running temp ?

[ISAMEMON]

so I dont have one of those nifty little dipstick temp gauges for my airhead
but the other day, it was in the high 90's and a few of us went on a nice long ride, loved it,and for the last 10 minutes I was running about 70mph and mostly uphill, but for fun, when I got home, just after shutting off the bike, I pulled out my thermo gun and shot the cylinders at several places,
right at the jont between the cylinders and the block, I was running 205-210
wonder if anyone else has done something similiar and what kind of temps you are running

side note: recent oil change 20/50. recent carb sync, yet plug color shows running a tad bit rich

 

[mneblett]

Doesn't strike me as unusual after a run like that -- not a problem to expend worry over.

 

[8ninety8]

At speed it would be running at a lower temp. with air blowing around and through the engine. Stop, and up it goes. Parades a no-no. Admiring a putt-putt-a-chug-chug idle at 650 rpm, nogood.

The "new"? watercooled 1200 is now about to debutt as per the latest bike rags. I'll stick with low tech air cooling. IMHO.

 

[PAS]

My 81 R100RT runs around 225-235 and it has an oil cooler. The oil cooler is always cool to the touch and it works. I do have an oil stick temp gauge!

 

[lkchris]

The oil cooler is always cool to the touch because the thermostat only opens on long, high-speed highway runs.

The temperature of an aircooled engine mimics your tachometer, i.e. more rpm = more heat.

 

[ISAMEMON]

Doesn't strike me as unusual after a run like that -- not a problem to expend worry over.

as far as the bike, not so much worried as I am curious
ran great, no problems, no issues
went with a k75, and a gold wing, I was the smallest ( engine size and human size) and brought up the rear, wanted too.
sadly enough, in the 190 miles and many stops, no one asked about my bike, wah wah, people asked about the old gold wing that , wiht all the suitcase hard bag and lights,blasting stero, and flat foot rests, we nicknamed him ( on the trip) the winne, like winabago ( however that is spelled).
btw, the rider did not like the nickname, such is life, wah wah wah
me I was nicknamed "dad"
age wise, I beat these guys by almost 30 years. I was the slowest, I was having fun, not on an agenda, just out for a ride. They both had time lines to get back to town.
the guy on the k75 we called the kid, even though he was not the youngest, just rode like it. about a half hour left, he waved...see ya....and that was the last we saw of him ( he had to get to a soccer game)

those in ory-gun. trip was corvallis to siltetz, to lincoln city then south to bever creek, back north to waldport then to alsea, back to corvallis, and then me , back to kings valley

 

[PAS]

The oil cooler is always cool to the touch because the thermostat only opens on long, high-speed highway runs.

The temperature of an aircooled engine mimics your tachometer, i.e. more rpm = more heat.

Sitting in traffic opens it after awhile at idle!

 

[mikegates]

95 r100 rt, 95-100degrees @ 70 mph 225degrees, stop and go traffic 235degrees oil temp with nifty dip stick gauge

 

[barron_williams]

I have a VDO oil temp gauge with the sender in the oil pan.

With air temps in the 70-80s, my oil temp stabilizes around 180 or 190 degrees.

As air temps go into the 90s, oil temp moves to about 210.

Of course, being stuck in traffic and idling for any length of time also pushes the oil temp up.

But, I was surprised, that as Kent points out, temp rises with RPMs. I would have assumed it was better to run the bike at 5000-5500 in 4th gear that to run at 4000 in 5th. However, a sustained 15-20 minute highway run in 4th gear at 5000 RPM on a warm day, pushes the oil temp up pretty high. Shift up into 5th and after a few minutes at 1000 or so less RPMs and the temp settles right back down.

Barron

 

[jcarr]

oil temp

I was told that the higher the RPM the less time the oil is in the pan to cool. My 83 R100RS with VDO temp gauge shows 212 to 235 on the highway.

 

[guenner]

I have a VDO thermistor sensor in the oil drain plug connected to an "onboard computer" with a good calibration of the temperature reading.

Here are some observations (i.e. some done riding through Kansas, instead of guessing number cows in the feed yards):

- more throttle - more gas burned - higher temperature

- higher gear usually gives better gas mileage and hence lower temperature

- going I-70 west from Denver uphill in 90F temperature and stop-and-go...280F, turned over and let it cool down

- turning off an airhead motor the temperature falls immediately

- testing in my workshop: dyno oil burned with smoke at 300F, syntho oil stayed clear at least up to 320F (end of my testing)

- my R100GS has no thermostat and the oil cooler IS HOT as soon as the engine warms up

These aircooled engines faired pretty well in the Paris-Dahkar rallyes in the 80s. Makes me think that somewhow high engine temperatures were not a prime problem.

Typical oil temperature (in the oil pan) at a steady 70mph and 90F is around 230F for my R100GS.

And remember, the throttle controlls the heat...and the fun for some.

/Guenther

 

[20774]

- turning off an airhead motor the temperature falls immediately

At the drain plug...probably not the case for other places where oil is trapped in the engine.

When some turbo-charged engines, like the Toyota MR2, are turned off, the oil is cooked inside the turbo. There are "turbo-timers" which run the engine after the key is removed for a specific period of time to help dissipate the heat to a reasonable level.

 

[NI5L]

Don't put much faith in the accuracy of an IR gun unless you can adjust the emissivity. Without that adjustability, it can be off by many, many percent.

A fun toy and good for diagnosing gross temp differences in a localized area, but not much more than that.

 

[Stan_R80/7]

My '78 was showing temperatures from 210-215 on the cylinder heads using a similar IR temperature indicator (Kintrex ITR0421 model). The cylinder covers were ~ 175 with the exhaust pipe notably cooler at ~150 along with the front cover at ~135 deg F.

Edit: I thought some voltage changes were due to engine temperature (changing the alternator temperature), but they weren't. The changes were from just the typical voltage regulator behavior.