For day 2, I put the 25" tires back on, and cleaned the radiator as well as I could with the body work still on, using a low pressure garden hose spraying until the water running out of the bottom of the bike was clear.

After about 4 hours on the trails, we came to one of the more difficult parts of the trail that require Low range and 4wd, it’s basically a crawl the entire time, 5-10 mph, up steep and rooted out trails. After about 15 minutes of that the check engine light started flashing, but I didn’t feel like it was cutting my power. I was still able to floor it and get what felt like normal response out of the engine. The rest of the day I couldn’t get that light to come off, We took it easy back to camp in High range going between 20-30 mph, trying to keep a constant speed to let some air get into the bike.

The message read ‘Check Engine’, I had a overheating problem last year where the water did boil over and I can’t remember if the message read ‘Hi Temp’ back then, or if it’s always read ‘Check Engine’….but for whatever reason I thought it read Hi Temp, so is this a different message altogether?

Also, I did install analog temp gauge on the radiator line that goes from the radiator to the water pump. It did not get higher than 185 all day, which tells me that the cooling system is working as it should, but something is making the engine run hot.

I performed the Fan Controller mod last year, the fan turns on at 148 and turns off at 165. I filled the radiator with 1/2 quart of Redline Water Wetter, I’ve had good luck with this in my drag car so figured I’d give it a shot.

Here is what I am thinking.

1. Fuel – If the engine is running extremely rich or extremely lean, it will run hot. I do have a Muzzy slip-on and the Muzzy Fuel controller. I tried to richen the fuel mixture but couldn’t get it out of limp mode.
2. Water Pump – Do they go bad? I haven’t had the water pump housing apart yet so I have no clue how it even works.
3. Clogged cooling system – I’m going to do a full system flush and see if I see anything that looks suspect.
4. Dirt – The skid plate seems to hold in lots of dirt/mud into/on the bottom of the engine. I’m going to completely disassemble the bike and clean it really good while I’m doing the coolant flush.
5. Weight – I’m 320 lbs +/- 10 depending on what kind of month I’ve had. Aside from being a heavy load on the bike, I also cover up most of the seat, so any air-cooling that could normally happen under the seat from the sides, probably doesn’t happen with me.

I feel like this is a known issue and so many people have had problems with it. I thought the Fan controller fixed it, but it looks like I was either wrong, or I have a different problem.

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. The bike is a 2009 800R X, it has almost 4000 miles on it, all of the fluids have been replaced since I’ve owned it EXCEPT the coolant…..but I don’t know that coolant really goes bad, does it?