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[waynel]

I wonder if anyone else has thought of putting the water cooled heads on their older bike. I have a 2011.5 and won't get rid of it for these newer bikes, but I would like to water cool the heads and I know the lowers will have to be changed and painted to match. Anyone else dream of this. Wonder if the newer style lowers will fit my bike. WILL IT WORK!!!!!

[FlaHeatWave]

You can make anything work if you spend enough $$.

Probably a lot more involved than just bolting on heads and radiators...

Sensors, ECM wiring harness(s) (changing the whole bike to CAN bus)

It would be a lot cheaper to buy a new CVO Limited and fit the RG fairing and paint the bike, or just wait until the new RG comes out...

[cambo]

Also rumor has it that the new RG will have the radiator placed inside the fairing instead of the lowers. Worth the wait...

Cam

[Twolanerider]

Also rumor has it that the new RG will have the radiator placed inside the fairing instead of the lowers. Worth the wait...

Cam

Citation or other source?

[cambo]

Discussion with the dealership folks regarding their knowledge of HD challenges and efforts to twin-cool SG and RG without adding lower fairings and upsetting the fans.

Cam

[Twolanerider]

Discussion with the dealership folks regarding their knowledge of HD challenges and efforts to twin-cool SG and RG without adding lower fairings and upsetting the fans.

Cam

Got it.  Any idea if their insights actually come from the MoCo or if this was just their best guess what the MoCo might do based on their (the dealerships) own experience with the bikes and guesses as to what might work?


As to retrofitting and the OP; wouldn't be just a head and pump and plumbing bolt on.  The pump is controlled by the ECM.  As a retrofit above and beyond mounting all the new hard parts you'd have control the system.

[grc]

In other words, while it's not necessarily impossible, it would definitely not be easy or inexpensive.  It would be much easier and much less expensive to just add cooling fans to the bike you have.  Check the threads around here on the Wards fans for instance.

Jerry

[OBB]

Or just follow me around on bike trips. We took three trips last year and got rained on every trip 

[phato1]

Or just follow me around on bike trips. We took three trips last year and got rained on every trip 

See ?? You don't need radiators to have liquid cooling 

but really what fun is a long road trip if it doesn't rain on you at least once.

[CVOThunder]

Big nod on the cooling fans being the most cost effective method but I hear you wanting water cooling Wayne. Maybe the aftermarket will work their magic if they see a big enough market.
Big depreciation hit on our older ones if there isn't an upgrade path and maybe even that might not be enough to stem the bleeding. Glad HD made some changes but there were enough of them to change values on our older scoots. If we never plan on selling them. O big deal.

[cambo]

Got it.  Any idea if their insights actually come from the MoCo or if this was just their best guess what the MoCo might do based on their (the dealerships) own experience with the bikes and guesses as to what might work?

Good question. The statement was made without hesitation so I assumed it was based on actual feedback from MoCo. It also seemed to make sense as they have to find a way to propagate the technology throughout the range of touring bikes they have with and without lower fairings. Bigger question is what they would come up with for the softails without any type of fairing.

Cam

[waynel]

Hello Phato1 and CVO Thunder. If I'm not mistaken I think both of you have a 2011.5  Blue C.V.O. Ultra. As you guys know these bikes are absolutely beautiful and nothing they have put together since can compare to the look of this color combination. That is why I am interested in doing this mod. I will be looking into this deeper to see if it is worth getting into.

[ultrarider123]

Better tune and no cat will help quite a bit on the heat issues (in reality, however, our 110's run hot naturally no matter what we do).  Not sure I'd want to add/retrofit the water heads at this point.  If you want 'em, bite the bullet and get a '15.  Although I did think about this beauty on Saturday....sure love the blue color (what about it, Chip?)

...nah, ain't gonna git rid of Ginger.....

[ultrarider123]

....just a lil bit down and a lil bit every month....

