Have an 02 ultra that has been converted to Trike (Knees and Hips shot)
have been running 20/50 Valvoline and its been awfull warm (hot)here in the midwest i have one of those didgital dipsticks that tells you the temp and amount of oil
came in from a 45 mile ride yesterday and it showed 237 degrees did not like the looks of that cause i figured the engine is running 10% hotter and that is over the point were regular oil starts to Break down so went out to the freindly HD dealer and bought a Factory Oil cooler Kit and installed that took it out for another ride just like yesterday and was very disappointed in the results i was hoping for atleast a 10% drop in Tem but only got about a 7 degree drop Temp was reall close to the same as yesterday (checked one of the banks i went bye in a small town) also switched to synthetic oil because past experience has shown that it runs cooler
another thing when installing the Factory Oil Cooler they have an adapter that goes in between the filter and the housing to remove the factory center you used a 7/8 deep socket to put the new one on you have to use a 11mm allen wrench (try and find one of those little Jems i used a 7mm bolt with a flat washer and 2 nuts to jam it all together and used that to Tourque it in place ) also could NOT get a Factory Oil filter to go back on because of the Crank position Sensor had to use an after market filter that was 1/8 shorter that cleared OK

Any way what kind of temp reading should i be seeing with this set up
the engine has been bored to 95" 9.6 to one pistons and an Andrews 26N cam installed has SE airfilter assembly and SE muffler

Any help would be appreciated have a big road trip coming up in two weeks and dont want issues

 

My 08 Heritage would normally run in the 240-250 F range on a hot day, coming off the highway and into the city, few stop lights, bit of idling etc. It got as hot as 270 F on my last ride to Logans Pass, two up & loaded. Bike is completely stock. Analoge oil gauge in tank.

After that I to put on the Harley oil cooler. With the oil cooler temps on a hot day same sort of driving as before results in an oil temp of 220-230 F. Haven't tried the Logan Pass yet - too much construction this year.

The two main benefits of the cooler that I've noticed are that it runs a bit cooler and the oil temp stays in a narrower range than before. It doesn't spike up and down like it did before depending on city or highway. I also run sync oil Mob 1 20-50.

It was strange but even when the oil temp was 270 F, the bike ran fine & the high temp reading didn't seem to bother it, but in my view that was too hot.

With your readings you shouldn't have any problems, but do put syn in the engine then the higher oil temps are less of an issue. Also Harley recommends checking the oil hot at a temp of 230 F so that is the normal operating temp of the oil, so if one can keep the temp in the range than everything is good to go.

 

237F is fine. Just run syn oil. No worries.