What did you do to your vision today?

[sunburnedaz]

As an aside, one of the symptoms of blown head gaskets, among other things, is hot running.

The thought has crossed my mind more than once. Had friend with a pinhole leak on a 4runner between the combustion chamber and the water jacket did this same kind of stuff but it would boil over eventually. I did use a block tester http://www.autozone.com/autozone/accessories/Tools-Garage-and-Equipment/Block-Tester/_/N-25dh to see if there was any kind of issue, at the time 2010 to 2011ish there were no gases found.

[Rikugun]

At this point its going to be a new custom rad, lots of custom rad shops in phoenix go figure,

LOL  ;D  ;D  They are interesting results and going in the right direction too!   Nice work.  :)

[Rick G]

3 years ago i was in Bullhead and road to Havasu. Temp was 118  . Vision ran in the middle of the scale , never went higher . Bike vapor locked 4 times causing me to   sit in the sun waiting for  the gas in the carbs to stop boiling.
I rode through Salem OR. in the summer of '03 .And then up in to the Cascades . I rode the hell out of it as i was doing tests on oil temp. Vision stayed in the centre of the scale . Temp in Salem was 106.
You are trying to  do  a patch with the bigger radiator , you need to find the problem, which is not that the radiator it too small!

[sunburnedaz]

3 years ago i was in Bullhead and road to Havasu. Temp was 118  . Vision ran in the middle of the scale , never went higher . Bike vapor locked 4 times causing me to   sit in the sun waiting for  the gas in the carbs to stop boiling.
I rode through Salem OR. in the summer of '03 .And then up in to the Cascades . I rode the hell out of it as i was doing tests on oil temp. Vision stayed in the centre of the scale . Temp in Salem was 106.
You are trying to  do  a patch with the bigger radiator , you need to find the problem, which is not that the radiator it too small!

How many RPMs were you running? I never have the vapor lock problem no matter how hot it gets. She never gets too hot to run after I updated everything I can. I am all ears if someone has a new idea on what it could be. No air in the system, new thermostat, 70/30 water coolant, water wetter, 16psi cap, and checked for evidence of a head gasket leak.

[Rikugun]

Rick, is it possible your gage or sending unit contacts were compromised giving an inaccurate reading? It seems unusual to expect an older Vision to indicate only half gage in those temps or suffer the effects of vapor lock while only indicating half gage.

Sunburned, it does seem like your efforts have made your bike able to sustain those desert temps and continue to run without a custom radiator. If you end up going that route anyway, it will be interesting to see if the gage indicates cooler under similar temps.  This would also assume everything else is left as is i.e. coolant type and blend. Does your bike have the plastic shroud/air dam in place behind the front valve cover?

[QBS]

sun, have you tried, or considered running with no thermostat just to see what difference that would make?

[Fuzzlewump]

For what it's worth -which may not be much- I live in Phoenix, and my Vision also runs at about 7/8 of the way to red.

If it is cool weather outside (80F - 90F), she typically only gets there after ten or fifteen minutes at 60mph or greater.

If it is 90F or more, such as at midday, she'll reach the 7/8 mark while idling in the garage, and stays there without rising during the entire time I have her on the road. After I shut the engine off, cools down to the lowest reading within an hour.

I haven't put her through a lot of hard riding and I've only made one round trip on the freeway across the entire valley, but if it's midday it takes no time for me to hit that mark on the temp gauge.

I've got a new thermostat, just finished giving the entire coolant system a thorough cleaning, and my fan seems to operate just as it should. The gauge never rises above the 7/8 mark, and the bike doesn't show any signs of overheating that I am aware of.

I'm of the opinion that as long as I can find nothing broken or harmful to the proper operating condition of the bike, a high reading is acceptable.

[QBS]

The '83 manual says that the entire green range of the temp. gauge is available for normal operation.  Touch the red zone and it's bad ju ju time.

[fret not]

If you suspect overheating check the over flow catch bottle for evidence.  It would be fuller than normal if over heating.

[Rick G]

Engine temp and vapor lock  are  two distinct problems . My XZ has a '83 style fairing, with the baffle in front of the carbs . Even so  their   is poor air circulation  under the tank  causing the vapor lock problem.  The only time in the 10 years I have ridden it , that the engine temp has climbed to the red is in OR!  when I was climbing in to the Cascades in July , while running the hell out of it  cooled down as soon as I slowed down. It happened  in AZ  while climbing out of the Colorado river valley, up Boundary cone road towards  Oatman  in august .  It has  water wetter in it. As usual I was not sparring the horses.!

[Rikugun]

Engine temp and vapor lock  are  two distinct problems . My XZ has a '83 style fairing, with the baffle in front of the carbs . Even so  their   is poor air circulation  under the tank  causing the vapor lock problem.  The only time in the 10 years I have ridden it , that the engine temp has climbed to the red is in OR!  when I was climbing in to the Cascades in July , while running the hell out of it  cooled down as soon as I slowed down. It happened  in AZ  while climbing out of the Colorado river valley, up Boundary cone road towards  Oatman  in august .  It has  water wetter in it. As usual I was not sparring the horses.!

Engine temp and vapor lock  may be two distinct problems but some would argue related as cause and effect. If it were not for the water wetter, you may have felt more of the effect from the cause .  :)

[Rick G]

Engine temp has no affect on  vapor lock . I have had it occur many times on engines that were not over heated. Its a carb problem , as well as a fuel line  or fuel pump problem . On bikes it is mostly a carb problem, with the gas boiling in the float chamber.
Actually i could detect no useful effect from using the water wetter.
Vapor lock seems less prevalent  on fuel injected engines.

[PHM]

I drained the rear axle fluid and replaced, and also changed oil and filter. Running very well, it was a long winter getting it ready.  I would like to thank all the members for their advice and guidance.  If not for the fellow members this project would have caused me to pull more hair out of my head than I did.  I am trying to attach a picture of the bike now that it is done, do not know if it will work but I will try.

[jefferson]

Very nice! Now you can enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Jeff

[Rick G]

You have done a marvelous job!!  You should be proud of  your effort! Congratulations!

[sunburnedaz]

Nice now go ride it and enjoy it!

[Jirik]

PHM: Hmm, she looks very cool with the white parts, especially the white inner site of fairing. Nice contrast.

Last week I connected a 12V plug, changed carbs hoses and added fuel filter, secured air filter on the proper place and started with repairing of YICS.

[pinholenz]

Got rid of my YICS a couple of weeks ago. Happy bunny ever since. Didn't notice any change to performance. One less leak to worry about.

There are some great looking restoration jobs on this list! Congratulations to you all!!

[Rikugun]

Engine temp has no affect on  vapor lock . I have had it occur many times on engines that were not over heated. Its a carb problem , as well as a fuel line  or fuel pump problem .

Yeah, you're probably right.

I do like the red and white color combo on the Vision.  :)

[QBS]

Jirick, Thank you for showing us your very clean and thoughtful V.  Love the inline fuel filter and fuel line, especially the hose to filter attachements.  Little personal touches abound.  Looks like a lot of you and your love in that bike.