Some of you know about my Speedominator project detailed here
. This thread details some findings with regards to engine temperature.
I have 2 temperature sensors installed, one one each head (sits like a washer between the sparkplug and the head). Normal running temperature on my bike seems to be about 193F (143C). A interesting aspect is that the rear cylinder actually runs coolor than the front cylinder, I expected it to be the other way around.
Ambient temperature around here in South Africa this time of the year is 86F(30C). While idling the temperature goes up to about 347F (175C) and seems to remain at that point. The RPM is then still around 1000.
The engine heats up very very quickly, reaching 210F (99C) by the time I am a mile away from home. During this time the RPM's have been kept at 2000 max. I suppose this is normal for an air cooled engine.
A question I have... On my speedominator I indicate the RPM redline as 3000 until the temp reaches 140F (60C) and then I gradually indicate a higher redline until it maxes out at 5200RPM. At this point the engine temp is 194F (90C). Now, seeing that this temperature is reached so quickly (on the cylinder head), can it be assumed that the oil has warmed up sufficiently too? I don't monitor the oil temp so I don't know what it is at that stage.
It just feels to me that the engine is still a bit cold by the time I indicate a usable redline of 5200, I would prefer moving the lowest temp up to 160F (70C) and the normal one (where 5200RPM redline is reached) at about 210F (99C)... or is that too high?
Sorry for the long(ish) post, but hoping some technically minded folk can give their opinion here.