At what temp point is considered overheating? What point is oh crap there's a hole in my motah? Probably 90 sumpn here today, lotta stop and go. Even splitting traffic was still hot, thousands of cars stopped for ten or 15 miles creates a lot of heat, not much chance to cool her off.

 

260 head temp is "operating temp" oil temp should stay under 250

 

When she over heats you'll know it. The motor goes into a super rich condition and the motor makes a loping cycle sound, it revs up and then back down almost like its gonna die on you. had it happen in Vaegs to me in 2005!

 

Like said above 250 and below for oil temps is where you should be ideally. Synthetics will protect you to about 300 but if you reach that point, some sort of fuel enrichment or even an oil cooler should be considered if you operate in a hot climate.

 

If all else fails the ECMshould shut the motor down. There could still be residual damage from running hot over a prolonged period of time, but the newer bikes electronics help in preventing catastrophic melt downs.

 

OK thanks for the replies.. It sounds from what your all saying is that oil temp is what I should be looking at. I've got the Thundermax ECM which allows you to look at head temp peaks that have been logged into ECM memory. Yesterday it hit 312 a couple of times. Before that the highest it got was 304. But I have no idea about oil temp. Are those digital dipsticks worthwhile or just one more thing to break? Thanks.

 

Digital dipsticks are OK but you have to be stopped in order to read them. You are much better off with a dash oil temperature gauge. Dipsticks are easily stolen too.

 

I agree with whatsoos said above. But just for reference, I started with the dipstick and because I wanted to know the temp while riding I replaced the useless air temp gage with an oil temp gage. Both gages run with in 5 degrees of each other at any given temp so the dip stick is a good choice if that is the way you decide to go. I prefer the dash gage but use the dip stick to keep an eye on oil level easily.

Ride Safe,

Mike