this last week, while riding the Smokies i noticed my oil temp gauge ran much hotter in the higher elevations....any of yall got a answer as to why

 

I have a couple theories - thinner air makes the cooling system less efficient while the motor is working harder to produce the same horsepower (lower air pressure - we compensate by opening the throttle more to produce the same amout of power). Speed limit may also be reduced, again, affecting the efficiency of the cooling system (air/oil). I doubt if either is correct, but, couldn't resist a shot .

 

My initial guess is that you were simply working the motor a little harder than you would around here ~ climbing mountains, etc....

How hot was "hot"?

Also... how did it run on the trip? Did you ever find yourself wishing for a larger TB? [8D]

 

welp...i think retired ted is onto something...as for how it ran...like a scalded *** ape....it did however pop lots at higher elevation when i was going down an incline....it seemed to "hunt" for idle tune lots and at one point would not idle AT ALL...but that cleared up....one of the men on the ride had a RK with a 120" Jims and i pulled him with my little TB...he thought he had a hot motor, maybe it just needed a tuneup or somethin

my SONY VAIO burnt up so's my time here for acoupla weeks will be limited

 

Hey Bryan - did you by chance stop and restart your engine when you were at maximum altitude? Just a hunch - I think our engines only calibrate during the short time the engine lamp is on before we start - just curious.

 

Byan,
Experienced the "would not idle at all" myself yesterday in 80+ temps and high humidity, once the oil temp got above 240. Sat in a long line of traffic barely moving for a half an hour. Bike got real hot. I am wondering if the DTT is sensing the heat and somehow trying to compensate? It almost felt like it had vapor lock, as had to feather the throttle to accelerate, had to keep the throttle rolled open at stops, and pinged like a mother for a few miles, then started to get better and about 15 min. later was perfect.

Any thoughts?

 

Does the DTT replacement ECM have the same heat management programming that the HD ECM has?

 

No Carl, it does not, but symptomatically it sounds similar....

 

yes Ted i did restart it at altittude, allowing it to relearn and settle down...and Dalton, same stuff here as happened to you, exactly

 

I have posted this problem in another forum also to get maximum exposure and haven't gotten a response other than it overheated. I still think the DTT was trying to compensate for the heat and started to lean everything out and after getting moving again, then relearned and everything settled down. Possibly we may need to enter a zero or one in the BLM tables in the idle range to keep anything from changing once it is where it belongs. I am going to call Daytona tomorrow and see what they have to say.

I do know the bike was really hot, since building the engine heat has not been an issue, but idling this long the back of my thinghs were cooking, so between the oil temp gauge and my skin thermometer, the engine temp was very high.