I learned something about oil temp today

[Anonymous]

It has nothing to do with the temperature of the cylinder fins when warming up the bike.

I just did an oil change on the 400, I waited until the fins got too hot to touch before dumping the oil. Well, I got the oil on my hands and it was still cold to the touch! So much for the guys I see warming their bikes up by feeling the cylinders.

Just some food for thought!

Cheers, Steve

[earlfor]

Re: I learned something about oil temp today

I believe the advantage to warming up the bike is to get oil circulating to the top end.

Earl

It has nothing to do with the temperature of the cylinder fins when warming up the bike.

I just did an oil change on the 400, I waited until the fins got too hot to touch before dumping the oil. Well, I got the oil on my hands and it was still cold to the touch! So much for the guys I see warming their bikes up by feeling the cylinders.

Just some food for thought!

Cheers, Steve

[Hotblack]

Why would that be an advantage, doesn't all the oil have to exit through the bottom anyway?

[saaz]

It takes a while for the oil to get up to temperature. If it was as quick as the fins being hot, the motor would overheat very quickly.

[Anonymous]

I believe the advantage to warming up the bike is to get oil circulating to the top end.

Earl

the advantage of warming the oil is oil tends to grab *@%^$*@%^$*@%^$*@%^$ floating in it better when it is warm rather than cold.

[Anonymous]

Cool, We've got a few different views brought up by this post. As a Northerner I warm up my engine in order to thin the oil a bit before riding. Once in a while an oil filter will explode from having cold oil being forced through it, and cold oil doesn't "wedge" itself around cranks very well. Apparently my 400 has plain bearings so it is a concern for me. Getting oil to the head didn't really come to mind but circulating the oil to get the junk floating did.

I was posting this because I thought I had been warming up my engine enough to allow for the oil to warm but I wasn't even close. I was shocked to find that it was still ice cold when the motor was warm since I get up into the revs pretty quickly with my bike. People close to the equator probably don't need to worry about this but I've dipped 20w50 oil in the winter and it's come out like toffee with strands to it hanging down. Ofcourse this was on something that isn't run in the winter since it's the wrong kind of oil to use.

Steve

[earlfor]

The advantage is that you dont want to rev the engine and spin moving parts before any oil has been pumped to them to lubricate them. Whe you start the bike for the first time each day, all the oil has draing down into the crankcase and you are running you cams and valve train in as close to a dry, unlubricated condition as is possible. Not a good time to just start it up, rap the throttle and wheelie away. :-) :-) In fact, not even a good time to exceed 1000 rpm.

Earl

Why would that be an advantage, doesn't all the oil have to exit through the bottom anyway?

[Einar J Skog]

Change engine oil with hot engine.
That is for me at least 10 KM driving to warm up motor.
In manual it says to run engine for 10 minutes at 1500 rpm.(in summer)
(20 minutes in winter)
To test the oilpressure it says the temp shall be at 60 degree C.
I will look into the times at start of season,(have made me a temp meter.

All Above is for GS1000


Regards Einar

[Anonymous]

Change engine oil with hot engine.
That is for me at least 10 KM driving to warm up motor.
In manual it says to run engine for 10 minutes at 1500 rpm.(in summer)
(20 minutes in winter)
To test the oilpressure it says the temp shall be at 60 degree C.
I will look into the times at start of season,(have made me a temp meter.

All Above is for GS1000


Regards Einar

thats as good formula Einar

[moto_dan]

For reference. I have an oil temp gauge on my '83 and it takes about 10 miles of freeway riding to bring the temp up to 200- 210 F.

[robinjo]

The clutch cover is a better indicator to see if your bike is warm if you don't have an oil temp sensor. for my bike it usually takes about 10km, longer in the winter.

[Hotblack]

The advantage is that you dont want to rev the engine and spin moving parts before any oil has been pumped to them to lubricate them. Whe you start the bike for the first time each day, all the oil has draing down into the crankcase and you are running you cams and valve train in as close to a dry, unlubricated condition as is possible. Not a good time to just start it up, rap the throttle and wheelie away. :-) :-) In fact, not even a good time to exceed 1000 rpm.

Earl

Why would that be an advantage, doesn't all the oil have to exit through the bottom anyway?

I gotcha, I had a short between the earphones. I thought you were saying having oil in the top end would be an advantage when changing oil.

[mcycle-nut]

Go across town to buy your oil and filter, and then by the time you get home it should be nice and toasty. Change oil immediately. 8)

[focus frenzy]

watch out for the hot exhaust pipes!

[mkaczmarek]

Is my Temp gauge accurate?

Hi, I recently bought a 1979 GS1000E. Since I like to fish around the internet quite a lot due to the nature of my job I found myself checking out eBay for items for the bike and picked up a temperature gauge that screws into the engine in place of the oil filler cap (on the right side of the engine, kinda redundant to be so specific on a site with "GS Specialists" )





(yeah, I know that's not a picture of my suzuki, (I linked it directly to the pictures on the eBay listing)

Anyways, I wanted to see if anyone has an idea how accurate this temperature gauge could be. Should I trust it? It is a quality part (Made in Germany) Since I haven't really had a chance to ride my bike to any extent other than on my driveway, I can't tell what the normal operating temp range should be. I let it idle for about 10-15 minutes and the temp got up to around 50*C on the gauge, at which point I shut off the bike and changed the oil.

Does anyone else use a similar temp gauge?

I understand that newer models, especially water cooled versions had factory temperature gauges? Or were they available as an option on the air cooled bikes as well? Just curious.