Hi, its me again. So I bought a new radiator cap, threw it on there and thankfully there are no more leaks on my bike. I took it out for a spin to see if my overheating issue had been solved but my temp gauge was still reading way too high. Like 235 on a cool night high, prior to my crash I had never gotten to 235 while riding. But what was weird was before replacing my cap and riding with the leak, when the bike got to around 225-230 it would begin to smoke right out the radiator, which was weird. But for my new 235 (new cap installed) there was no smoke, just a very high temp reading. This has me thinking maybe I damaged my stat in the accident, and now I want to replace it. Is my head in the right place here? I don't wanna do this if I don't have to, I've heard the stories about how fun this project is.

 

Does fan turn on at about 225F?
What kind of coolant are you using?
Did you burp system?

 

So I got the bike about 2 months ago, give or take. Before the crash the fans turned on at about 220 iirc, but now they wont turn on till the bike reads 240.
I have not burped the system and i have no idea what coolant the previous owner put in it, it was topped off when i bought it

 

You could pull the thermostat and see if that helps before buying one but it sounds like either the temp probe is messed up or the fan/fan relay is not working properly.
Type of coolant wouldn't keep it from getting hot, you can use straight water and as long as everything in the system is functioning properly it will keep the temps in check.

 

On the F4i and most older bikes, the ECT, Engine Coolant Temperature sensor does nothing to keep the bike cool. It displays the temperature on the gauge cluster.

The Fan Motor Switch directly controls the Fan Motor based on the temperature of water in the radiator.




The Thermostat, controls the flow of coolant through the engine/radiator based on the actual temperature of the coolant.

The Radiator Cap keeps the coolant system pressurized so that the coolant can get hotter than boiling without it actually boiling.

 

If you don't know history of cooling system, might as well overhaul it:

- new thermostat

- new fan thermoswitch

- drain coolant and replace with distilled-water + Red Line Water Wetter (this combo has highest thermal-conductivity and sheds heat fastest)

- burp system and idle for while with radiator cap off to bring all bubbles to top.

- add distilled water to top off and put cap on