I finally got the radiator yesterday. Installed it right away. Test run without fairings: no leaks, fairings in place and for a 150 kilometer run around the lake.
Damn the Hayabusa is a great bike to ride!!
Water Wetter seems to lower the temperature of the coolant some now when I'm driving pretty hard and rew the engine the needle of the thermometer remains a little short of the halfway point where it was before.
The thermal insulation of the exhaust pipes seems to work too, significantly less heat rises from the engine bay when stopping.
So I recoment bolt of thouse, I probably wouldn't have needed a water wetter myself, it's mostly cool in Finland but I wanted to try it and a small drop in operating temperature doesn't hurt.
Pleased to hear your bike is back in business.
Hope you don't mind, but I wish to comment on your perception of what the water wetter does for you:
1.) Your thermostat controls the temperature of your coolant from going too low and your fan controls it from going too high. It has nothing to do with what is inside your coolant.
2.) Water wetters are soap based, (surfactants) they reduce the surface tension of the liquid, allowing better heat transfer between the radiator and the liquid, but they are all soap based, used in mainly cleaning materials. They all foam, which is the worst thing you want in a coolant, as the foam will have the exact opposite effect in heat transfer and make it much less efficient. So the name "Water Wetter" is purely a marketing ploy to catch the consumer.
3.) Most if not all engine coolants contain ethylene glycol, which reduces the freezing temperatures of your coolant and increases the boiling point, which is exactly what you need. However they actually decrease the coefficient of heat transfer up to between 5-10%. Due to the lower specific heat of the glycol coolant while riding, what that actually does is it increases the thermal efficiency of your engine. They also act as a lubricant to your water pump and an anti corrosive agent.
4.) An engine which runs too cold can do a lot of damage and an engine which runs too hot, will do even more damage. So you have a thermostat in a cooling system which is designed to operate between an upper and lower temperature. The capacity of the Hayabusa cooling system from Gen2 onwards is more than ample to handle that, so whatever you put into your coolant regarding heat transfer makes absolutely no difference.
5.) The best coolant is one which prevents freezing, boiling, corrosion and does not degrade over time. They pretty much all do that. I use a standard ethylene glycol coolant from an automotive store, don't even bother about the brand name. I change it once in 5 years, my cooling system is absolutely clean and when riding the cooling fan never comes on. In 90F plus heat conditions if the bike idles, the fan will kick in for a short period and switch off again. So any extra $$ I put in my coolant will be a waste of time.
Hope my post does not irritate you, I just hate it when clever marketers take advantage of the public.
As a final point to think about, provided your coolant does not go above boiling point, the higher the temperature, the better the thermal efficiency of the motor will be.
