Honda FL250 Water Cooled Head

 

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Honda FL250 Rand Head with Yamaha Banshee Radiator

Well, I finally decided that an air cooled Honda FL250 engine sitting right behind the seat is not a great combination.  For a while, I used a bilge blower fan blowing on top of a CR250 head rated at 240CFM, and that did really help.  However, even with the blower fan, the engine would get too hot after extended run times in warmer weather.  I had a cylinder head temp sensor which showed me that it still wanted to get hot at the dunes while running hard for extended times in hot weather.  

Honda FL250 Rand Head

Honda FL250 Rand Water Cooled Head and Yamaha Banshee Radiator

Thankfully, I picked up a Rand water cooled head on eBay for a good price and a used Yamaha Banshee radiator cheap.  I used some galvanized steel flat stock and bent some simple mounting brackets.  These brackets were attached with some pipe clamp hardware purchased from McMaster Carr industrial supply.  The radiator mounting setup turned out to be very solid.  Another note related to the hoses.  The Yamaha Banshee radiator has 3/4" hose fittings.  The Rand head has 5/8" hose fittings.  Initially, I found some thin rubber sleeves to slip over the 5/8" fittings to make them a tight fit with the 3/4" hose.  I didn't like this arrangement, so I ordered some 5/8" to 3/4" brass hose barb adapter fittings to make sure the hose connections are all more secure.

Yamaha Banshee Radiator

Yamaha Banshee Radiator Mounted on 1983 Honda FL250

I also have a Delta computer cooling fan rated at over 200CFM with a modest current draw of around 1.5 amps.  I was going to mount this to help pull more air through the Yamaha Banshee radiator.  I will see if this is really even necessary.  I have also considered adding a small water pump (auxiliary heater pump from certain vehicles) to circulate the coolant.  For now, I am considering just running with a thermosiphon arrangement.  The routing of the hoses and the vertical rows of the Yamaha Banshee radiator is supposed to allow the coolant to circulate naturally.  The hot coolant rises and then as it cools through the radiator, it is supposed to drop back down into the head.  The simplicity of this arrangement (no pump to fail) is appealing.  Time will tell if it's really sufficient.  An easier way to water cool your Odyssey engine is to find a big mud puddle!  :) 


Here are some links to pages showing some other Honda Odyssey FL250 stuff:

Honda Odyssey Airbox Mod    Honda Odyssey Tuned Pipe    Honda Odyssey CR250 Head   

Honda Odyssey Digatron Tach    Honda Odyssey Powerbloc Clutch    Honda Odyssey FL250 Driven Clutch

Honda Odyssey Overheating Solution    Honda Odyssey at Beverly Sand Dunes    Honda FL250 Water Cooled Head

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