300* 500 mile ride
- Thread starter Mavagrand
- Start date
Mavagrand
Senior Member
Spoke w/Roger McEwan. He said his gauges are not faulty and that my bike as well as other newer model Harley's can get to 300* due to the design. I advised him I would double check the oil temp with a different gauge and call him back if there was a discrepancy. As a side note, I know about the newer scoots with their EPA compliant system and I know the oil temp gauge that Harley sells reads up to 350*. What I don't know is what the recommended operating range is for my year bike (not in the owners manual nor the service manual) and what this high heat will do to the engine in the long run. I am running Mobil1 in the bike and will install an oil cooler in addition to the TFI that I have already installed. I know it has been said before but I gotta say it, I shouldn't have to spend even more money on an expensive bike in order to get it to run right. Come on, Harley, step it up!!
Service manual read 230* operating temp. this is in the 2007 book, Service Dept at the Dealer said 230* 300* should be fine when I called and asked. Just a side note to this. I added a PCIII and new pipes with a SE air filter and still read hot. I've tried a few Maps with not major cooling. so I would say don't start tossing money at it just yet. if its running fine just let it be. I may even replace all my stock parts and sell the after market stuff on ebay soon.
Mavagrand
Senior Member
This has been an issue with me since I bought the bike, and I knew about the heat before purchase. Just didn't know how hot the engine would get, and didn't realize how difficult it would be to simply obtain information on the safe operating temperature for these bikes. I've talked to three different dealers, at one, the service tech said it was too hot but then said it was "normal" after speaking with the manager. Another dealer immediately told me it was "normal", saying these bikes (07, 08, 09) are designed to run at 300*+. The last dealer waffled back and forth, unwilling to commit either way. All three recommended I buy an oil cooler, from them of course. Not satisfied, I began looking on the internet for statistics on the TC96 engine. I'm not concerned with my physical comfort as that is tolerable, I have highway pegs, just put my feet up. What concerns me is the engine. How long will my fully synthetic oil protect the engine at 300* temperatures? What other components are getting damaged by the heat? I can tell you my horn stopped working during the ride, because of the heat. It has done that one time before when I was stuck in traffic at Daytona. If these bikes are "designed for the heat" and the horn stops working, what else will fail? I have 20k in this bike and don't want to hear "it should be ok", or "I wouldn't worry TOO much about it". I'm not new to riding and understand mechanical things have issues, but this bike is less than two years old and I have ZERO confidence that the engine will last and complete confidence that the MoCo, and its dealers, will not help if the engine implodes. Im not a whiner, been on this forum for years, you guys should know that, but I am tired of dealing with this issue, like I said, its not personal comfort that bothers me it is the engine/components that I worry about.
Buy yourself paece of mind. send a oil sample to blackstone labs have them run a tbn also. make sure you run you bike before you pull the sample and have at least 4-5k on the oil, I did and my oil report came back an A+ runing syn oil. its only 30 bucks or so for the test.
wagonmaster
Member
TBN (total base number) is important, but it will fall after very few miles, regardless of what oil you use, so be ready for that.
Joe
Joe
Mavagrand...what?!!! :small3d015: Stick with your HD and check calibration of guage and sender. 300 degrees is pretty hot...since you are in hot and humid Florida, I would opt for an oil cooler too
HD motorcycles have been around a long time, the newer models do run hotter as EPA regulations tighten their grip...but the one advantage many people seem to forget is that the state of tune of the engine and materials used have all played to make longevity less of an issue...then days gone by. Air and oil cooling is simple and effective if maker does not try to squeeze out every bit of horsepower out of the machine.
Most of the other makers went to liquid cooling to squeeze out every bit of performance but also increased complexity and more points of failures. Think water pumps, corrosion from liquid cooling, water pump cavitation at high speeds, etc. Adding complexity decreases the MTBF (Mean Time Before Faillure), but also decreasing the temperature few degrees can increase run hours 5 to 7 times incrementally.
Last edited:
Mavagrand
Senior Member
Just pulled my plugs. She's running rich. Rear cylinder was black, front was black and actually had some carbon (dry) on it..I don't understand how, if it's running rich, it can still be running so hot???? Im seariously thinking about putting my Xied's back on and selling this TFI, or for this trip to Dragons Tail in two weeks, leaving them both off, just run it stock and see what the temp gets..I got about 5mos left on the warranty so now's the time to melt the engine if its gonna.