Wow interesting! I agree with the fans to late, mine seldom run at all. How did you take control of the fans?
Thanks,
Mikey
I had a feeling this question would come up since I mentioned it. There are a number of ways you can do this but it depends on your skill level and how comfortable you feel in altering things on your bike. I suppose I could write a "How-To" if there was enough interest. But here's a list of different ways to do this... Which one is best is up to you.
1.) Tap the wires that go to the temp sensor on the bottom left radiator and run a jumper circuit that has ~ 390<>400 ohm resistor and an on/off switch where you can reach it (I would mount it via a hole in the plastic inner shroud in the lower itself where it's not noticable). The switch is so you can defeat the effect of the resistor in the jumper wire. The resistor fakes the signal to the ECU that the water temp is hotter than it really is. This is a great solution because the ECU will still shut down the fans when the bike gets moving. What it does too is run the fans and the pump for a few minutes every time you shut down the bike. So even if you make a quick stop (for gas for example) on a hot day the fans and the pump will cool down the motor while filling up. When you take off again the heads have been "pe-cooled" during the pit stop. If you do not like that the fans run after shutdown, simply flick the switch to "off" and break the resistor circuit and the system will return to normal and fans will shutdown.
Edit: The lower the value of the resistor the sooner the fans will turn on, you should play with what value works best for you. If you still think they come on too late put a lower value resistor in the loop. Do not go below 100 ohm I would say. It take a complete short circuit, or open circuit in the sensor loop to throw a CEL. As long as the sensor is plugged in you should not see an open circuit. And as long as you have a resistor in the jumper you will not see a short circuit.
Edit2: If you do not want the fans to operate after shutdown at all you can use a simple reed relay switch that closes when accessory wire is powered. that way the resistor is engaged only when the run switch is engaged.
2.) Take full control of the fans by switch: a.) use a 1K ohm resistor jumper on the fan circuit to fool the ECU into thinking the fans are ok and in the loop. Then run the fans any method you like (switch. thermal switch, etc...)
3.) I have a microcontroller that reads information off the CAN bus and does a few things for me. One of the things it does is directly control my fans based on head temperature. I can adjust when the fans start and I can adjust when I want to shut them down based on MPH. I have my fan set to engage ant any speed less than 50 mph and engine temp is greater than 170. But this is a bit beyond what most folks can do. Oddly, my system will not run the fans after shutdown because I've not taken over control of the water pump... I like the "Run after S/D" feature... So I may actually add another control circuit to manage a resistor jumper on the cooling water thermal sensor to get that feature working...
Not sure if any of this made sense but there it is...
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