Liquid/air cooled engine?

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xXNightRiderXx

Active Member
Jan 12, 2017
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Boise
I was looking at an interesting thread on another site where people had made liquid cooled heads. I want to see if this could be taken a step further with a fully closed system that also incorporates the stock fins. These heads used an open flow system. I'm thinking, instead of all that, why not drill several holes in the cooling fins of the jug and head to accommodate copper tubing, with a radiator and a high flow pump and reservoir? If someone could come up with a visual representation on how this might or might not work, it would be very much appreciated. This is simply to keep the engine cool at high rpms and low speeds, primarily for jackshafted bikes frequently climbing hills or standing still on a hot sunny day at a damn long traffic light (hate those things, but they're a necessary evil).
 

Kioshk

Active Member
Oct 21, 2012
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Why not just construct a basin around the cylinder and head to contain water that can boil-off via a pressure-relief valve. Add a float-valve reservoir above it. It'd be like a hybrid steam-engine! You could hook up a scavenged steam-powered generator for the headlight.
 

MotorBicycleRacing

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Jul 28, 2010
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SoCal Baby!!!
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I was looking at an interesting thread on another site where people had made liquid cooled heads. I want to see if this could be taken a step further with a fully closed system that also incorporates the stock fins. These heads used an open flow system. I'm thinking, instead of all that, why not drill several holes in the cooling fins of the jug and head to accommodate copper tubing, with a radiator and a high flow pump and reservoir?
It's been done and posted here.
I think Josh Moon did it but I can'r remember if that is the name he used here?

Oh yeah, a cool project but no real world benefits for these engines.

Arrow made a water cooled head for the races but now use Fred's head
as it provides more than enough cooling without all the complication of a
mechanically or electrically driven water pump.
 

xXNightRiderXx

Active Member
Jan 12, 2017
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Boise
Kioshk has a great idea, but my idea was to keep the whole cylinder and the head cool, and even give the engine a steam punk look, haha. Perhaps I could use the initial heat of the engine to start the flow of the water, and use a flow generator to run the pump and a headlight, with the light on a switch. I'd have to have a regulator to prevent the pump from being overpowered though, once the flow got fast enough. I'm thinking a small 12v 6w pump would be sufficient. The tubing would have to be 5mm inner diameter, so there would have to be at least 5 of them to provide the proper flow rate. Also, they would have to be fed off one 15mm tube running to and from the pump, and the flow generator will have to be on the hot side of the system. Or, I may forgo the drilling altogether and simply use flat tubing small enough to fit between the fins. That would certainly be an unusual look. My next build I will attempt this system. If it works, then most of my next builds will have the same. I do like the boil off part though.
 
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