Went for a ride last night with another Pani owner. On the way to the bike night stop, we were at a light and I looked over at his coolant temp gauge. He was running 216 F while I was running 198F, ambient was about 85 F. We had just ridden 15 miles right next to each other to that point.
On the way back home, we were back on the highway when he pulled up alongside and pointed at his dash, meaning for us to compare coolant temps as we were riding along. We had been on the highway about 5 miles in very light traffic doing about 75-80 mph. His read 194 F and mine was 178 F, ambient about 80 F. We checked again 10 miles later while still on the highway and mine was 168 F and I think his was still mid-180's.
Both bikes are 2012 base models, no radiator guards. His has about 12K miles and mine has about 3K miles. He's running Amsoil and I'm running Castrol Power RS R4 10w-50 (Cycle Gear stuff). He's got the OEM coolant and I had mine flushed at the first service and replaced with Engine Ice. I just realized I forgot to check if he's running the rear engine head heat covers. I removed mine and the rear cylinder head is naked (as it should be
).
Because of these observations, he's going to change out his coolant first chance, probably to Engine Ice. I'm not making any conclusions until I see his results, but pretty interesting thus far. I know there is a 1199 forum member who swears up and down that Engine Ice was never designed to lower temperatures, it was simply a marketing ploy. I've been skeptical about the effect since I read his post. I did also note that another competitor that I don't remember references coolant temp drops on their packaging, and their graph showed Engine Ice cooling better than regular coolant (of course that product showed the largest temp drop).
I'll report back after he changes his coolant and we go for a ride again and make more observations.
On the way back home, we were back on the highway when he pulled up alongside and pointed at his dash, meaning for us to compare coolant temps as we were riding along. We had been on the highway about 5 miles in very light traffic doing about 75-80 mph. His read 194 F and mine was 178 F, ambient about 80 F. We checked again 10 miles later while still on the highway and mine was 168 F and I think his was still mid-180's.
Both bikes are 2012 base models, no radiator guards. His has about 12K miles and mine has about 3K miles. He's running Amsoil and I'm running Castrol Power RS R4 10w-50 (Cycle Gear stuff). He's got the OEM coolant and I had mine flushed at the first service and replaced with Engine Ice. I just realized I forgot to check if he's running the rear engine head heat covers. I removed mine and the rear cylinder head is naked (as it should be
). Because of these observations, he's going to change out his coolant first chance, probably to Engine Ice. I'm not making any conclusions until I see his results, but pretty interesting thus far. I know there is a 1199 forum member who swears up and down that Engine Ice was never designed to lower temperatures, it was simply a marketing ploy. I've been skeptical about the effect since I read his post. I did also note that another competitor that I don't remember references coolant temp drops on their packaging, and their graph showed Engine Ice cooling better than regular coolant (of course that product showed the largest temp drop).
I'll report back after he changes his coolant and we go for a ride again and make more observations.
