There is an Engine Temperture sensor, but no temperture gauge. Is there an Idiot light in the speedo that lights if engine temp gets to high?
is there any way to know what engine temperture is other than a hand held remote reading thermometer?

 

Others will give you better answers I am sure, but on my Fat Bob there is no temperature indicator, even though there is a sensor and the data is available. If you use something like an FP3, it will report the engine temperature from the sensor, as well as the air intake temperature.

The FP3 is a tuner, but if you don't use it for tuning you can still use it to read diagnostic codes and such. You can even use a used FP3 that has been married to someone else's bike, they are usually available on eBay for like $60 or $80 or so.

Using an FP3 to tune your bike will result in voiding the powertrain warranty, but if you use it just as a diagnostic tool it won't have any effect on your warranty.

 

Yea if the EITS is enabled you'll notice it kick in at idle as well as the motor will pull timing if it gets too hot.You'd notice the timing being retarded riding.
You'll feel excessive heat as well and I reckon really hot motors have a smell to them , like the alloys are baking or something , it's really hard to explain.
These m8's you can ride them hard pull up somewhere and touch the top of the heads for some time without getting burnt.
HTH.

 

The M8 Heritage is a very cool running bike compared to many others. My new Indian Scout is stupid hot and it is water cooled.
My old 09 HD Dyna was HOT. Those bikes were known to be hot because of the EPA restrictions. Doing a Stage 1 cooled it down a bit. It would run richer after Stage 1.
HD did a great job with this oil cooling and whatever else they did to make these engines run fairly cool. I was surprised.
Think about it; you are sitting directly on top of an engine. It may get warm?
BTW, I have been riding in 100 degree Alabama weather and have been idling at a stop for a few minutes. It still was fine.

 

 

No arguments with anything anyone has said about how the M8 runns cool.

My real question was, if the bike includes a Engine Temperture Sensor, why isn't their a way of reading the engine Temperture. Good answer from FATBOB2018 about the FP3, but it would seem their should be some simple Plug an Play Temperture gauge that could be hooked up to read that sensor.

I'm not worried about overheating, but it would be nice to be able to check the engine temperture, at least during maintenance, if not on a more regular basis.

Thanks all.

 

 

Frank i agree... i'd like to have as much information as possible while riding. Oil and engine temperature, battery voltage for sure. I am still hoping for more parts/instruments/gauges soon!

 

The new bike have CAN bus and a set of standard messages that go out of the bus. IIRC both cylinder head and Engine temp are available. You can go with something like a PV display and read the values. The SE tuner has the ability to collect the values but no display.

There is a guy that is making chassis stabilizers but on the side is make a module that attaches the diagnostic port to collect this data.

http://www.sta-bul.com/about.html

The data is transmitted via bluetooth to a cell phone and displayed. I talked to him a few times about the system and he actually helped me come up with way to add a tachometer to my RK.. You might want to try and contact him.. I know of more than a few people that mounting cell there cellphones to the handle for both music and GPS. Might be work contacting him to see how his project is doing?

 

As already mentioned, you can use a FP3 or PowerVision to monitor the temp and a variety of other things. I have a Power Vision on all my bikes and use it as a gauge cluster.

HD has done a pretty good job at making the M8's feel cool to the rider/passenger, but they still run too hot for their own good. Cooling them down will help them last longer AND provide improved performance.

Check out a Report on ideal temps for engine performance HERE.