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Either the water pump has gone (possible), the thermostat has failed closed (most likely) or there is some other blockage in the water system (unlikely).

Best bet to minimise cost is to whip the thermostat housing off and remove the thermostat. This will get you on the road. Just be careful to allow the bike to warm up properly before blasting off anywhere

what about a faulty radiator cap?

Might try the thermostat job.

How can you tell if its a faulty rad cap rob?

Davw wrote:Best bet to minimise cost is to whip the thermostat housing off and remove the thermostat. This will get you on the road. Just be careful to allow the bike to warm up properly before blasting off anywhere

sorry to toad on your fire budy but u cant take it out , well u can but the it will leak water like a race horse. on the thermostat there is a plate at the top with a rubber seal on it and that acts as part of the housing so unless u want to destroy the thermo u cant take it out and plus if it is a head gasket it does very little, well it didnt on mine and mine wasnt as bad as your. sorry mate.

to be fair tho with a little mechanical know how about yah a head gasket replacement's a fairly simple job bt will take maybe 4/6 house (striping the plastics etc is the longest bit lol)

No probelm mate - but it isnt the head gasket so pointless replacing that. As for the thermostat - I dont have one on my race bike and dont have any leaks - plenty of silicon will do the job. The only problem with removing the thermostat on a road bike might be that the engiine runs too cool - but removing it for a test might help track down the problem.

Faulty radiator cap might be a possibility - but I would be confused by the fact that only one side of the radiator is heating up (very hot)- that suggests a lack of circulation

So whats the best road to take then lads?

Shud i just by a new rad?

get the rad off and give it a good flush through with a hose pipe.

Just the rad or all the pipes too?

Sorry newb alert :p

sounds like the rad is blocked, had this on my zxr750 just took it off and blasted a hose pipe through it both ends.

Will give it a shot asap

Good shout Baz - sludge in the rad would give these symptoms too

saka_ZXR wrote:Might try the thermostat job.

How can you tell if its a faulty rad cap rob?

you can test them with a 'cap tester' (kinda obvious really), but its a tool youll have to buy, unless you know a garage with one? And i think its quite rare for them to go anyway. Baz's idea is good, might be worth flushing the whole cooling system while your at it instead of just the radiator.

tell you what, i dunno if its recomended, but when the heater matrix was blocked on a old car i couldnt unblock it with a hose so i stuck drain cleaner in it overnight and flushed it the next day and it was fine, i wouldnt recomend putting it in the engine though

robB don't wanna critiscise ya knowledge mate cos yours is a s good as mine if not better but to flush the cooling system it would need to be hot with the thermostat open, so geezer dont scald yaself.

i might point out at this time that me and robB will not be held responsible for any misleading information

and NO we aint shaggin each other!

U sure there aint summat between u n rob baz?

Gnna have a look at it wither tomorrow or sunday.