air cooled engines 2

[voodoochikin04]

i didnt wanna hijack the other thread.. *but is it a bad thing to use an air cooled engine? *i have a 95 suzuki gsx600f/katana. its air/oil cooled. am i gonna run into problems? and is there many others using these types of engines? * -MATT

[PilotHawK]

Air cooling should be fine as long as you ensure that you have adequate air getting to the engine. The honda FL350 is air cooled and works great. Honda uses air deflectors to increase airflow to the engine. Some people with modified engines in their 350's have added fans too.

One thing you can do with "air cooled/oil cooled" engines is use a larger oil cooler that is exposed to good airflow. I plan on using a 400ex motor in my buggy and it is air cooled. The primary thing I plan on using to help cool the motor is the addition of a large oil cooler.

On air cooled engines you can make them run cooler by 1) decreasing the temperature of the air around the motor: header wraps, 2) *increase the amount of air getting to the motor: fans or air scoops, 3) Increase the surface area that is available for cooling: aftermarket head, larger oil cooler.

If you find that your engine is getting hot in stock form there are options out there to help cool the motor.

[Rorty]

Originally Posted by PilotHawK\";p=\&quot

The honda FL350 is air cooled and works great.

Yes, but Honda designed it to be plonked behind the driver's seat from the beginning, whereas an air-cooled bike engine is designed to be up front in the air flow.

You can run an air-cooled motor in a buggy of course, but as PilotHawK says, give it a fighting chance. I personally wouldn't choose to run a toaster because keeping them cool enough is a bit of a hit and miss afair and I've seen too many of them completely fry.

But, if you have a toaster sitting there doing nothing, then why not give it a go - you'll get damn all for it if you try and sell it and if it fries, go and buy a kettle engine then.

[greentowtruck]

well looks like there are two of us matts going to run air cooled engines. I have about 4 of these kz 1000 motors sittting here so i figured why not try it

[plkracer]

Use a large oil cooler with a fan. The street bike engines don't have large fins like most off road engines, because they are made to be run at higher speeds. If you can, make some wide scoops on the sides of the seat, and point them at the engine. Try to monitor oil or cylinder head temps to avoid a meltdown. I have a fan on my 400ex's oil cooler, but the engine will still get hot in the sand. I couldn't imagine it in stock form with a heavier buggy.

[K-fab]

Another option is to have a couple fans that blow air over the heads and cooling fins too. *I know of a couple 350 Oddy guys that do this and it seems to work quite well.

Look into the Spal brand for fans. *They make some high CFM fans that are fairly small and light weight.

You might consider a pair of these with some sort of shrouding to control the air flow to/over the engine instead of just an open blow from the fan towards the engine. *Some sort of intake or draw from the sides of the buggy, say just behind the seat would probably work fairly well.

[plkracer]

Put a huge air scoop behind your helmet *like the indy cars have. Tell everyone it's a ram air. Lol Kfab, where do they sell the spal fans? How much more cfm do they produce, and do they require more amperage? I would suppose so, unless they have more efficient blades/ motors.

[K-fab]

Where to get the fan...
Try some of the off road warehouses and, for that matter, places like Summit too.

McKenzie's sells Spal, Fluidyne, Setrab, Perma-Cool and Derale fans.

If you go to [url=http://www.mckenzies.com:vsbncg5n]McKenzie's web site[/url:vsbncg5n] and open up the stupid PDF file (the things suck) that they have for a catalog go to pages 84 & 85 of the catalog - not sure what pages those are in the PDF file - you'll see a wide variety of fans.

Spal are on page 85 and they list sizes from 6.5 to 16", both push and pull. *Strange - they list them all by size, direction and weight, but only list two of them by CFM - 13" 1710 CFM and 16" 1610 CFM. *Both of these are pullers.

A lot of the Spal fans use curved blades and are supposed to be quite efficient. *I don't know how much more or better they are than some of the other brands - it's just what I've been used to using - it's what ATV puts on the Tazcars. *Being that McKenzie's has almost an entire page dedicated to Spal and all the other brands I listed above are on one page, I'm guessing that Spal's one of the more popular units and must come in more sizes and variations.

I would imagine that Spal has a web site, but I'm too lazy to go look it up. * *<--- me!

[nutnbolt2002]

Kfab do you think that a car 12" pusher fan mounted fairly close to the engine work good enough, with a little bit of fairing?

[K-fab]

I can't really say... *It would be all about getting as much CFM as you can.

If nothing else, it's a good start.