R1 Water Lines

[sidney]

A question for those running, or planning on running R1 motors. I have 3 small water lines that i'd like to cap, but need to make sure I don't kill the system in the process.

1) Small line from the thermostat that by-passes

2) Small line that goes from the head to ??? -- it comes off the pipe that leads to the thermostat

3) Small line off of the feed pipe to the water pump

I checked the DSR site, but not much help there, especially with 04-07 R1s.

Thanks for the help.

[glenn cooper]

Ian, I believe most if not all 3 hoses you mention are there for a reason, primarily to allow the filling of the cooling system and not have any air pockets trapped.

On my GSXR1000 engine, there is a hose that comes off the thermostat housing, and connects to the swirlpot, which I believe you are refering to as a bypass or an air bleed.

There is another hose coming off the water pump, and I believe also goes to the rear of the cylinder head, same thing - air bleed.

What does your factory service manual say/refer to these hoses as?

GC

[Mike B]

Ian,
Craig, my crew chief, has the answers and I'm just waiting for a response. When he gets back to me, I'll create a schematic for you. Are you using an '06 or '07?

[sidney]

Hey Glenn and Mike,

Thanks for the responses. I am using an '04, but I beleive it is the same as '05 and '06. I was only planning on connecting the one from the thermo and the pump, as I have 2 connections for the swirl pot. Thanks for the feedback, and if you have a schematic, that would be great. The service drawing and the spare parts catalog are not very helpful. Yamaha has got some work to do on their documentation.

[Mike B]

Do you have a complete factory service manual? Both the '99 and '07 manuals that I have (both on CD) have a fairly decent flow diagram for both oil and water in their respective chapters.

[Mike B]

Here's what Craig said:
1) you need this to de-aerate the thermostat
2) you need this to de-aerate the head
3) you need this to prevent air binding of the waterpump

Kinda what Coop said.
It's extremely important to leave those 3 lines in place. De-aeration is very important. A system that doesn't de-aerate will overheat and cook the engine. When I get a chance, I'll check my car and tell you where each line runs.
Hope that helps!

[sidney]

Thanks Mike. We can't afford to waste the motor, so I guess it's lots of little lines all up to the swirl pot, etc. We are getting close, and I have tickets to Denver for a shakedown last weekend in March. Hoepfully it doesn't snow in Denver! Lots of little stuff left. Thanks again. I'd love to see pics of your R1 install if you get a chance.

[cparsons]

I'm SO glad I caught this thread! I was dry fitting my radiators on Sunday,(just got them, YAY) looking at the hoses, scratching my head, and wondered "what the heck is that line for" more times than I want to admit. I'm using an '05 R1. Thanks for clearing up the confusion.

[RobLav]

I just did this last week on my R1 (06). I kept the entire system, even the oil to water heat exchanger.

Oh - I don't have #3 since I'm drysumped - the oil pump takes the place of the water pump.

[sidney]

Does anybody see an issue with runing all three of these small lines to the swirl pot, provided it is the highest point in the system? That is my preliminary plan, unless the experts say otherwise.

[RobLav]

I looked at that idea and didn't think it was a good idea. In the original Yamaha 06, water exits from the head (in the back) with a small 1/4 fitting (part of that outlet)bypassing the thermostat. I decided to use the original thermostat in it's normal configuration, so that 1/4" line connects the head exit water to the opposite side of the thermostat. I also run a 1/4" line from the top of one radiator to the header tank.

I don't see the restriction due to the thermostat as an issue since I'm running that small electric booster pump (Davies Craig). This is what the Yamaha DSR guys have been doing for a while (and mostly dry sumped). Evrybody says these are really oil cooled engines and the water flow is just not as important. It's what I am hearing anyway - we'll see in a month.

[formulasuper]

My Suzuki 1300 is basically just a larger GSXR1000 & I have all of those small hoses plus a small hose from the top of the radiator running to my header/fill tank which is mounted so that the top of the tank is at least as high as the highest water level in the head. (some of these hoses are joined together with T connectors). I don't have a swirl tank & have no overheating problems. Keeping that air bled out of the system is critical.

[ReynardF1000]

I have all three of those bleed hoses connected in series with one connection above the water line in my expansion tank. No problems at all.

[RussMcB]

As others have suggested, I think it's best to emulate the plumbing and routing on the bike as closely as possible. If there is a reason you need to do something different, just think it out, make sure the flow of water and air accomplishes what the engine engineers wanted.

[sidney]

Excellent feedback and thanks for the input. Sounds like the key is to keep the air out of the system in several spots. We'll come up with something using this input. Thanks again to everybody.