mikesail

Actually once you have a turbo then altitude is your friend as the air resistance is lessening while the HP is able to stay constant. HP of course is totally a function of boost, but this can be set as desired.

I totally agree that laminar flow would lessen the heat transfer. I'm confident that any engine coolant is well up into the turbulent flow region due to velocity, and it would take some very special plumbing to achieve laminar flow even at a much lower flow rate. I think you are stretching to find a "cascade" effect, until some non-linear phenomenon occurs all effects are proportional. I'll try to see if I can find a reliable reference for the cavitation issue. I can tell you about a very high powered turbo motor thirty years ago that we pressurized to 30 psi in the cooling system because of the pump issue. I was not the designer but I can tell you that we had a pump that moved 50 gal in about 4 seconds as I recall. Trust me the coolant circulated very fast.

I'm not in any contest here, just trying to make clear what the real issues are, sorry that I came off that way. Turbulence of flow is a given in any of these cooling systems, if the flow were laminar then the heat transfer might lessen. Regarding the missing thermostat, I have read (from a water pump manufacturer) that the pump in this case will cavitate and thus lose pumping capability. Have not seen this myself but the story is quite reasonable. Certainly with a bypass thermostat missing you would have a serious problem just due to the bypass circuit being open. Faster water flow is really no different than faster air flow, they are both fluids on opposite sides of the radiator. Heat transfer is set by temperature delta alone, the fluids velocity does not change how it conducts/radiates heat. I'm a terrible writer myself, so I actually enjoy forcing myself to learn how to express thoughts correctly. As you point out the thermostat fallacy is common, hopefully this will help correct that.

Bird does have a bypass thermostat, at least for the redbird and the 2003.

Sorry but not true. Should I call UCLA and give back my engineering degree? The heat flow relationships are true regardless of velocity, the part that changes is the delta temp in the parts of the system. At zero water flow all the heat stays where it is generated and the radiator is at it's coldest. At infinite water flow all parts of the fluid are the same temperature, this temperature being set by the thermal resistance of the entire system and the heat source/sink temps. At any water flow between zero and infinite there will be a temperature gradient across the radiator as well as a gradient across the engine block. This gradient is proportional to the flow rate of the fluid. It likely is true that one might measure a difference in heat transfer as the water turbulence changes, but that is outside of our discussion topic. None of these concepts change as you go over or under the design flow rate until the flow slows to the point where boiling occurs, then it becomes a different system. For those who believe that the flow rate affects the heat transfer I ask you this. How fast would the water need to flow before you could hold a metal pipe with 200 degree water in it? Do you really think that the pipe magically stays cool? Yes, pump cavitation means that the flow rate drops and lessens the heat flow capability. We all agree there.

Will you stop repeating this idiocy! The speed of the water flow has NOTHING to do with the heat transfer. Yes the coolant will be at a lower temperature if it moves slowly through the radiator, but guess what? The coolant in the engine will be that much hotter when it exits the motor cancelling out the effect. This age old fallacy came about when people would remove their thermostat to improve cooling and found the overheating problem got worse. Thinking that the water was moving too fast when in reality the water pump was cavitating and not pumping effectively.

thermostat switches which directly control a fan have a large inductive load which causes the contacts to erode every time they open. Definitely a wear item.

just as a point of reference for this topic, I believe that the oil cooler is supplied with a separate low pressure feed, it does not carry the high pressure supply line. Thus most any oil proof hose should work in a pinch. Most any motor vehicle plumbing can be upgraded with pieces from a racing hose supply shop, and often at a good price compared to OEM.

The first article by Mike Nixon is very good indeed. Pay attention to what he says about valve seats especially. There was an article recently about dimpling intake bores to look like a golf ball, claimed a dramatic increase in air flow.

I recommend filing off the locating tab and rotating/spreading the bars out. Just to the point where the levers contact the bodywork at full steer. Much more comfortable at 6'5"

Brake fluid will not change the feel of your brakes, you are wasting money there. Brake lines can have a modest effect on feel, not a night and day difference IMHO. If your calipers are sticky you can have major braking loss, if there is any air at all in the system the lever will be soft. Since you say that the brakes fail in the rain I would guess the pads are heavily glazed. In any case I would start with fresh pads and an extensive bleed. I second the use of HH pads, they work very well.

I do not know how this ECU works, I suspect it looks to see some minimal noise level which would occur during normal operation to validate the sensor.

