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Showing content with the highest reputation on 04/23/18 in Posts

  1. Sounds great guys ! Was thinking it was going to be quite difficult. Will let you know how I fare. Well, I took the KE30 for a run today to town, after I reinstated the radiator bypass hose over the weekend. Over the weekend, I also fitted a proper temperature guage, so I could see more closely and accurately, in real-time, what was happening. I mounted it on top of the steering shaft cowling, so I didn't have to move my eyes too much whilst driving. The guage was surprisingly accurate, considering it originated from China, delivered, complete with mounting surround, & sensor for less than $ 10.00. Well, after I got home, & downloaded the data, you could knock me over with a feather. The simple action of reinstating the bypass, made the whole coolant temperature variations, change dramatically, for the better. It's like there has to be a constant flow, whether the thermostat is opened or closed, to stop the sudden changes than occur, when the thermostat closes, & the flow stops altogether. Ever since I ran a return line from the back of the head, the rear head temperature has lowered considerably, but Keith & I were very puzzled as to why the rear head temperature, at times, was actually less than the lower radiator hose coolant temperature. From the graph above you can see that that has changed completely. Where we had a rear head coolant temperature about 10 deg C above the front of head temperature, now it actually less than; by 6-7 deg C. Now the whole system is stable, I might put a clamp on the rear of head return line hose, & restrict it little by little, to see if I can't get the front & rear head temperature even closer together. On the right of the graph, you can see a "circled" area of the graph, where for 15 mins, I had a good long straight run, without any stops at all, all at about 80kph. Here is that section, of graph, which is very telling. Notice the top & rear head coolant temperatures, mimic each other perfectly, about 6-7 deg C apart. Gone are the ups & downs, of the coolant temperature, directly under the thermostat. The rear head return coolant is now returned to a point directly under the thermostat, which is why these two temperatures look so much alike in shape. The lower graph line is the lower radiator hose coolant temperature. The zig zag nature of this graph is very easy to explain. The outside ambient air temperature was fairly mild today, at an average of 25.5 deg C, as shown on the stats at the bottom of the graph. This resulted in the radiator hardly being needed at all. You will notice the top hose (black trace) is averaging at 82.4 deg C. The thermostat does not crack open until 82 deg, & is fully open by the time the coolant reaches 87 deg C. So what was happening was the thermostat would just crack open, & flow would commence through the radiator. The coolant temperature reduced very quickly, once the radiator was in circuit, & the thermostat instantly closed up again, stopping flow through the radiator altogether. i could actually see this happening on the temperature guage I fitted behind the steering wheel. The meter is damped, but, I could see it rising and falling about 2-3 deg C. continuously, at the rate shown in the graph. I was actual watching the thermostat crack open & close continuously. On a hotter day, this will not happen, as the operating temperature will be nearer the mid point of the thermostats range of 82 - 87 deg C. So riddle just about solved. Just need to install this speed switch, so that in traffic, when you stop, the fan comes on automatically, to pre-empt, & flatten out all those sudden rises. In the first graph, you will notice the electric fan only came on three times. The first time was for 48 sec. Second time for 24 sec, & last time 48 secs. That's a total fan operation of 2 minutes, in about 90 mins driving. Keith's original statement is very true, that the fan is rarely needed. Cheers Banjo
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