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Overheating/Damage in 100F weather

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Delly:
Hello all,

I recently did a road trip through northern California and Oregon. As I was heading down along the inland part of California it was about 100 degrees F.

Around midday on the highway the bike randomly shut off. It was a span of seconds between running fine to the engine bogging and dying.

I waited around 3 hours and it started back up and rode another 20 minutes roughly (seemed to be running fine). I trailered it home not wanting to push it harder.


My main question is what damage is possible from this potential overheating? Head/Block warpage? Burnt valves? Increased piston/cylinder wear?

I plan to do a compression test to see where I am at. Is there any other diagnostics I should do to determine what/if any damage occurred during the probable overheat?

Any advice or speculation on what happened would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

scottly:
When the bike died, did the starter or kick-starter turn the motor OK, or was the motor "stuck" until it cooled off? Also, what bike?

Delly:
Its a 1974 CB550K. It turned over fine with kick starter and starter motor but refused to start. It was unresponsive to starting with choke on or off. I checked the fuel filter and it was not blocked. Seemed like fuel was getting to the carbs. Not sure if it is possible for the carbs to get hot enough to be burning off fuel in the float bowl.

scottly:
If the motor wasn't stuck, you probably don't have to worry about heat damage? Have you checked for spark? What ignition system are you using, points or electronic?

Delly:
I am still using points. I did not check for spark at the time but it did start later in the day (so it had spark after cooling). Is it possible for the coils or condensers to overheat?

Its good to hear I likely escaped heat damage. Although, ideally I would like to pinpoint what happened.

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