Before the heat recall on my 2013 RTL, I had deleted the CAT, wrapped the headers & bypass pipe, and shielded the fuel tank and the hottest panels (including the two under the seat) with heat reflective tape. Doing this rectified the worst of the original heat. So
after the recall of last summer, all of my heat problems were history! -
EXCEPT for that pesky dragon's mouth down by my right foot - especially when I placed my feet up on the highway pegs.
But no more.... The right foot heat is GONE!! Here's how I finally conquered it (with a bit of help from my dealer):
I had already added the 2014 radiator grill with the lower block-off plate. But while it made the Spyder look nice, it did little to stop any foot heat. The 2013 RT is unique, among 998 RT's, in that it has a radiator fan shroud that is completely enclosed and open only at the "dragon hole" forcing 100% of the radiator heat out those two vents. Therefore simply removing the bottom skid plate and adding block-off plates over the vents doesn't work because the heat would still be blocked from going out the bottom. You can see that fan shroud in the picture below (the holes in it are new)...
So what I did was this.. (The following steps correspond to the attached pictures below in the order which they appear. You can click on each of them to see the larger pictures.
1. I had my dealer remove the back half of the right bottom skid plate - the part that was directly under this fan compartment. This picture is taken from under the bike. (Dealer did it because it is difficult for me to work under the bike.)
2. Then I had them cut eight holes - approx. 2" wide - in the floor of the fan shroud, so the heat could escape through those holes, and then down through the removed portion of the skid plate. This is now how 90% of the radiator heat escapes. There is no access for it to get back into the engine compartment. Other than these eight holes, the shroud is still intact.
3. I then took my 2014 grill and molded a sheet of aluminum to the back grill contour. The aluminum blocking plate was then painted flat black and riveted to the back side of the grill. At the same time, I trimmed a small section off the bottom edge of the bottom block-off plate to allow the remaining 10% of heat to escape below it (which also happens to be slightly below the floorboard). Pictures 3 & 4 below show the front and back of this grill.
4. Picture 5 below shows what the covered grill looks like with it in place, before re-installing the right middle side panel.
The finished result, as viewed from the outside, is shown in the top picture of this post. I now can ride all summer, and even put my feet up on the pegs, without my right foot and ankle burning up.
Will this mod work for 2010 RT?
Originally Posted by robmorg
Before the heat recall on my 2013 RTL, I had deleted the CAT, wrapped the headers & bypass pipe, and shielded the fuel tank and the hottest panels (including the two under the seat) with heat reflective tape. Doing this rectified the worst of the original heat. So after the recall of last summer, all of my heat problems were history! - EXCEPT for that pesky dragon's mouth down by my right foot - especially when I placed my feet up on the highway pegs.
Reply With Quote