[GMR-PERFORMANCE]

Cool it down?? well the bike are not going to run cool per say.. I would say a better way is more temperature stable.  They still get pretty hot and then the fans will come on. Myself having ridden dozens of the new twin cooled bikes after we have tuned them will say this. They are very hot in high temps in stop and go traffic. The fans are blowing that heat off the radiators onto you.  Metro areas where we live we dont really state distance as much as we do time to get there. I live 8 miles that is a 30-45 minute drive.  So think of that plus 105-110 temp with humidity in the 65-80% range and then the heat pouring off the cars and bouncing up off the pavement.. 

So cooling it down is a relative term ...   Now we also tune import bikes and they are way worse and many will put the temp gauge into the red zone at a light. Many of the guys shut them off flip run switch back on to let cooling fan run..

Best thing you can do is have it tuned correctly dump the EPA cam remove cat, ceramic coat the head pipe , that will help you a ton, engine cooling fan will help as well.. We do a bunch of cool down items jag oil cooler with fan engine cooling fan, the head pipe coatings and cam and tune. Once that stuff is done the bike becomes much easier to deal with in high heat.

[HILLSIDECYCLE.COM]

S&S .570's, set at 10.0 cr, free-flowing Cycle Shack slip-on's, and tune it, is the condensed version to reduce heat.
Scott

[phato1]

Hello Phato1 and CVO Thunder. If I'm not mistaken I think both of you have a 2011.5  Blue C.V.O. Ultra. As you guys know these bikes are absolutely beautiful and nothing they have put together since can compare to the look of this color combination. That is why I am interested in doing this mod. I will be looking into this deeper to see if it is worth getting into.

It's been stated many times but I'll say it again anyway  . A better flowing exhaust, sans Catalytic converter, with a good tune will do wonders to manage the heat, I installed the Fullsac system and TTS. So will the Wards fans (or something like them). I also installed the lower temperature thermostat for the oil cooler from Wards Parts Werks. These changes have made a world of difference in 1) the amount of heat I and my BSR feel 2) the way the bike runs, it just plain runs better than it did before the mods.
 I'm not sure that adding liquid cooling would reap enough additional benefit to make the labor and expense worth it 

 Instead of adding the wet head system, make it look even better- paint the tourpak -

[waynel]

tour pak looks great..

[Rooster]

x2 Tourpak looks great and doesn't hurt that it is BLUE

[GMR-PERFORMANCE]

It's been stated many times but I'll say it again anyway  . A better flowing exhaust, sans Catalytic converter, with a good tune will do wonders to manage the heat, I installed the Fullsac system and TTS. So will the Wards fans (or something like them). I also installed the lower temperature thermostat for the oil cooler from Wards Parts Werks. These changes have made a world of difference in 1) the amount of heat I and my BSR feel 2) the way the bike runs, it just plain runs better than it did before the mods.
 I'm not sure that adding liquid cooling would reap enough additional benefit to make the labor and expense worth it 

 Instead of adding the wet head system, make it look even better- paint the tourpak -

You hit on something .. THE amount of heat you felt. The fans help this as well  the coating on the head pipe.. It really does reduce the amount of "felt" heat by both riders.   Or do the job half azz'd and still have the heat to deal with.. No short cuts to reducing the heat , but oonce you are done with the mods  it is all worth it   The blue is a very nice color BTW 

[phato1]

Yes, the combination of mods done really did help with the heat. And like I said the bike runs much better.

Thanks for the compliment on the color.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[CVOThunder]

Nice job on the Tourpak Phato. Looks awesome.

Good input on lowering temps without going wet. I still need to do cams, headwork and better tune but the exhaust made a huge difference. Was on the verge of putting mine up for sale since there isn't squat for work here. Working on going back to Astan and could leave by May. If this works out then I'll try to sell off a lot of stuff before going over to build up a nest egg for mods. Shoot, probably a good time to cash out on the extended warranty since it'll just get wasted and it's the one thing (other than cash of course) from going big (S&S124) and the DD7.