cylinder heat - different temps

I'm curious if anyone has ever experienced this before... I ran my 97 Kawasaki ZXI 1100 today for about 10 minutes with the water hose connected, and I noticed that the rear-most cylinder was much hotter than the front most (by touching the top). The middle was... well... in the middle temperature wise.

Has anyone ever noticed the cylinder temp by touching the tops after running for such a brief time? Would you consider this normal? I would think that all the cylinders should cool evenly, but perhaps it is the way in which water flows through the system when you use a flush kit compared to being on the water.

Any ideas?

-adrian

You must realize that you need proper pump water floe to cool the engine correct. Most of the watercraft will heat up different when flushig on the hose. Dave

I'm not familiar with Kawi's flow, but both my Polaris' do this opposite. The flush hose feeds the rear head first. Neither has a thermostat. While flushing, most of the flow goes out the rear (t-stat location) due to no restriction. The rest feeds the rear and middle with only a little flow reaching the front, so the front overheats. The answer on mine is to pinch off the hose below the t-stat area. This forces ALL the water through the engine with NO heat difference by hand. Can any of this be applied to you?

In looking at the top of the head, the flush kit is mounted slightly off to the edge, and in the head you can see what appear to be water ducts. The look to spread evenly from the flush area, but who knows how it actually bends inside. Perhaps only a ton of water going through the system will properly disperse it. I hope that is true, rather than having a potentially clogged cooling system. I can't think of a way to check without pulling everything apart. Considering the Ski runs great and screams across the water, maybe I'm just overly cautious.

-adrian