New to me 09 ultra classic 96ci basic stock . Went for the first decent ride today 38f and when i got home off the hwy i checked the fancy dipstick and it said the oil temp was 214f , I had the lowers closed ---is this normal for these motors ?????

Dave

 

Pretty much. With the cold weather my McEwans in dash temp guage says slightly under 200'F with a Jagg oil cooler, and the head temp read on the head temp sensor via my PoerVision reads about 240'F.

I'm not sure if 09's came with the oil cooler? Maybe that was when the 103s came that they got implemented. But without an AC on a 96 you will usually run around 235'F Oil Temp, unless it's really hot on you're in heavy traffic, or really getting on it.

 

No oil cooler , Thanks for the info . I was surprised at the temp

Dave

 

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1st ting is to verify the dipstick is reading properly using a hand held IR temp gun.

But if you find your dipstick's 214deg f was correct thats too high of an oil temp for at cruise (maybe not in a lot of tsaffic)when outside temp is only 38deg unless maybe you left it idling for 20mins which would explain it.

BTW,I have the same exact bike & motor you do,it an 09 flhtcu w-stock 96" motor i bought 11/2014 with only 9,700 miles on it that should have same lowers as your bike & my bikes oil temp never ran anywhere near that hot in 55-60 deg f outside let alone in 38deg f.

I dont ride in 35-40 deg f temp anymore due to med issues,but when i do ride in in 55-60deg f temp & my bikes oil temp before i did any cooling mods to it was approx 180-185 deg f @ cruise and 210deg f or so in avg traffic.

My bike has stock original HD oil temp & oil pressure gauges & the oil temp gauge ,sending unit & wiring harness are all brand new because i installed them to replace the useless airtemp gauge that came with the bike which later helped a lot in me realizing when oil got over approx 225-230 deg that was causing multiple negative perf issues due to somewhat overheated oil & motor.

When i 1st got the bike when motor was up to normal op temp in hot 90-95 deg f days oil temp with hs syn3 20-50 oil it would run approx 260-275 deg f or so & at cruise would run approx 220-230deg f.

When the oil sit approx 225-230deg and esp at higher temp the motr lost power,detonated,valves got noisier,oil pressure went into crap (8-10psi @ idle & 32-35 psi at cruise),hot starts post fueling up where labored *& the motor roatse me off the bike in traffic.

I didnt like what heat was dong to my bikes perf so i did something about it adding Wards dual elex cooling fans along with an ultracool oil cooler with dual elec cooling fans & switCHed out the syn3 oil for a better quality spectro motorcycle oiL specifically formulated for HDs and got the following results.

Doing those three things working collectively together as a team reduced the oil temp 50+ deg F which was a huge improvement which the motor responded very well to giving me the all the great benefits i will list below right off the bat.

And remember,one of the oils job in an air cooled bike motor is to remove heat so when i got oil temp reduced by 50+ deg that also had to at the same time of significantly reduced engine temp too.

* OIL PRESSURE IN 90-95DEG HHH HEAT WENT FROM BEING 8-10psi @ idle & 32-35 psi at cruise TO NOW BEING 18-20PSI @ IDLE & 45-48PSI (JUST SHY OF 50PSI) 2 CRUISE.

* VALVETRAIN STAYS MUCH QUIETER NOW.

* MOTOR STOPPED DETONATING ON HD'S REC 91 OCTANE FUEL FOR A STOCK 96" MOTOR WITH 9.2 COMPRESSION.

* MOTOR & OIL NOT BEING ALL HEAT SOAKED/SEMI OVERHEATED ANYMORE ALLOWS THE MOTOR TO RETAIN MOST OF ITS PWR / TRQ RESULTING IN CRISPER THROTTLE RESPONSE AND UMHP WHEN IT USED TO FALL FLAT AND LOOSE PWR/TRQ .

* HOT STARTS POST FUELING UP AND EASIER,NOW THE MOTOR FIRES RIGHT UP WITH NO HESITAION AT ALL SO ITS NOW EASIER ON THE STARTER AND BATTERY NOW TOO.

* BIT LESS HEAT IS COMING OFF THE MOTOR SO ITS A LITTLE MORE COMFY TO RIDE ON HOT DAYS NOW TOO.

