We were racing at the Nationals here in New Zealand this weekend and one of fellow riders, Jamie Gallway had a heat exchanger blow, in the second race, the same thing happened last weekend at Hampton Downs, he was riding a 2011 bike which is supposed to have been modified to prevent the problem. This was very frustrating and disappointing as Jamie was doing well in the first Supersport race.
“Last year Triumph said they had a kit to fix the heat exchanger problem, they also modified all the 2011 onward bikes. The kit never came out as it was deemed to expensive!” ” (Si Westwood, Triumph Race Support”)
Terry Gallway decided to test the oil pressure after the oil pump and found it to be well over 100psi, at 8000 rpm. These tests were on two, 2011 bikes and one 07 bike which is running the engine from Paul Dobbs bike ( engine No: 6278677). The recommended pressure is 75-80psi which is what the Japanese bikes are running. Subsequently the oil temp on our bikes was ranging from 112 to 200 celsius after a 15 lap race. After a lot of discussion with some vert technically savvy people we concluded that the problem is oil pressure not the heat exchangers themselves. It appears that the Factory knows these bikes are making too much pressure because the oil pump outputs oil too fast, and I am told that the Factory solution is to offer a replacement gear and chain to slow the pump and reduce the volume and pressure output. It is rumored that sometime in 2010 the Factory was close to recalling all the 675 bikes.
In our opinion it is a design fault recognized by the factory and therefore should be their responsibility to rectify the problem before someone is killed.
It would be sensible for all the owners who are experiencing this problem to group together and make a presentation to the Factory.
There is a lot of talk on the forums about this problem:
http://www.triumph675.net/forum/showthread.php?p=804747#post804747
teamamadora 