Oil Temp

[onebadeagle]

Just installed an oil temp gauge in console on fairing But don't really know what oil temp should be. Especially in stop and go traffic. what is unsafe temp? Help Guru's:xzqxz:

 

[Lee H. Mann]

Just installed an oil temp gauge in console on fairing But don't really know what oil temp should be. Especially in stop and go traffic. what is unsafe temp? Help Guru's:xzqxz:

170F - 230F degrees good operational temp for oil. Pure synthetic (Amsoil) will run cooler than Syn3. If oil temp hits 250, get a cooler. If you have a cooler, get a tuner and dump the stock exhaust.

 

[grandpawj]

onebadeagle, what did you get for an oil cooler and was it difficult to hook up?

 

[onebadeagle]

Oil Cooler

Have not added an oil cooler yet, will see how temps are first

 

[grandpawj]

Wow did I mess up that post!!?? What I meant to ask was about your oil temp gauge . I often wonder if the temp rises too high also. I have the love jugs and wonder if it is enough to take care of excess temps. Also I need something to put in the place of the useless ambient temp gauge on the fairing.

 

[onebadeagle]

oil temp

Wow did I mess up that post!!?? What I meant to ask was about your oil temp gauge . I often wonder if the temp rises too high also. I have the love jugs and wonder if it is enough to take care of excess temps. Also I need something to put in the place of the useless ambient temp gauge on the fairing.

I bought at Harley Stealer so it would match other gauges $150.00 not to hard to install but you do have to open up fairing, been too cold to see how it works

 

[grandpawj]

My Son-in-law is a HD salesman at the Stealership, must ask him what he can get me one for.

 

[DK Custom Products]

170F - 230F degrees good operational temp for oil. Pure synthetic (Amsoil) will run cooler than Syn3. If oil temp hits 250, get a cooler. If you have a cooler, get a tuner and dump the stock exhaust.

ThumbUp Good info!

Kevin

 

[trikermutha]

I think it would also depend on the MY Trike you have Water head versus Air Cooled will vary the Oil temps.

I don't really think you would need a cooler for the water head Trike

 

[rhino 2]

Just my humble opinion' I think you guys are over thinking it.. An oil temp gauge is just something to look at and worry about.. Only once did i have a oil temp gauge on a vehicle [VW GTi 16v] Many times crawling though the Lincoln Tunnel [drove into Manhattan 6 days a week for 25+ years] in the summer, The temps would read 290+ And nothing i could do about it but keep on driving.. when i sold it there was 350 thousand miles on the engine, I had two VW Beatles ran them up to 150 thousand miles each, And they didn't even have oil filters... Never had an engine problem...:Shrug:

 

[DK Custom Products]

I think it would also depend on the MY Trike you have Water head versus Air Cooled will vary the Oil temps.

I don't really think you would need a cooler for the water head Trike

My experience has been that the wetheads run cooler head temps than the air cooled, BUT, the wetheads run hotter oil temps than the air cooled.

There are more than a few reasons for this, not the least of which is that the air cooled's come from the factory with an oil cooler and the wetheads don't, since there is no room for one.

The major source of heat in the engine that heats up the oil is that the oil squirted onto the bottom of the pistons to cool them down. This works well at cooling the pistons down, but it transfers huge amounts of heat to the oil. The wetheads cool the heads, but that does not do much (or anything) for cooling the bottom of the pistons.

Just my humble opinion' I think you guys are over thinking it.. An oil temp gauge is just something to look at and worry about.. Only once did i have a oil temp gauge on a vehicle [VW GTi 16v] Many times crawling though the Lincoln Tunnel [drove into Manhattan 6 days a week for 25+ years] in the summer, The temps would read 290+ And nothing i could do about it but keep on driving.. when i sold it there was 350 thousand miles on the engine, I had two VW Beatles ran them up to 150 thousand miles each, And they didn't even have oil filters... Never had an engine problem...:Shrug:

To a great degree it is a preference/performance thing.

The HD engine is made to survive a tremendous amount of heat. When my 2011 had the entire top end replaced under warranty, it was running "fine", it was not using any perceptible amount of oil, it got me down the road just fine. BUT, the cylinders were ovaled out, the valve were burnt, the heads were warped....all because of too much heat. BUT, if I had not pushed the dealership to do a leakdown test, you would have never known there was a problem.

That is because they can Survive far more heat than is ideal for best performance and best engine longevity.

After I got it back with new cylinders, pistons & heads, I could tell how much more power it had...but before that, it had lost power so gradually that I could not really tell that the power was not as good as it could/should have been.

Kevin

 

[Phu Cat]

Onebad, Back in my early days of ridin Harleys I was very concerned about my oil temperature too. Don't be. Harley's run hot and have been for many, many, many years. As long as as the bike is moving thru the cooling air at more that a walking pace the engine is being cooled. Being on the road and pulling up to a long line of traffic and having to idle a long time, now that's a different story. (I always seem to catch those kind of situations on a down hill slope where I can kill the engine and just coast when I need to. Yeah........Right!) This is where having put in synthetic oil at your last oil change was a really good move. But in the long run, watchin that temperature gauge all the time is just gonna drive ya nuts. As long as you're movin, you'll be fine. Besides, you don't want your oil temp. to be too low either or it won't get high enough to boil off the condensation created in the combustion process.

Phu Cat

 

[grandpawj]

Ya know, Phu Cat, that makes good sense. Sometimes a person can sit and just think up stuff to worry about.

 

[Firewrench22]

oil temp

I bought the oil temp gauge also, I care more about oil temp than air temp, and found a 4" "computer fan" that's waterproof, mounted it on the front of the H-D oil cooler. It's ugly, but works good. I can pretty much keep the needle below 230. I used a small toggle switch mounted discreetly.
cost me about $30. If I win the lotto I'll get the $400 Ultra Cool.

Went to Las Vegas Bike Fest last year, the rumpety-rump cooling only came on a couple times in heavy traffic. Didn't try to go on the Strip...not doing that to my baby...