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[Prasinos]

OK boys. I should be studying for an Electronic Theory final i have this morning at 10:00. But my priorities changed with lack of sleep.

SO without further adieu, here's the plan: Water Cooling

We have all experience the significant power gain associated with a cool engine. Right in between starting up and reaching running temperature i notice a 25-50 percent gain in power depending on the temperature and the engine. Which leads me to believe that if i was to water cool my engine, i might be able to retain these gains during my entire riding experience.

Personally, i run a pk-80 slant with no base or head gasket, an NGK BPR6IHX plug(the iridium one), solid copper core wire with silicone boot, SBP expansion chamber and shifter kit i got from a buddy, a Dellorto 16mm SHA carburetor with panty hose air filter and a homemade strait 3/4" long intake. I can go upper 35-40mph any day on flat ground sitting normally, in a crouch Ive gone 44 on a real cold day.

Now this thing gets hot, and when i say hot, i mean it really doesen't idle at all after a hard run and the lowest part of the crankcase, which should be the coolest part of the engine, is hot enough to burn. Though not unusual for most engines, the head and cylinder gets way past 212F judging by the fact that if you spit on it itl spit back

This is not to say that every engine has insufficient cooling, but im running out of things to improve on this thing, so i figured why not.

I had a 15 dollar gift certificate for amazon from taking a survey so i bought this 12 volt pump(Pic 1) for 9 bucks out of my pocket, it draws around 650mA under full load and delivers about 1.7 gpm at max output. Though its not important for this application it can also generate about 4 feet of head before its maxed out... even with both of the radiators hooked up in series it still puts out around .8gpm. Doing some very conservative calculations I think this should be more than enough flow, even though i doubt i will need both of them..

Then me and a buddy bought these two hydraulic fluid cooling radiators the black one measures 3"x8.5" and the silver one: 12"x5".

so now i had the hardware, no excuses at this point. Time to take off those fins. As a student at Virginia Tech, I'm not allowed to use any of the machining or shop facilities, apparently its a liability, but what isn't these days? But about 4 hours of sawing with a hacksaw blade(no handle) and grinding with a Dremel tool l(I HATE DREMELS!!!), and i had a virtually smooth surfaced engine. I wish i took pictures at this time but since then i've filled in all the crevices with epoxy mixed with some of the aluminum shavings resulting from all the cutting. also, i've added some epoxy impregnated pieces of manila folder to help direct the flow around the cylinder completely.


so from here, i plan on going home for the summer where i''l have access to my dads shop, I'm going to grind down the coolant fins so that they are a uniform quarter inch or so from the surface of the engine, then il use some removable filler material to fill all of the coolant paths, then i was thinking I'd make a fiberglass shell around the fins and remove the filler material which is yet to be determined.

So enjoy the picks for now, and as for the filler material, i was wondering what you guys recommend? Rigid foam is no good because its a pain to fit around the contours of this thing, i was hoping cured Gorilla glue was acetone soluble, that would be ideal, but online it seems to have mixed claims and i don't want to be stuck with a cylinder covered in urethane insulation. Bees wax would be good but i dont know where id get it locally. I was thinking butchers wax might be ok but it like a little more rigidity..... If anyone is willing to test that gorilla glue (Cured, mind you) in acetone that'd be great, otherwise il keep you posted and wish me luck on this exam!!!

 

[Cabinfever1977]

I would have just ran small metal tubing between the fins of the block,like in a zig zag pattern. The tubing would cover most of the block and not require removing fins or making a water jacket around the block. After added the tubing between the fins, one could also add a aluminum sheet over the tubes. I see that you removed the fins from your block,you can still wrap metal tubing around your block and then put a seal over the tubing using metal filler or epoxy.

 

[K.i.p]

Props for your ambitious efforts to think outside the box. Sometimes this sort of thing is interesting and FUN for no other reason than finding out an answer.

I am going to side with Cabin on this one. Since the goal is heat dissipation, why not leave the fins intact? If you can find narrow copper tubing (copper is an excellent heat conductor) it could be run between the fins and routed to the next section through notches in the fins.

Leave everything exposed and you have created yet more radiating surface area. Right or wrong it's just food for thought. Good luck.

*edit
I enjoy learning so I am interested in your thoughts about this.

 

[Prasinos]

i thought about that but i was just worried about the surface area of the tubing that would actually contact the tubing. i was thinking you could use some conductive potting materil between the two as well. In loooking at the actual cylinder i just seemed to be easier to encase the whole thing.Not to mention i have alot more time than money as a college student and copper tubing is far from cheap.

definitely some interesting thoughts boys im really interested to see what temp this setup will run at, assuming it all works.

 

[K.i.p]

-ah, I did not really think too much about surface area of tubing contacting the cylinder. Thought provoking point. Thanks.

 

[Prasinos]

hey boys, i almost got the ducting finished on this thing, got one of the last pieces of fiberglass is in my curing oven as we speak, should be an hour or so till i can start the mold making for the jacket started, picks will be coming soon.

 

[Cabinfever1977]

Actually the tubing would cool the head and the fins that it touches so if fact it would probally cool the whole thing. And small copper tubing is not really that expensive,should be around $20 if that.

 

[Prasinos]

Alrighty boys i've decided i'm going to make the mold with play dough i bought at the dollar store, not positive how i'm going to seal the channels against the outer jacket yet but im big on the seat of the pants style of design. i can always cut the jacket into a top and bottom half but i think i can think of a better solution by the time this fiberglass is done. Heres the pics. I tried to show you the channels that should force the coolant to travel all the was across the head before going to the radiator...


Amazing how impending finals motivate one to do anything but study, no?

 

[Venice Motor Bikes]

Why can't you just wrap the outside of the fins in metal & use the space beween the fins to flow the coolant?

Also... a big advantage to liquid cooling is that you can advance the timing for real power gains!

 

[Prasinos]

i'm actually talking to a guy tonight about casting an aluminum clam shell water jacket.

The only thing i was worried about was differential heating causing some of the coolant to boil.

I just did some of the fiberglass for the cylinder and its looking like garbage.

but Ive always been a function follows form kind of guy when it comes to that sort of thing.

 

[rohmell]

So, what's the story with your water cooling experiment?

 

[nhssdf4]

I would like to know the status as well... I think the small copper tubing sounds like a winning combo for me. I have all the parts for it... But i need to get a motor first..