Pulled the blower off last night.

[Jeff K]

Finally got around to changing my thermostat last night. It dawned on me that I haven't had this thing apart in years, very unlike me, man there is some serious cleaning to be done. And I'm not to happy about some of the hidden corrosion I've come across. Like peeling chrome in the nether regions under the blower manifold. But I guess, I've had it for 11 years and 120,000 miles. I just hate the thought of having to re-chrome that manifold. I'm sure it has a few more years before the problem migrates to the top. I also noticed that there is oil under the snout of the blower, not good there either. I'm not sure that the seal can be replaced. I'm thinking at this point I might buy a spare super charger before I'm screwed.

But back to the thermostat... I took the stock unit and and threw it into a pot of water, it started opening at 187 but it didn't open very far, as compared to the 15868 Duralast that I'm going to put back in. I don't know if this is normal because I only have used OEM to compare it to. But I'd say the Duralast high flow opens 3 times farther than the OEM did.

I been having cooling issues that have slowly been escalating, I'm guessing it might be the thermostat, hoping it is anyway. If I got stuck in traffic the temp would climb very quickly, when It got to 240 I'd pull over and shut it off. After about 3 minutes I'd turn the key back on and now its cooled off to 200?? Even with all fans going I couldn't keep the motor cool. I have never had this problem this bad before. Even cruising down the road the temp would be 220, and if I manually turned the fans on it would drop to 190. It seemed I was having to run with the fans on a lot. and If I stopped it would climb faster than the fans could cool.

So we will see if the new stat helps, if not I'm going to bite the bullet and have a custom radiator made, I've been talking about it for a decade now, maybe it's time?

[R J]

If you have a radiator built, take a full billfold.

They are expensive............

The one currently in the Chevy Trike cost me a grand.

If you can find one almost the same dimensions only a thicker core, you would be $$$$ ahead.

I wouldn't listen to them.    My father-in-law on my 1st marriage was a radiator man.   Him and his brother had 3 radiator shops.

After my 1st wife passed, I still went back to the shop and helped out when I was back here on vacation.    May they both R.I.P.

First time I dated his daughter, I rode a Harley over, parked it in the driveway.

He came in the front room with 4 coffee cans, handed them to me and asked if I'd put them under my bike.   I did as asked and we were the best of buds till he passed.   

[Jeff K]

If you have a radiator built, take a full billfold.

They are expensive............

The one currently in the Chevy Trike cost me a grand.

If you can find one almost the same dimensions only a thicker core, you would be $$$$ ahead.

I wouldn't listen to them.    My father-in-law on my 1st marriage was a radiator man.   Him and his brother had 3 radiator shops.

After my 1st wife passed, I still went back to the shop and helped out when I was back here on vacation.    May they both R.I.P.

First time I dated his daughter, I rode a Harley over, parked it in the driveway.

He came in the front room with 4 coffee cans, handed them to me and asked if I'd put them under my bike.   I did as asked and we were the best of buds till he passed.   

I've had it quoted twice, they want around $600 to make me a new radiator. Here's where I get screwed up.
They want to build a radiator based on the max HP the engine produces. But... I don't have cooling issues at max hp, I have cooling issues at idle or near idle.

I got a dual pick up thermometer, I'm going to put a probe on the in and out of the radiator to see if I'm not getting enough cooling through the radiator, if this stat doesn't help me.

[Pete]

Jeff,

Consider that the water pump may not be flowing enough coolant at slower engine speeds.
Worn impeller would cause that.

Have not seen the problem on a Valk, but have seen the problem on a Corvette(s).
Solution was new water pump.

[Skinhead]

Don't know if this may help, there was an article in a Goldwing magazine about 1800's overheating, after numerous conventional flushings, still had the issue.  They claimed this gizmo fixed the problem.

no affiliation, yada, yada, yada

HECAT Coolant Pulsator	powered by Aeva

[Jeff K]

As the project widens... I noticed that the supercharger had oil under the snout, so I decided to change the oil in it to be sure it was full. I called Bill to find out how much oil goes in it (you'd think I'd write this $hit down) and after talking to Bill... now I'm waiting for oil from Bill. I figured I'd just go to the GM dealer and get some Eaton oil, but Bill really wanted to be sure I was using "the proper oil". He also suggested that since I had so many miles on it I might as well clean out the gear box.
The good news is there was very little oil missing, but it did need a cleaning. I've got him sending me oil rotor bearings and seals.
So it looks like I'm going to be waiting for parts.

Oh, well, I guess I have plenty of other things to do to keep me busy till the parts show up.