[Ksn]

Motorcycle is overheating, only in gear, not in neutral. Will overheat even if not moving in gear. 2017. I have checked pretty much every component on the bike from the clutch, water pump, oil cooler, radiator, hoses/entire cooling system, airbox, fuel pump, spark plugs, general connectors/leads, exhaust, oil pan, oil filter, oil screen, I can keep continuing on. When I “checked” these items I correspondingly took care of them, whether that be flushing radiator or replacing mechanical seal on water pump. No issues were found.
Please help.

 

[Ksn]

Had it down since October trying to fix. After all this inspection I’ve idled it easily over 40 times testing it, and flushing the cooling system. Today I idled it for 45 minutes and it was normal entire time. Temperature on engine casing correct. Put it in gear, and went 15 mph around the parking lot in a circle for all of 30 seconds and it overheated bad. Like cook a steak on the engine casing.

 

[Ksn]

After tonight’s overheat mentioned above. Samples of coolant and oil. This brand of oil goes dark on first use but is pale yellow as new oil should be on towel, not concerned about that. The only thing I have not done is go in the engine case, but haven’t seen any signs of blown head gasket.

 

[naren]

hmmm... 2017 is what I have as well and I ride in pretty bad stop-n-go traffic and the bike does get hot, but has never overheated (as in, temp gauge topmost bar is not on)...Is your bike's temp gauge lit up on all bars?

 

[Murphyau]

If you get the ECU flashed, either Woolich or Ivans, then over-heating problem at idle is fixed.

IMHO, stay away from steel "re-usable" filters. They may allow higher oil flow rates but at a significantly reduced filtration rate. As they say "oil filters are cheap, engines are expensive" !!

My 2019 N1K, with a Woolich re-flash and an Akropovic header, never gets above 4 bars on the hottest day in stop-go traffic.

 

[rcannon409]

What is your definition of overheating? If you never get a warning, it hasn't overheated no matter how many bars the indictator shows.

 

[jjscsix]

Sounds to me you have had a clutch slipping problem and that it is now fried

 

[Brian60]

No air pockets in the cooling system? Does the fan kick on went the temperature comes up? If not, could be fan motor is out or fan relay may be bad. Maybe faulty water temperature sensor sending bad info to ECU or bad ECU?

 

[Brian60]

Sounds to me you have had a clutch slipping problem and that it is now fried

Maybe oil cooler is clogged or has air pockets so when bike is in gear and moving and engine oil in transmission case heats up excessively it cannot be cooled.

 

[rcannon409]

If his bike really idled for 45 minutes, the bike is fine. Bikes that don't circulate oil, or cool themselves won't idle for 45 minutes.

Idiling that long may cause it's own issues. It's hard to say. Not one does that, I hope?

We already seen some interesting questions on throttle cables and brake lines. I'm not even sure we are talking about a ninja 1000 Kawasaki at this point.

The sad part is that if there is a problem, he's worked on so many parts of the bike that it will be impossible to know if there really was a problem, or a mistake was made along the way that caused the problem.

 

[Ksn]

If you get the ECU flashed, either Woolich or Ivans, then over-heating problem at idle is fixed.

IMHO, stay away from steel "re-usable" filters. They may allow higher oil flow rates but at a significantly reduced filtration rate. As they say "oil filters are cheap, engines are expensive" !!

My 2019 N1K, with a Woolich re-flash and an Akropovic header, never gets above 4 bars on the hottest day in stop-go traffic.

It’s flashed. Not using reusable filters.

 

[Ksn]

What is your definition of overheating? If you never get a warning, it hasn't overheated no matter how many bars the indictator shows.

Definition: Seconds from blowing a head gasket. Based off the replies it seems I’m not conveying the severity of how bad it is. Yes there was warnings.

 

[Ksn]

Sounds to me you have had a clutch slipping problem and that it is now fried

Went into the clutch and replaced everything. Working great. Only overheating, now only in gear and not idle.

 

[Ksn]

No air pockets in the cooling system? Does the fan kick on went the temperature comes up? If not, could be fan motor is out or fan relay may be bad. Maybe faulty water temperature sensor sending bad info to ECU or bad ECU?

Fan is working. If either of the other two I do not see how it could survive idle for 45 minutes.

