250 Degree oil temp!
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Road Captain
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 658
Likes: 23
From: South Florida
250 Degree oil temp!
I just bought a 2007 Heritage Softail Classic. I'm doing a nice breakin run this afternoon around lake Okeechobee here in south Florida, and I notice the oil temp in the 220 degree range while cruising at 50-65 MPH. The minute I hit stop and go traffic in the 40 MPH range, my oil temp shoots up to 250 degrees and stays there until I get home (30 minutes). I know the 2007 engines run hotter, but after paying $21,000 for the bike, the last thing I expected to do was fork out more money for an oil cooler. I would have expected the Harley engineers to have taken this additonal heat factor into consideration on the bigger '07' engines. My question is this: What are the effects of prolonged oil temperature at 250 degrees (if any) , and what is the best solution for this problem? 2 year warranties are nice, but engine related problems from high oil temp can show up at 2 years and 1 day! The wisdom out there on this forum would be greatly appreciated.
DJK
DJK
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Joined: Jul 2006
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RE: 250 Degree oil temp!
Small world DJK. I left Ft. Lauderdale area at 0700 up US #27 on a breakin ride around the lake. got back about 1300. Nice and cool 'till around 10 or 11. Coming back on 441 into Royal Palm I hit backed up construction traffic and watched the oil pressure drop REAL low. Don't have a temp gauge yet but she was hot. I did ask the dealer for the heat management download and it did not activate. Either the engine didn't get hot enough or the dealer pulled my pud. Haven't decided for sure on a oil cooler but I do think a tuner is in my future to run a little richer. I have been looking at Redline 20W60HD oil for my Ultra and they say their oil is designed to be run at 225 F so I may just use that instead of getting a cooler. More questions than answers. Good luck with you new Softail
Road Master
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,094
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From:
RE: 250 Degree oil temp!
What was the temperture outside during your run? I can see 250 if you in 90 degree weather, or at an idle for a period of time. I have the 95" kit and never seen mine above 250 in 100 degree weather while my bike is moving at any reasonable speed rather then idle. Even at 25 MPH mine will stay below 250 and runs around 220 at highway speeds. This reading is off a temp dip stick in my return tank as well. I am running Mobil one fully systhetic oil. I think this makes a 10-15 degree difference from Dino oil. I suspect you are running HD Syn 3 which is also synthetic oil. Seems excessive for this time of year. I have read here that 250 degrees for dino oil is bad news and if I remember correctly nearly 300 degrees for syn oil. Someone here will either verify this or correct me. Good luck.
Road Captain
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 667
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From:
RE: 250 Degree oil temp!
djklop-
Mine was running the same during breakin. On breakin, I switched to Amsoil 20/50.....been running about 220 on a HOT day now......around 200 on cool days in the 70's.
Opinions are everywhere in this forum.....and I have learned a lot here and been given great advice. Im not pushing Amsoil, or any other for that matter..........but it worked in mine, and saved me from buying an oil cooler which was next on my list.
Good Luck!!
Mine was running the same during breakin. On breakin, I switched to Amsoil 20/50.....been running about 220 on a HOT day now......around 200 on cool days in the 70's.
Opinions are everywhere in this forum.....and I have learned a lot here and been given great advice. Im not pushing Amsoil, or any other for that matter..........but it worked in mine, and saved me from buying an oil cooler which was next on my list.
Good Luck!!
Cruiser
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 226
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From:
RE: 250 Degree oil temp!
240 degrees is not uncommon oil temp on a hot day or idiling in traffic. If I where you I would use a high quality Synthetic Oil that is formulated for motorcycle use. AMSOIL or Mobil 1 V twin. Lots of folks on this site use Redline but it is not formulated for Mortorcycle use so I can't recommend it. Synthetic oils don't become volatile until they reach around 600 degrees and they will normally reduce the oil temp 20 to 30 degrees over dino oil. Good luck
Thread Starter
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Road Captain
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 658
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From: South Florida
RE: 250 Degree oil temp!
ORIGINAL: Budz
Small world DJK. I left Ft. Lauderdale area at 0700 up US #27 on a breakin ride around the lake. got back about 1300. Nice and cool 'till around 10 or 11. Coming back on 441 into Royal Palm I hit backed up construction traffic and watched the oil pressure drop REAL low. Don't have a temp gauge yet but she was hot. I did ask the dealer for the heat management download and it did not activate. Either the engine didn't get hot enough or the dealer pulled my pud. Haven't decided for sure on a oil cooler but I do think a tuner is in my future to run a little richer. I have been looking at Redline 20W60HD oil for my Ultra and they say their oil is designed to be run at 225 F so I may just use that instead of getting a cooler. More questions than answers. Good luck with you new Softail
Small world DJK. I left Ft. Lauderdale area at 0700 up US #27 on a breakin ride around the lake. got back about 1300. Nice and cool 'till around 10 or 11. Coming back on 441 into Royal Palm I hit backed up construction traffic and watched the oil pressure drop REAL low. Don't have a temp gauge yet but she was hot. I did ask the dealer for the heat management download and it did not activate. Either the engine didn't get hot enough or the dealer pulled my pud. Haven't decided for sure on a oil cooler but I do think a tuner is in my future to run a little richer. I have been looking at Redline 20W60HD oil for my Ultra and they say their oil is designed to be run at 225 F so I may just use that instead of getting a cooler. More questions than answers. Good luck with you new Softail
It is a small world, Budz. I was stuck in the same traffic in Royal Palm & SR80 about 1:30 pm.
DJK
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Road Captain
Joined: Oct 2006
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From: South Florida
RE: 250 Degree oil temp!
ORIGINAL: IRready
What was the temperture outside during your run? I can see 250 if you in 90 degree weather, or at an idle for a period of time. I have the 95" kit and never seen mine above 250 in 100 degree weather while my bike is moving at any reasonable speed rather then idle. Even at 25 MPH mine will stay below 250 and runs around 220 at highway speeds. This reading is off a temp dip stick in my return tank as well. I am running Mobil one fully systhetic oil. I think this makes a 10-15 degree difference from Dino oil. I suspect you are running HD Syn 3 which is also synthetic oil. Seems excessive for this time of year. I have read here that 250 degrees for dino oil is bad news and if I remember correctly nearly 300 degrees for syn oil. Someone here will either verify this or correct me. Good luck.
What was the temperture outside during your run? I can see 250 if you in 90 degree weather, or at an idle for a period of time. I have the 95" kit and never seen mine above 250 in 100 degree weather while my bike is moving at any reasonable speed rather then idle. Even at 25 MPH mine will stay below 250 and runs around 220 at highway speeds. This reading is off a temp dip stick in my return tank as well. I am running Mobil one fully systhetic oil. I think this makes a 10-15 degree difference from Dino oil. I suspect you are running HD Syn 3 which is also synthetic oil. Seems excessive for this time of year. I have read here that 250 degrees for dino oil is bad news and if I remember correctly nearly 300 degrees for syn oil. Someone here will either verify this or correct me. Good luck.
The temp was pushing 90 degrees in S. Florida yesterday. The oil temp stays in the 225 range for everything except stop & go traffic. I guess I'll switch to synthetic oil at the 1000 mile mark. Thanks.
DJK
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Ultimate HDF Member
Joined: Nov 2005
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From: Concord, CA
RE: 250 Degree oil temp!
You said it was a new bike. Breakin temps will be higher. Redline did make a difference on heat. I really wouldn't worry too much about it. There are tons of bikes out there running stock dyno oil. MoCo doesn't want to rebuild hundreds of thousands of motors. They know what it can handle.