Can you turn it by hand, if you can't then neither can the motor. Have you checked the oil? Are you sure that the pump isn't seizing up? Is there pressure in the tank, is the unloading valve working properly? If all the mechanical bits are good, I would then try to check the starter centrifugal switch then check the capacitor.

I don't buy it. Knock sensors fail, sometimes just because they're wet and come back once dry. The wiring can have issues as well. If there's been no failure of a sensor or wiring on a XX ever then maybe it's something special. As far as testing, I've tested them on cars. Put on a timing light and see where it's at, tap near the sensor with a light hammer or something and look for a retard. If it retards you know it's working. I don't know of an electrical test that can be done to know the sensor is working but I assume the computer looks for an acceptable resistance to determine that it's dead. With some cars the computer will force a knock during diagnostics and set a code if it doesn't detect the knock. Nope, not resistance. The piezo unit has basically infinite resistance, it only generates a voltage with deflection of the crystal.

I have no doubt that it IS the speedo healer, the preoiler, or the wiring associated with it. The Honda dash is pretty well made, most aftermarket electronic devices not so much. Any item that intercepts the speedo signal can cause the problem you have. As to measuring the signal with a DVM, you need to understand that it is an AC signal. The DC value is close to zero. The right way to solve this is remove the extra stuff on the sensor line first and see what happens. It is entirely possible that the signal is attenuated too much for the dash to read, but still seen by the preoiler. Is the preoiler connected before the speedo healer? My bet would be on the speedo healer, if it loses power you would have this happen.

Have in my possession a box for a Model 36, it was given to me years ago by the man who bought the gun in 1980, not sure why I have the box! It is a nice box. Also have the parts list, receipt, warranty paper. Anyone want this?

Anyone know if there is a cross reference to a car unit? I saw a comment elsewhere that the Honda V4 bikes had the same unit as early Accuras I believe.

Considering that the fuel pump is running constantly and the injectors are held open, the only possible culprit is the ECU or its power/ground connections. Unless something has cut and rewired the bike circuitry, your problem is coming from the control unit. Carefully check all the power and ground connections first, if nothing then most likely your ECU is dead. I'll bet good money it is bad wiring though.

If the analog gauges work on a 2003, then I would like one. Ideally with 70k miles on it! If they are compatible, sign me up for a clean unit.

Stan, it takes more time than the startup period for the switch to unsolder itself. The only reason it gets that hot is because the contact resistance is too high for the load current. Unless the bike has some extra load causing the heating, the switch contacts just need to be dressed up and lubed.

Having neglected to check the valve clearance since the bike was new, I've been fearing the day when a burnt valve appears with only myself to blame. As the bike has been ridden for 10 years and 70k miles it should be interesting to note the results. Here are the numbers grouped 1-4 Exhaust: 9 9 9 9 9 9 8 8 Intake: 8 7 7 8 77 77 It was quite surprising, as only #4 showed any change from spec on the exhaust side. The other surprise was to see all the intakes getting loose, not sure why as no sign of wear was seen on the lobes or followers. Decided to reshim the intakes, and leave the exhaust alone. I'll probably check it again later this year as I forgot to remeasure before reassembling!

Eric is absolutely right on one main point, as the Bird alternator/generator does use a shunt regulator. The power produced by the alternator is a function of RPM, and once it exceeds the load the excess is dumped to ground by the RR unit. This will manifest itself as heat, thus the large fins on the later units. I'm not in agreement that the lower load of an LED bulb will lead to RR failure, it just means that it will dissipate an extra 50 watts. To further clarify, the shunt regulator is a short circuit that is switched on and off at a very high rate, following the AC frequency of the alternator. It clips the output voltage whenever it tries to exceed its setpoint, 13.8 or whatever. The question of linear or switching regulator is not relevant here, and at least until recent years cars did in fact use a linear regulator if not still today. The important difference with a car alternator is that a field coil is used to generate the magnetic field, instead of the fixed magnets in the BIrd. This field coil is adjusted by the regulator circuit to maintain the needed output, thus no extra power is wasted. I saw an ad for a mosfet based RR unit, this allegedly regulates by opening the output path instead of shorting it to ground. This would minimize the power lost, although the voltage on the stator coils will then spike to about 100v or so, probably not an issue though.

Table saw with a carbide blade. It will make lots of noise, but cuts cleanly.

The next bonneville bike could use this. I'll bid 70.

Do you want it milled off? If so I would be happy to oblige.