 

[Ksn]

Maybe oil cooler is clogged or has air pockets so when bike is in gear and moving and engine oil in transmission case heats up excessively it cannot be cooled.

Cleaned and flushed oil cooler out as well as every cooling part in the system. Meaning I removed them from the motorcycle, flushed and cleaned them. I also did atleast 40 coolant flushes.

 

[Ksn]

If his bike really idled for 45 minutes, the bike is fine. Bikes that don't circulate oil, or cool themselves won't idle for 45 minutes.

Idiling that long may cause it's own issues. It's hard to say. Not one does that, I hope?

We already seen some interesting questions on throttle cables and brake lines. I'm not even sure we are talking about a ninja 1000 Kawasaki at this point.

The sad part is that if there is a problem, he's worked on so many parts of the bike that it will be impossible to know if there really was a problem, or a mistake was made along the way that caused the problem.

Ok.

 

[jjscsix]

Went into the clutch and replaced everything. Working great. Only overheating, now only in gear and not idle.

I may be wrong, but there is a lot of logic to what I said. First of all, how many things could cause to to overhear in gear vs in neutral? Not many. The only real difference is that the clutch is not a factor in neutral, but it is when in gear. Second, it would cause the oil to turn black very quickly. How many other issues can cause that? And how many things would cause the cases to get so hot?

I’m not trying to doubt your skills but it sounds like you have checked about everything. I would say next guess is main crankshaft bearings, but that would leave metal in the oil.

Are you able to check your oil temp when this happens?

 

[Ksn]

I may be wrong, but there is a lot of logic to what I said. First of all, how many things could cause to to overhear in gear vs in neutral? Not many. The only real difference is that the clutch is not a factor in neutral, but it is when in gear. Second, it would cause the oil to turn black very quickly. How many other issues can cause that? And how many things would cause the cases to get so hot?

I’m not trying to doubt your skills but it sounds like you have checked about everything. I would say next guess is main crankshaft bearings, but that would leave metal in the oil.

Are you able to check your oil temp when this happens?

This brand goes dark on first use, not concerned with that, it’s pale yellow on towel like new oil. The running guess I was going with was blown head gasket - but that didn’t seem to make sense with the oil samples. Absolutely, like I said I haven’t gone into the engine. Right now I believe it is a bearing. My water pump broke and I’ve had it down since. That was an easy fix but this wasn’t. Believe the water pump seizing froze the oil pump drive shaft gear and broke a bearing.

 

[Ksn]

I may be wrong, but there is a lot of logic to what I said. First of all, how many things could cause to to overhear in gear vs in neutral? Not many. The only real difference is that the clutch is not a factor in neutral, but it is when in gear. Second, it would cause the oil to turn black very quickly. How many other issues can cause that? And how many things would cause the cases to get so hot?

I’m not trying to doubt your skills but it sounds like you have checked about everything. I would say next guess is main crankshaft bearings, but that would leave metal in the oil.

Are you able to check your oil temp when this happens?

Haven’t checked the temperature. It was normal for that entire 45 minutes idle. Normal temperature (gauge and engine case), normal sound. Put it in gear and rolled with just the clutch, no throttle for 30 seconds in a circle. 20 seconds in warning indicators, sound changed. 25 seconds in knocking suddenly occurred (hasn’t before). 30 seconds too loud, shut it off and rolled it the rest of the way back into the garage. Engine case hot enough to seriously cook a steak pitsburgh style. Finally had a friend have time to reach me back and I hear I need to do a full swap.

 

[rcannon409]

When did this overheat situation start? A 2017 should have had a coolant change, but even if it was stock, the coolant system isnt that old to where you needed to work on the pump and seals.

Some of the parts you have asked about (throttle cables, brake lines) make me think this is a rebuild rather than an upgrade project that went off course?

Keep in mind I have no idea who you are or your skill level. At times I'm thinking there is a high skill level, then I hear" idle for 45 minutes" and that brings me back down to earth. With that kind of idle time , I'm surprised the paint stayed on the cases.

The more info you disclose about you and the bike, the better. Good info like "it's been flashed" rather than drama like "seconds from blowing head gasket". If your head gasket survived 45 minutes of idle, it's fine.