Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Oil temp gauge reading

I have the oil temp gauge from Brent.
I really do like it.
My question is, can you tell from the oil temp if you are running to lean?

You would have to make a base line reading of your oil temp,with your perfectly jetted bike,at a know air temp,at a repeatable road speed,on the same test road,for the same amount of run time.But unless you dupe those conditions every time(except For jetting of coarse),no way,and even then it may not be sensitive enough to see a difference.But if your bike is perfectly jetted you really do not need to know much,now do you.A directional,point source temp gauge aimed at the same spot on the head would probably have a much better chance of seeing elevated cylinder head temps. Al

What kinda temps are you running?

Like Benny says,

Quote:

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What kinda temps are you running?

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Give us temps at highway speeds, in-town traffic, idle after warmed up etc etc...the more the better. The more precise the better.
This is good info for those interested in getting the guages available.
Oil temp and pressure tell you a lot of what is going on internally, the more info we all have, the better we can work to find the best setups for our rides.
Share the info!

I live in NE Ohio.
We had a string of 90+ days right after I installed the gauge.
I would run a temp of 180-185 on the highway at a steady 4000rpm for a 1-2 hr ride.
In town the temps went up to maybe 190.
In the 60& 70 degree weather I now have I am seeing temps of 165-175 under the same conditions.
Thanks for the replys.

Yikes... I'm still high, never below 200 unless it's raining. I'm going to re-plumb my oil cooler, see if that helps. My pressure is about what Pat gets, so I doubt there's a signifficant blockage, but maybe enough to keep it hot...

Ben,
I'm running around 180 to 190 on the highway and around 200 in the city on a 75 to 80 day. I really never go much over 200 unless I'm stopped for a while.

Geez, do you guys boil your oil before going out to ride or what? I know FC and I use the same oil as well (The Rotella Synthetic) but there seems to be quite a difference in the temps.
I ride all day and nevr hit 200, in big city stop and swear traffic, maybe got to 195 once in a bad trafficx jam in Toronto,(it was also 90ºF+ outside and 95% humidity too) but I generally hover around 175º-185º depending on the temps. But, I live in rural America, we move on our bikes when we ride. Not much of the stop and go around here.

I almost hit 250 doin 90 on the open highway.... Just did an oil change and re-plumbed the oil cooler, we'll see how the trip goes upstate..

That is way way too hot benny!
Don't you have that nice BonnevillePerformance oil cooler? They are supposed to drop the temps much more effeciently due to the convoluted coils ( That's what I use for my counterflow wort chiller in my brewery, cool word "convoluted", malkes me sound smart or something.) How hard is it to swap back to the other oil cooler? Maybe bring it with ya and we can speriment?

Yeah I know that's too hot... Like I said, I re- did all the connections, new hoses in fact. One thing I did find upon removing everything is that the inserts in the coolers were bent because the fittings squished it... so I trimmed them. Now they are just right and straight, maybe that was restricting flow... I dunno. Then again, maybe the oil flows thru them TOO fast and doesn't cool enough? Not sure. I still have the stock one (altho someone wants it if I don't keep it) So I'll think about bringing it with me. The hardest part will be finding a place for my horns I still need to see how it works. I'll try to take it out for a spin tomorrow or wed morning for a half hour, see how the temp looks.

BB,Have you checked the calibration of your oil gauge?When you get to DQ's swap gauges and see if your gauge is good. Or check it against a hot water temp gauge on the stove. Al

Good point!! No I haven't. Took it for a ride thismorning, just over 200... No leaks or anything, runs fine otherwise, still clunky shifting to first, found neutral a few times, but whatever...