Radiator Fan?

[Cr85rRida]

Well I trail ride and this past ride i was going up a mountain and i over heated and all that white smoke came out from the over flow and we had to turn back because of me.

Question is, will i be able to use a trx450 radiator fan on my R? I know the mounts wont work but would there be a way?

[deathman53]

hard to say, you will need to do something to power it and put a sensor in somewhere. I would look somewhere else, before assuming a fan will cure the problem. Your radiator might be partailly clogged, water pump not flowing good, too lean mixture. I trail rode my 250r many times and never over-heated it. I would go for aftermaket radiator, engine ice coolant and rebuild of the water pump. Also check your jetting and while you are there, look at your intakes boots for any cracks in them. The fan is like a bandade for the real problem. My atc250r runs about 180, trx250r 150 max. My 4 strokes run about 180 unless I am riding real slow or let the bike sit and idle.

[Cr85rRida]

well this is the only time it has happened, because i was last in the line up and had no momentum and my tires spun like a mother f*%&er on loose dirt. So if i had a fan i could switch it on when i think its getting to hot.

[kiesta00]

The only time mine blew white smoke out of the overflow is when it was low on coolant...maybe yours was just low? how do you know it was actually overheating??

[Cr85rRida]

true, i figure that would be the problem. I thought it was like steam, i did fill it up and it hasent done it since.

[wilkin250r]

I just have to imagine there are better methods.

Like deathman said, it's very likely that there was some OTHER issue that contributed to the problem. I'd check those issues. It's possible there are none, and it was entirely your riding conditions, but it's just MORE possible that you have some other contributing factor.

There are also other methods to reduce your temps that would be much better and more reliable than adding a fan on a system that wasn't designed for one.

A larger radiator for one, and eliminating antifreeze. I know it doesn't sound like much, but getting rid of antifreeze is really significant, it has horrible thermal conduction properties. But you can't run water alone, it will corrode. You need to add something with corrosion inhibitors, like Water Wetter or Engine Ice (I think engine ice might already be pre-mixed, I know Water Wetter is not).

If you are ever exposed to freezing temperatures, however, you will need an antifreeze. Water Wetter does not provide antifreeze capabilities, and if your water freezes inside your radiator, it might crack, or you would at least need it to thaw compeltely before you ride.

[ChvyCruzen]

Engine Ice is already pre-mixed.

[fireburns99]

Yea i run hard in the desert, average temp 90-100, and have never had an overheating problem. I use engine ice, and it seems to do the job. I'd check your cooling system though, just as insurance.

[Cr85rRida]

well the water pump is good because i was just in there with my quick mod and i replaced everything when i installed it.

would engine ice be good in the winter to?

I think it was my conditions, i saw a video on you tube of some kid burning out his CRF250f and after like 5 mins of non stop tire spinning it dumped out the white smoke. i guess because it got no air flow so thats where i came up with the fan idea.


why does the 450 have a fan and not the R?

[iamjasyn]

I dunno. Maybe the 450 has a fan because it's a high compression, tight tolerance 4stroke with a pretty small oil capacity. A cracked head will also cause symptoms of overheating because exhaust gases are pushing into the coolant system. If you've overheated, you may want to check your cyl and head for warping. That Al warps easy when pushed past normal temps.

You can do this too... add a temp gauge. This way you don't have to speculate about the coolant temperature. I bought one from esr250.com. I did that and added an afco radiator and even in warm Glamis, high drag sand I see max like 170f on my 100octane 270cc cyl. I think the bigger double pass radiator helped me. I pulled my coolant ratio down to 7:3 water:coolant too. No water wetter or anything else...

[Cr85rRida]

Okay sounds good so ill invest in a temp gauge and mabey some better coolant.

[yamahay]

I prefer the idea of a fan myself. In fact for next summer I will have mounted a fan. I'm going to buy a used fan from a 400 or 450 and wire the high beam to power the fan. I rarely ride after dark and if I do it's always cooler by then. I don't have to worry about overloading the electrical system because the light and fan can't ever run at the same time. The fans don't weigh much, in fact they would add less weight than a large radiator with the extra coolant. I probably will never need to run it, but for peace of mind as much as anything, if I ever think it's running hot I'll switch on the fan. My .02

[250R-Dee]

You will need to rewind your stator for higher wattage in order to use a fan on a 250R. You will also need to add a temp sensor, a relay and a switch to make the fan operate properly.

Some of you are failing to realize that almost all fan equipped ATV's also have a battery so the fan is actually pulling stored power from the battery instead of the stator itself. Without a battery the rpm's of the fan will fluctuate with the RPM's of the motor.

EDIT: oops, sorry about the grammar errors. Too many Coronas = bad replies:devil:

[flying dutchman]

you can also mount 1 or 2 inline coolers in your hoses:)

[deathman53]

don't mount a fan, get a bigger radiator, get a temp gauge, use enigine ice coolant and your problem will go away. Also like I already posted, check the stupid stuff for air leaks and cracks. My aftermaket radiator, afco(I think), holds almost twice the amount of coolant as the stock one did.