Slowly running rougher and hotter...

Hey friends,

I've got an '07 FZ1 with ~28k miles that I'm just in love with, but over the last many months I've been chasing my tail on some issues, and I'd love to bounce some ideas off those who know these bikes better than me, and either tell me to dig in deeper, or just ride more & worry less.

The mods to the bike that I'm aware of;

- Leo Vince Slipon
- PCIII
- Lars Airbox mod & K&N
- Speedohealer

I have an FCE that came with the bike, but it's not installed at the moment. The map on the PCIII also mentions a "Factory Pro Timing Table".

I picked it up a few years ago, and so far I've just done oil, chain, tires & plug changes. I have replaced all the coils with used R1 coils when one failed.

It's been slowly running worse for the last few months, with a few key symptoms;

- It won't always catch on hot starts, as in coolant >200 degrees. Cracking the throttle open a little bit (~10%?) and it fires up. Cold starts have never been an issue.
- I'm noticing more and more vibrations in the handlebars and in the frame, especially around 3k -> 5k. It's not as bad as if it's misfiring, but it's not feeling quite right.
- It feels down on power below 6k. Above, it still pulls like a freight train and will easily loft the front in most gears. Totally seat-of-the-pants subjective, but I ride it most every day, so I feel like I've gotten pretty in tune with the bike.
- It's running hotter, and I'm noticing the fans running more and more. Before, they'd only kick on in stop & go traffic, but now they'll kick on when I'm going slowly around the neighborhood. I also noticed the temp spiking much more when I shut the bike off - when I first bought it I never saw anything past ~220, but yesterday when I got to work and parked it spiked to 235 after I turned the engine off. The fans were holding temp steady between 215 -> 225 until then. The frame also seems to be getting a lot hotter.

First things first, here's what I've checked and tried;

- Removing the PCIII made the bike run much much worse. It's now back in.
- I pulled, cleaned, oiled the air filter.
- I did a check for any obvious vacuum leaks, but didn't find anything. That's definitely not to say there aren't any.
- I checked the fuel line, it looked unkinked and healthy.
- I ran some injector cleaner for a tank.
- I pulled the coils and wrapped electrical tape around them, just in case.
- I checked the TPS adjustment and it was in spec.
- After checking the TPS on the ECU, I checked it on the PC3, and the low reading was way off from the actual closed throttle reading. I picked a reading in between, and it definitely improved power down low, but _may_ have made the vibrations worse and made the bike run hotter.

So here's what my plan is to tackle next:

- Sync the TB's
- Flush & change the coolant
- Check valves? It's about that time to do them, and it has seen track time, but I'm not sure if the symptoms I'm seeing would be caused by valves way out of spec. The problem is my work schedule doesn't give me a chance to get to them for many months, so I'd probably have to pay a shop to check & adjust.

Thoughts? Am I overthinking everything? Anybody got any recommendations for something else I should be looking at?

Thanks in advance, everybody. This forum's been a great research tool for me to date.
 
I think your planned way forward is right,

replace coolant
sync TB
and valves - can cause vibration.

Have you changed anything else?
 
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