GPI Radiators and hoses installation & review - pics

[StrayAlien]

Okay. The GPI 'racing' radiator and hoses for the NC30 have arrived.

My bike has no fans etc - all gone to save weight.

Buuuutttt ... it overheats like crazy and constantly leaks when it does so. I am guessing the seal of the radiator cap is no longer any good and it just can't hold its water. The bloody cap ejected itself around turn 7 at Phillip Island last week. Most embarrassing and I had some explaining to do to marshalls and other riders.

I'd love a mega set of curved larger-than-texas rads but alas they cost too much.

So. I thought I'd give the GPI guys a go and their hoses as well.

You've all seen what the rads look like. Here are their hoses:



Cross Section:



Surface:



Okay, before we get going.

GPI pipes weight:



OEM pipes weight:



GPI lower rad weight:



EOM lower rad weight :



GPI upper rad weight:



OEM upper rad weight:



Not pretty, but lets hope they work:





The guys being replaced:





Okay, test fitment of upper. Yes, real evidence of overheating still there in my radiator overflow bottle. This is all for real folks.



Bad Thing: Not quite the right size:



Bad thing: This doesn't look great either. This lower mount on the upper rad is not positioned correctly:



Bad thing: Look at this lower brackety thing (I guess they are for fans). I had to bend them to get things fitting - in the end I dremeled them off:



Bad thing: The lower mounts are nowhere near right:




I had to dremel welds for the 'plug' on the right hand side off so I bold it on with a spacer. This is how it ended up - a bit sad really:



So, all in all, a bit shite ....

And then test fit of fairing. Left side okay. Right side not. BOLLOCKS! Bad thing:




And then the GENIUSES decided to weld the tap cap neck on in such a way that the 'ears' on the cap are lateral - thus increasing the width of something already too wide. BOLLOCKS! This is going to be tough to get the fairing on. Nice.



Okay. On with the hoses. Here is how it looks.





The material they use for the cooling fins is REALLY soft. I mean brush it with your finger and it folds over. I hope that translates into better cooling because it'll be hard to keep these little guys all lined up:



After fitment I started the bike and got it to 104 degrees Celsius and there was not a hint of leakage so that is a good sign - previously, at that temperature it would have leaked in a nasty way. That there is a good thing.

Conclusion (so far). On the bad side they really are a bit shite. The top is too wide and made worse with the lateral knobs on the tank cap. The mounts are pretty far off the mark. The fins feel like butter, the brackets for mounting fans seem to foul with the heads.

On the plus side, they are cheap and certainly are thicker than OEM and the side tanks are also larger so I am anticipating some better cooling. Well I certainly I hope so!

Oh, and re the hoses. All went well there. Everything fitted perfectly so no complaints at all.

[alexwitham]

Good work, nice review.

I use similar radiators from abroad and they've lasted well, coping with track days and road use.

[bollo]

check out RB imports they have a large top r ad custom made in Australia yeah $500 is not cheap but it a work of art & guaranteed of a perfect fit , they told me that changing out the bottom rad to a bigger one didn't make any difference hence they recommend just the top
my top rad is not to good but being a race bike i'll wait to see how it holds up as it is working as far as i know
also good work on the review very thorough

[Dynamohum]

good review thanks . a few of us have bought these rads and to be fair for the price would expect fitment issues of some sort yours look well out of alignment might just be the luck of the draw regarding this as some seem to go on with minor tweaking of the bracketry .

[Neosophist]

Your original radiators actually look pretty good, a new rad cap is probably all you needed (they don't last forever)

But anyway you have new ones now.

Have you checked the water-pump isn't disintrgated? It can also cause over-heating and cooling issues and always wise to check it

[StrayAlien]

Thank guys,

Re RB Imports: yes, I had heard they had a good one ... but $500 is on the steep side for me.

re new cap: Actually, I have tried two new caps. Same results. I think the leaking was a result of the cap not being able to seal well any more as its seat in the radiator neck was not a bit rough - I tried smoothing it out but no luck. Also the tangs on the radiator neck that the cap hangs on with had become quite worn. Even some modification to the cap and a bit of filing on the neck didn't solve it (it made it better - but it still leaked).

I wish it were just the cap, then I could have saved $300 and a day or agro getting them on! :-)

[VtypeV4]

Shame you had bad luck with your rads, mine fitted with little drama or alignment issues..

[alexwitham]

As above, but I use Silhouette bodywork which appears wider.

[Cru Jones]

I'm often surprised by the fitment issues with things like this in this day and age. I mean how hard is it for them to order a brand new set and just run some program to scan them and then properly import into some sort of program for them to make a proper set of jigs? Seems like very basic QC that's lacking.

[venom51]

I'm often surprised by the fitment issues with things like this in this day and age. I mean how hard is it for them to order a brand new set and just run some program to scan them and then properly import into some sort of program for them to make a proper set of jigs? Seems like very basic QC that's lacking.

You are assuming the folks making these have access to any of the type of equipment. That however isn't an excuse for not having a simple ruler or tape measure.