... http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum...d.php?t=130290

[rustybronco]

I have seen that 'heat range thing measured by the number of threads' mentioned here before, but have never heard of it before that, so I don't know how to interpret that. I have always gone by the color of the center porcelain.

Might this help?

http://www.4secondsflat.com/Spark_plug_reading.html

http://www.usaimports.co.uk/Mopar_Tech_Pages/Spark_Plug_Reading.htm

[salty_monk]

Bad luck Bill... always the problem when you start hotting things up I guess!

Dan

[chuckycheese]

Hot, hot, hot

Hey, Bill, I'm so sorry to hear about your problem; but what a wake up call for me. As you know, our weather is also really hot and I've worried about overheating on the 1100. I can tell it's really hot because I can feel it. (I've never thought it was a problem with the 750).

I've enrichened my carbs several times but it's still quite lean. I'm gonna get the plugs colored up before I ride it another mile.

P.S. Glad you got it fixed!