I traded my 2008 SG that my last observations were based on, for a 2011 RG Ultra. I was very surprised by what I thought was a very hot running bike. EITMS kicked in on multiple occasions. Temps in the 80's and 90's. I would have dumpy idle while others riding with me idled normally. Their oil temp 220 -230. Mine ???? No guage. Damn these 103's run too hot. I might just have to run synthetic oils.

The guage finally came in. It is too cool here in Central IL, to run any fair tests. So I took the bike with a fresh fill of Brad Penn to Florida. I was only there two days and saw high temps in the low to mid 80's. With the old 96. I knew that would equate to 210-220 running temps that would peak at 230 in stop and go.

WOW!!!! After warming up, my max temp while cruising was 190. When I hit stop and go at the beach areas, It would climb to 210-220. And a couple of times pegged out at 230. I did get an EITMS idle once. As I watched the oil creep to 230 and hold for a few minutes at a light it kicked in. The one and only time that I experienced EITMS on the 96", The oil temp was somewhere around 280. The 96" ran solid 230's with syn oil. And 220 with dino. With this bike just a few minutes of moving down the road would bring the oil back down below 200.

I give the factory oil cooler an A+ at this point.

It just wouldn't be an good oil thread, if I didn't take a jab. So here goes. For all of you who can feel your bike running hot, I call B.S...... You don't know jack, unless you have a guage on it.

 

Mine does'nt run hotter or cooler using Synthetic oil, but it does warm up quicker.

 

Something a lot of folks are not aware of. All electronic including sensors, diodes, transistors and more have a plus or minus 10% tolerance. In other words, if a engine temperature sensor that causes the EITMS to kick in, could be on the high side of the 10% tolerance and the next bike may have a sensor that is working on the lower side of the 10% tolerance, This could explain why a system on one bike may be different than another one of the same model and like comparisons.

That's why 2 cars or motorcycles that are exactly alike may get different fuel mileage or over-all performance. That is, with all of the variables being the same.

 

Well that could be one way to look at it. I am curious as to whether or not the parameters have changed. If they did change as I suspect then, I think it a good thing to kick it in earlier.

In reading the TTS manual it states that at 288* The system enriches, and at 311* the system will skip fire. (This may or may not be acurate. But, seems to line up with what I saw on my 2008.)

According to the 2011 owners manual, the rear cylinder will turn off when engine temperatures exceed 287*. And will continue until engine temp falls below 275*.

So, I don't know there may be some variance. But, no doubt the cooler makes an impact. This is obvious with the lower oil temps, and the sharp drops after peak.

 

Does it warm up faster, or is the oil getting hotter, and holding temp longer? I found with Mobil 1 Vtwinn that once peak temp was reached, say sitting at a train stop or in stop and go, that it wouldn't cool back down when moving.

With the dino's we found that they cool off. Just not near as fast as I saw with the oil cooler on.

I heard it 3rd hand that a Victory dealer was telling customers not to run synthetics as they retain heat longer. Had I not already experienced that myself, I would have scoffed at the notion.

 

Some of us will guess that you're not a very experienced rider if you need tach's, gauges, idiots lights, scopes, and digital whatevers to know what your machine is doing.

Trust me, most of us "older" riders "know jack" and were troubleshooting/wrenching long before the invention of such modern-day crutches...and did quite well at that.

 

the only problem with "my oil is this hot".

Is it doesn't tell you if the oil is efficiently pulling heat from the motor...or if the motor is running cooler.

You would need to correlate with engine temps to make any valid judgement.

Mike

 

Couple things:

1) Check the gauge for calibration. Easy enough to do and get close enough to be certain it's accurate. Get a cup, fill with crushed ice, add water, stir. Let sit for a few minutes, adding more crushed ice to top off, and continue stirring. The temp of this "ice bath" will be close enough to 32F (0C) to use as a "zero" point. Stick thermometer in it and read; note any inaccuracy (offset). Next, heat water in a pan on stove 'til it just starts to boil. Stick thermometer in it and note reading (span). Be more concerned with the span reading than the zero for obvious reasons. How far off is it from 212F (100C) (sea level boiling point; varies with altitude and easy to look up on the internet)? Now adjust what you read for oil temp.

I've had a couple gauges that were nearly 30 degrees off at 212F.

2) The 10% tolerance figure quoted by member "bikes" isn't necessarily so. Typical resistors are graded by accuracy from +/-20% down to +/-0.01%. RTDs used for temperature reading are nominally +/-3C at 600C. That is the "cheapie" RTDs. If typical thermocouples are used the accuracy is generally about +/-1.7C at 200C. If a cheapie bi-metal temp indicator is used, then accuracy is usually about +/-5%, but if the bi-metal device has been "pegged out", then all bets are off.

 

Well here's another pile. You may have many more years of riding. But, riding a motorcycle doesn't calibrate your body to know a 20* difference of temperatures near boiling. Which is what I was calling BS on. I never claimed that it was giving me any inside knowledge of what my machine was doing.

I was just remarking that what felt like a much hotter engine, in the end wasn't any hotter than what I had seen before.

So continue to blow on about your experience. It gives me something to laugh at.

 

Fair enough... But, I would contend that it is telling me that the oil is leaving the pan at X. I can then compare that to known measurements on my last bike and other's that mirrored. It shouldn't be any great leap of faith to pull together that when using the same brand of oil, that the heat transfer is going to be comparable as well.