Is it just me or is there something wrong with the ZX14 overheating very quicky? I have notice this when I go out and ride my temp bars will be normal while I am riding, then as soon as I stop at a light the temp gose all the way up as high as it can go, and yes the fan is working just fan. Any help with this problem or do i just need to take it back to the dealer?

Unfortunetly some hot temps on the 14 is normal. Check the coolent. If it's right it may be normal. A few of us ceramic coated the header and that helped huge.

Bike is brand new. Parts are close in tolerance and need to be 'shot peen.' Depends on how you look at it, the engine is wearing out or wearing parts in. This increases friction until that tolerance is pounded looser say. Say we slap the piston skirts until they shot peen the heat away after about 2/3 thousand miles and she just bars at 2 or 3 all day long. Sits at a light at about 3 bars and runs back down or stays there until the bike cools faster on the expressways.

Very common to the 14 with low miles. Guys will tell you the heat did that when new and now broken in, it no longer spikes the water bars.

Water wetter helps,,,,,, a little.

Water Wetter Link, Click Here.

Thanks for the info. I will check out the level in the raditor and overflow seens to be normal. I have about 2300 miles on it so far. This is a start. Thanks Again.

Hey wear can I get the water wetter?

From visiting various other forums (including ones here as well), it seems that Engine Ice does a better job than Water Wetter and this is what I'll be putting in my 14 along with a secondary cooling fan. Even though I've been told the excess heat is to be expected, I'm not convinced I can't prolong the bike by keeping her cooler.

You can find Engine Ice here:
http://www.kneedraggers.com/details/Engine_Ice_HiPerformance_Coolant_12_Gallon--38-CYC-1.html

I tried the engine ice and didn't notice any difference.That's even afeter I installed a 2nd fan.I ended up going back to regular antifreeze.I think the 2nd fan helped in my case.I even wrapped my headers and didn't notice a difference.

Mine always hovers near the top, except at sustained cruising speeds and cold mornings with no long stops.

I have just put the second fan on the radiator, and will be putting Engine Ice in it.

Eventually I'll put CT-DUALS on it, ceramic coated, which will help a lot too.

Stephens is your bike still stock or modified? Also, how many miles do you have on it? New, mine would hover just below the 'H" in traffic. After breakin miles the temps started coming down. Getting rid of the catalysts and going to synthetic oil helped a lot too. You can also remove the deflectors from the front forks, I like it better without them anyway and you will run cooler at cruise. I'm running standard colant and one fan and she runs very cool now, normally one or two bars above cold and the third bar only if stuck in traffic on a hot day.

* Last updated by: Kruz on 4/14/2010 @ 6:58 AM *

My 14 is still stock for now, the mod that I will do is Full Ex. Sys. 4 to 1. (Brocks or Muzzy). I have 2400 miles on it, while riding she is reading normal, but as soon as i slow down or stop at a light she shoots up as high as she can go. I don't think that is normal. I had a ZX11 before 91 model, never had this kind of problem before, the only problem that Kawaski had out of that year model was second gear, which they kept replace it every time it went out until I decide to undercut gears didn't have anymore problem with it then. I will be looking at somethings this weekend coming up to see what I need to do to get this right. Thanks for all and any more suggestion!!!!!

Kruz, nice bike. How is the bike running with the pipe on it? Did you put a power commander on it also? If so did it make a hell of a differnce?

Yes, pipe and PCIII really made this thing come alive especially down low and in the midrange....she honks now! I'm thinking the full system will drop your coolant temps significantly. I noticed the same effect on both my 14 and my VTX cruiser, after ditching the catalysts the cooling fan will not come on anymore even when stuck in hot traffic on a 100 degree day. It used to kick in every time I slowed down. Made that much difference...good luck on yours, let us know how this turns out.

put on a muzzy fan blade, problem solved..the plastic fan blades begin to deflect when they get hot...they are plastic....busa had the same issue (especially when the turbo was installed)...muzzy fan blade will solve all your issues...

Really funny.. I don't ride on the street much any more, but idleing around the track, even after a full throttle nitrous pass, riding back to the pit, and leaving the bike idleing mine never gets over 2 bars. And its a 1570. LOL

I'm wondering if anyone has ever got a true reading of what the temps are when there are all of the bars showing. It could be out of calibration from bike to bike, reason that there seems to be allot of different reports, just thinking out loud. Could also have a little air bubble trapped in the coolant system. Break-in can take a long time also and maybe more than a few thousand miles.
And rapping headers is not such a good idea, you holding in allot more heat to the engine, you want to dissipate the heat from the headers into the air, and in turn the engine will run cooler.

wrapping headers actually is a good idea. It helps keep the EGTs (exhaust gas temperature) high. Higher EGTs lead to better scavenging. Better scavenging means more air moves and more power is made. Same thing with ceramic coating the headers. Thats why its so popular.

I just thought if mine aint puking she aint overheating .
I always thought the engneers at Kaw new better than I did about their bikes
kinda like changing oil when they say

If the primary tubes are large enough, wrapping would not be necessary to help scavenge the exhaust. My pipes are already rusting, don't need to accelerated the degradation of the low grade stainless steel that they are (stock headers). But there is a trade off there. After market headers in general are a much better grade of stainless. I work for a catalysts manufacture and we routinely wrap exhaust pipes for our experiments, and stainless would only last about 1/10th as much as some of the high grades of steel, inconel would be one of the best. We can reduce a stainless pipe to a pile of dust on the floor, in short order. Our test is very severe, accelerating aging of parts in about 200 hours to the equivalent to 50K miles.
Now ceramic coatings are a better way to go for longevity and reduce the radiant heat issues associated with thin wall headers, and look great.

Ceramic coated headers...

and a ZX10 fender...

stock coolant and fan, runs cool as a cucumber!

Bigger primary tubes does not mean better scavenging.

There is such thing as too big.

Point is, wrapping is the poor man's ceramic coating.

My '07 has never reached the top heat bar. Hottest weather I've rode in was back and forth to work and it was around 100 degrees. Fan sometimes kicks in at long lights. I recently changed the coolant (Prestone) and mixed it just slightly higher than 50/50 (slightly more coolant than water). Also installed a Cox radiator guard. I thought it seemed to run hotter than what's normal for my bike but now I think it's fine. Still never reached the top bar.
I'm no expert and don't want to say what you don't want to hear but under the conditions you described the bike shouldn't reach the top bar. I don't know if it's actually getting too hot or if a part isn't functioning right and giving you a false high temp read but it should be checked out.
I seen no need for additives either. The bike should run the correct temp range with 50/50.
I hate the thought of taking my bike into the dealer. You say it's done this since new? If it was my bike, I'd at least try changing the coolant mix first. Once you KNOW the mix is good and the problem is still there then get deeper into it.
I'm no expert but sounds to me like if the bike appears to run fine while moving but gets too hot standing then maybe a weak mix is the problem. Without the air moving to assist things a weak mix can't cool it enough?
If not that, maybe a "heat sensor" or similar isn't operating correctly and delaying when the fan kicks in?

More water will keep the bike cooler. But you don't want to get the mix too far off. Water will cause problems inside.

"More water will keep the bike cooler"? I thought it was the other way around.
The coolant has a higher boiling point than water, so I'd think a little more such as 55/45 would make it run cooler if your conditions needed it.
When I changed mine recently I mixed it 50/50 and then added just a few ounces of straight coolant so mine is just a tad richer than 50/50.

* Last updated by: KAK on 4/20/2010 @ 7:31 PM *