Resurrecting a Red Lobster

[Mesozoic]

LOL it's funny because it's one of the few machines that has a dry sump oiling system, a vast improvement over traditional cheap wet sump systems. My buddy had an '06 CBR1000RR which seized up on the track from oil starvation in a long sweeper! The engines in either the XB series or the 1125 series bikes are relatively bulletproof.

Not sure what I should do about my stator either - it charges fine with the HD fix and living in southern AZ you'd expect the heat to kill the system eventually, but it seems to be doing fine. I run Maxima 20W50 full synthetic and change it regularly, maybe that helps... who the hell knows.

 

[Cooter]

I know, I know, OO! OO! Mr. Carter! Mr. Carter!

Ambient temp is not engine temp, and really doesn't matter to a water cooled engine*. It should get to it's operating temp, then be controlled by the cooling system to not exceed that operating temp. Your cooling system is keeping it in normal operating temp range. Simply said: "oh my gosh, my fans are on, it's overheating!" Uh, NO. Normal operating temp is NOT below the fans turning off, it is is below the fans turning on*. Ironically, adding the oil cooling rotor mod you want is adding the heat it takes from the stator windings into the engine oil! So the trick is to not generate that extra heat from the charging system in the first place... lemme 'splain.

The 'Harley fix' does exactly that by routing one leg of the stator windings through that little Bosch relay, making 2/3 of a charging system when off, and turns it back on when needed. By disconnecting that one leg of the charging system, it keeps the stator cool enough and you shouldn't have an issue. Ya, it's a cheap add-on fix, but it's proven to work. If you choose to 'fix' your working charging system, it's all in the voltage regulator.

Heres why:
The Ducati shunt style VR that is Buell 1125 OE, runs the stator at max all the time (makes the stator hot) and dumps the extra voltage straight to ground (makes the VR hot), and uses a SCR type transistor as a switch that is relatively slow creating even more heat in both things.

The series-style VR you want, allows the stator to vary output to match the electrical demands the bike needs (no extra voltage to dump/ no extra heat). They are usually also MOSFET switched. That type of transistor switch is much faster so it generates much less heat in the VR as well. A worthy upgrade that would allow you to remove the 'Harley fix'. If you want more overkill, get a new stator that uses higher temp rated wire. After all, thats the part that melts. Even even MORE overkill? Get a rotor that sprays a tiny bit of engine oil into the stator windings and control the heat in the stator windings further. The engine was designed for it and has the oil feed in the crank already.

TL;DR, Get any universal, series-style MOSFET VR thats rated for your max amp draw. Mount in a spot that gets airflow. Theres 5 wires. Input your 3 yellow stator wires in any order (they're all yellow), and output + and - to the battery. Go ride. Hope that helps!

*Simplicity warning.

Edit:
Your buddies old Honda didn't seize up because of wet sump oiling. Look up Angular Momentum, HRC has.

 

[stevieboy]

Reading this with much interest. I have a 2009 XB12R and recently purchased a 2009 CR with 1441 original miles on it. The second owner put a whole 25 miles on the four years he had it. Even had the original tires from 2008! First ride was an eye opener in that it dropped the rear cylinder and the check engine light came on, naturally. rode it back home for a total of ten miles. Cold oil check revealed an extra sixteen ounces of oil (!) Chaz has given me some things to check as he is very busy and can't get it in for a look. Wish me luck.

 

[stevieboy]

Chaz at Aagaard MotoFoundry has mine up and running. Chaz is the best! Quick and accurate. Nothing done that wasn't needed. Meticulous attention to details and gives a good explanation what was done and why. Good pricing too. Hope the warmer weather promised for the weekend materializes. I'd like to get more than ten miles on this bike!

 

[Cooter]

Chaz is great! Helped me with both the EBR and the CR:up:

Hope you get some miles in

 

[stevieboy]

Decent ride on the CR yesterday although it was very windy! Not as fun as it could have been. The bike runs well but the stock exhaust is so quiet that I can hear the cooling fan running and it sounds like it is running constantly. I guess thats a bit better than not running at all?

 

[Cooter]

You have a temp display on the dash if you're worried about it being too hot. Years ago, trackdays on the last CR during Floriduh summer heat taught me some tricks that helped. (Shameless knee down brag...)

 

[stevieboy]

Not worried about too hot. Just the opposite. I've never had a water-cooled bike where the fan came on lower than 225 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

[stevieboy]

Nice!

 

[34nineteen]

1125's tend to run hotter than most bikes out there. I think some of it comes from the cooling air management setup, which was changed on the 1190.

Also, most people don't know (or care) how to access the radiators on these, so that often gets overlooked. Both of my 1125's had coolant that looked like it was the factory fill and was long past its prime.

If Chaz was working on your bike, I'm sure he made sure the coolant was sorted out. He's awesome.

 

[Cooter]

The story goes that the HD brass, well known to be the form-over-function types, didn't want to see radiators:indecisiveness: So the air flow was designed to be directed from the outside, through the radiators, to get hot, and then toward the engine, and out the back. When Erik was let loose to design the 1190 for his own company, he reversed that first thing to take air from the hot engine and out the sides, away from the hot thing thats trying to get cooled. Derr.

Your thick seat and thick Tech Spec grip pads will provide some comfort to your thigh:up: but I concur with Mr. Sanford, to not worry about the fans. Ya they're loud, but they are there to maintain a temperature range. It's not a sign of over heating, it's a sign that it's operating normally.

Sure, service the cooling system, check both fans are running, and ride it. You can mess with the fan on/off temps with tuning software, but IMO, it just makes them run, and wear, and be loud more often. My bike still ran the same temp no matter the settings. In fact, the only things I did that affected running temp was:

1) Being very particular about the oil weight during extreme heat/hard use. Suggested by an 'EBR insider' , track days in the summer got straight 60w. The valve train noise got much, much, quieter and running temps went down. It seemed extreme at the time but it still drained like thin water when hot so I kept doing it.

2) I also tried a non-engineers suggestion (to some contention on this board LOL), by adding a very small amount of 2-stroke oil to the gas. 1- 1.5oz to a tankful made the fuel pump noticeably quieter and coolant temp vs ambient went down again! It worked consistently and A-B tested as many times as I could.

 

[34nineteen]

I wound up running Water Wetter in mine to help manage the heat. My $0.02 non-engineering hunch is that the radiators may be as small as they can be to just keep the engine coolant temp under control. But, if you keep everything maintained, you should be OK, even if a little warm. You'll probably still boil the fuel on a hot day, which I consider as par for the course with 1125 ownership. Just make sure to not put it away with a full tank of fuel and you shouldn't have problems with gas leaking out of the vent.

Other than that, have fun. These bikes are amazing, even if the jury is still out on the looks (at least its not a Super Touring).