Possible radiator repair

[black-k1]

I met this chap at the London Motorcycle Show at the Excel. He's never done a K1?00 S/R/GT rad before but was confident he could.  If anyone has a "dead" rad they'd be willing to let him look at/pull apart he's happy to investigate.

May be worth a try for someone?

[Phmode]

Nice one David. Did you tell him they have crimped-on plastic side tanks with rubber-like seals twixt core and tanks?

That is what killed all the leads I had when my K12 seals rotted out.

A real premises and not a million miles from me. I might take a ride up and have a chat.

[black-k1]

I didn't give that level of detail as I didn't know that until now.

He was certainly interested enough that a chat would have the possibility of benefit for both parties.

[fatporker]

I have just had a chat with Andy from West Mercia .. i finally took the plunge and removed radiator from the bike to try full degunk and spruce up .. as even in these temperature in scotland i had 4 bars in the slow traffic.

Anyways a few photographs and a few words later i have send the said rad off to Andy to have him properly clean and check ... as has been mentioned he is not hopeful of being able to do much more .. but i shall let u know how it goes .. here are some piccies of it so far ...

First 3 are pre soak and attempted degunk so it is coming away but would like to see the difference post Andy working his magic .. i shall update when i get it back

[Phmode]

The yeuk at the very top centre is really interesting. I have never seen that much crud anywhere except at the very bottom corners.

Also, the slight separation at the bottom centre is quite alarming.

Good luck and looking forward to a 'like-new' after piccies...

[fatporker]

Loving ur optimisim

[richtea]

The yeuk at the very top centre is really interesting. I have never seen that much crud anywhere except at the very bottom corners.

Agreed - that was my first thought too. To get gunk up there the Sh*t Ladder^[tm] would need to be holed. Or be loose?

'Looking forward' to uncovering mine in the next few weeks for the first time on this bike. Wish me luck.

[TomL]

The problem with the K1300S radiator is that it has extremely fine fins similar to what is normally seen on an aircon radiator.
Generally cooling system radiators are far stronger with greater fin spacing.
Despite built in protection the K1300S radiator is easily blocked with road crud thrown up by the front wheel and the finer fining is extremely susceptible to corrosion.

[richtea]

Agreed, Tom. I think it's the result of trying to pack a lot of engine into a small space.
You've got more limited rad space than the average bike, but then combined with a larger than average engine, so you need to get more fin surface area into the same/smaller area.

Hence why they ran it right down to the bottom of the fairing too. It's a compromise that almost works.

[black-k1]

I think it has more to do with poor design. There are lots of other bikes with "equivalent" engines ('Busa, ZZR1400, VFR1200, H2SX etc) all of which will have about the same level of heat dispersion requirements but none of which have "radiator issues".

[richtea]

Fair cop, David. I was giving too much leeway to BMW there!

[Phmode]

So...

How could the design have been better?

Heat management is a fine art and a high science and lots of other 'hot' bikes do not have all-encompassing bodywork as does the slab-sided K. Most have great, ugly scoops and gashes to actively bring in cold and actively let out hot air. This could be one reason the K is so heat sensitive.

Look at the H2SX. It is amazingly fwugly, at least to my eyes. But it has plenty of space for hot air to escape.

So that might account for the high engine temps at low speed and in traffic suffered by the K when the rad gets partially blocked.

But looking at the Kwak, it has a front mudguard which appears even shorter than the K and a rad which is 'almost' as low down as the K, but not quite.

So where does the crud thrown up by the Kwak's front tyre go to?

[black-k1]

The radiator is simply a part of overall heat management design. If the approach BMW have taken to the fairing, airflow, radiator, radiator positioning doesn't work, then its poor design in my book. If other manufacturers avoid radiator issues by having "holes" in the fairings then the fact BMW don't is poor design.

[Phmode]

I thought was what I said 

[black-k1]

I thought was what I said 

Sorry Brian. I read your post as support for the BMW approach of no "holes" in the fairing.

The Kawasaki radiator does get covered in front wheel crud but the wider spacing of the chunkier fins means it manages to hold onto a lot less, and it's easier to remove when cleaning the bike.