I was riding in the UK the last couple of days in wonderful weather. Beautiful roads, 30 °C and not a cloud in the sky. The only problem : The bike was running HOT. I mean superhot. Much hotter that I ever experienced in the last 14 years I owned this bike.
When riding uphill at 70mph in the 30°C heat, the engine started to cut out intermittedly. Heavy stuttering. The engine would alternate between full power and no power in maybe half a second. No exit in sight, so had to pull over on the emergency lane. The frame, the footpegs, the seat, but most importantly, both fuel tanks were superhot. Too hot to touch. Coolant temperature steady at 3 bars, fans switching on and off regularly. No warning lights on the instruments. My best guess was that the fuel was so hot, it must have been boiling in the injector gallery causing vaporlock.
I opened the fuel tank to let in some fresh air and to use evaporation as a cooling method. After 15 minutes or so, the bike started up fine again and ran fine for the remainder of the trip, even at higher ambient temperatures (up to 33°C). I added fresh cool fuel whenever the tank was half empty. The tank and frame continuously felt much hotter than I ever experienced before.
Can anybody think of a reason why the fuel itself could be heating up so much ? Maybe some kind of FPR, pump or injector failure that could increase the flow of fuel through the rails back into the tank ? Clearly something is different in the bike from before....
When riding uphill at 70mph in the 30°C heat, the engine started to cut out intermittedly. Heavy stuttering. The engine would alternate between full power and no power in maybe half a second. No exit in sight, so had to pull over on the emergency lane. The frame, the footpegs, the seat, but most importantly, both fuel tanks were superhot. Too hot to touch. Coolant temperature steady at 3 bars, fans switching on and off regularly. No warning lights on the instruments. My best guess was that the fuel was so hot, it must have been boiling in the injector gallery causing vaporlock.
I opened the fuel tank to let in some fresh air and to use evaporation as a cooling method. After 15 minutes or so, the bike started up fine again and ran fine for the remainder of the trip, even at higher ambient temperatures (up to 33°C). I added fresh cool fuel whenever the tank was half empty. The tank and frame continuously felt much hotter than I ever experienced before.
Can anybody think of a reason why the fuel itself could be heating up so much ? Maybe some kind of FPR, pump or injector failure that could increase the flow of fuel through the rails back into the tank ? Clearly something is different in the bike from before....