Husky Supermono Help

[riversbikes]

Hey everyone, I got my husqvarna 610 supermono project running last night. I am a bit concerned about the cooling system however. For fitment and size issues, I chose a ktm 450xc atv rad, mainly because it had the inlet and outlet spigots on the correct side of the rad. Last night the engine seemed to be running very hot -- it was idling for awhile, which doesn't help, but I am still concerned. As is typical with these things, the plumbing is potentially the issue. I have two configuration options.

Option 1 has the water pump spigot flowing to the bottom of the rad, and then the return to the engine out of the top.

This configuration makes sense as it allows the return to run via gravity assist back to the bottom of the cylinder. Is the water pump strong enough to "force" the coolant to the top end of the rad?

This is another detail pic. The alu tubes are temporary, yet water-tight.

When I ran it like this, the rad stayed quite cool, the engine got very hot, like it wasn't flowing any coolant.

Option 2 was also run in this configuration:

This way has the coolant flowing "down" out of the water pump, and then up into the top of the rad. The concern I have with this is that when the coolant returns to the engine/bottom of the cylinder, it has to flow uphill slightly, due to the orientation of the inlet spigot on the engine. See below:

This configuration I ran first. The engine seemed to run a bit cooler, although the right hand (inlet/exit) side of the rad was very warm, but the opposite side was cool.

Complicating all of this is that I don't have a rad cap installed - on backorder. Could this be the root of the problem? Does the rad need to be sealed and pressurized to allow proper coolant flow, or will it theoretically flow throughout the system without the rad sealed. At no time did coolant boil over, expand or...? It almost seemed like the coolant wasn't getting to the cylinder head -- like it was "stalled" in the rad and not flowing anywhere.

Any and all advice, suggestions, etc. would be greatly appreciated!!!

james

[Kayla]

I think the way most cooling systems are plumbed in is that hot water goes in at the top of the radiator > cool water comes out of the bottom > into the pump > into the engine (at the base) > back to the top of the radiator.

If you put hot in at the bottom of the radiator/top of the engine, you have to work against physics in general to get the water to flow whereas if you put the hot in at the top of the radiator/bottom of the engine you're only working against gravity

I really wanted to use the word 'thermosyphonic' but didn't know where to put it

[BudgetBoy]

I think the way most cooling systems are plumbed in is that hot water goes in at the top of the radiator > cool water comes out of the bottom > into the pump > into the engine (at the base) > back to the top of the radiator.

If you put hot in at the bottom of the radiator/top of the engine, you have to work against physics in general to get the water to flow whereas if you put the hot in at the top of the radiator/bottom of the engine you're only working against gravity

This ^^^^

Also make sure there is no air in the system as this will also cause problems for you.

[riversbikes]

Ok -- problem is the pump is at the top of the engine -- runs off the camshaft ... not sure if it is an inlet pump or an outlet... so should it go in the bottom or the top of the rad. As for the air, I still need to source a rad cap, hopefully it will help.

james

[porter_jamie]

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=motorbike+cooling+system&um=1&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbnid=XhVu_DSM3RzYeM:&imgrefurl=http://www.dansmc.com/watercooling.htm&docid=sRcHDPtToLXs_M&w=750&h=576&ei=IpWATtboFcjFswbtmqkq&zoom=1&biw=1280&bih=803&iact=rc&dur=81&page=1&tbnh=130&tbnw=165&start=0&ndsp=25&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0&tx=94&ty=64