Doing those 3 things were the best bang for the buck things i did to that bike thus far that made its driveability so much nicer with the valves now staying much quieter, there is a little less heat hitting me now,no more pinging,no worry's it may not start when heat socked post fueling up,hold much better oil pressure which makes me feel better too,etc.

Just wish some guys that are posting here at time they were concerned about their bikes when hot due to crappy oil pressure and others concerned about their bike detonating along with also posting issues with excessive heat coming from their motors roasting them would " DRINK THE COOLAID " & actually try / do everything i suggested to they can get the same benefits and overall improvement in perf and ride comfort too with less valve noise ,no pinging,little less hear,much higher oil pressure and more!

I have posted this same info many times here and nobody as of yet with valve noise,detonation issues,heat from motor roasting them,etc have ever commented on ot let alone tried it like i did ,but i have got quite a few negative comment people were tired of seeing it and or thought was BS and hds were running just fien without trying to get oil running cooler.

Boy were they wrong about that because getting the oil running 50 deg cooler made a huge difference in my bike perf,end of story !

But you need to keep in mind you have to do all 3 things i suggested (inc the same oil i rec too) or you will not get near as good a result as i did!

If you just install wards fans alone or the oil cooler by itself you will not get the same result,you will see some improvement but not same result by a long shot ,same goes for not using the oil i rec too.

I had tried syn3 & m1 v-twin both syn 20-50 and they didnt hold as good a hot oil pressure and valves made more noise too then when i tried / switched to spectro oil specifically formulated for hd v-twins in 20-50,spectro std dino/semi blend/full syn all in 20-50 too held much better hot oil pressure then syn3 & m1 syn did all in same 20-50 grade.

I decided to stick the spectro's semi blend 20w-50 doe hd's,i also use their prim case oil (85w) for hd's along with their trans oil (75w-140) that specifically formulated to help quiet the 5th gear whine some of the older 6 spd HD transmissions have.

But there was no doubt my bikes stock 96" motor held better / higher oil pressure hot with spectro oil vs syn3 or m1-v-twin in 20w-50 which the tells me the other oils that had significantly lower oil pressure when motor was up to norm op temp & hot were simply thinning out more when under more stress when motor & oil heated up that the higher quality spectro proved to me could handle better by not thinning as much like the other oils did.

Happy motoring.

Scott

 

It's oil. Not water.

 

I don't have the interest to read all that about oil temp.
kroozeabout.

 

Dave I have checked my HD dipsticks over the years against my wife's pro cooking thermometers ( do NOT tell her).

they have been accurate within a couple of degrees from 100şF up.

I do have an oil cooler added to my 09- we see higher temps in AZ than you do routinely.

and i see high oil temps- which in the pan are lesser than internal motor temps, but an easy way to measure.

the good news is that oil will tolerate that heat ( I use synthetic) and that's hot enough to boil out any moisture.



Mike

 

Here is what my 2009 (96") bike showed this past year. I rode at 70 mph each trip for at least an hour on the interstate, so there was no stop and go. Temps were recorded with a very accurate thermometer. My bike has no catalytic converter and is Stage I. Admittedly, riding in stop and go traffic would have changed the numbers considerably.
I don't consider any of the recorded temps to be high at all. I removed the oil cap and inserted the probe down into the hot oil within 20 seconds of shutting the engine off:

67 degrees ambient outside temp-oil temp was 197 degrees
80 degrees ambient outside temp-oil temp was 204.7 degrees
90 degrees ambient outside temp-oil temp was 203.4 degrees
97 degrees ambient outside temp-oil temp was 216.6 degrees
101 degrees ambient outside temp-oil temp was 221.4 degrees
102 degrees ambient outside temp-oil temp was 221.8 degrees
103 degrees ambient outside temp-oil temp was 222.2 degrees

Given that this is a public forum there are always people who don't agree, so I will issue this disclaimer:
"Your results may be different".

 

I would worry if I saw my oil temperature get to 300 degrees, with good oil anything below 280 is OK.

 

This.

Nobody has EVER had an oil temperature problem until they bought an oil temperature gauge.

What is the oil temp on your car or truck?

Oh that's right...