Hi Bob,

Do you think that's high ?...
My R80 hit the top of the gauge scale, i.e. over 170 celcius.
Swaped to Omega oil (= pay through the nose expensive) and it dropped to a "mere" 140-ish.
Do you have an oilcooler installed ? I have, and I do still have these rediculess tempratures.
The reply BMW AG Sweden, UK and D gives me is that 140-ish is quite normal.
I ponder and wonder; - then, how come, is it that the oil is supposed to lubricate best at about 90 degrees ?... (and, my engine ran much better, the very short time that I had the pleasure of having an oiltemp of about 90-110).


------------------
Albert Lindberg, D.C.
address removed............

[This message has been edited by Grant Johnson (edited 08 October 2002).]

Albert,

170 is ridiculous, and 140 is high.

Sounds like perhaps something is wrong. Ignition too advanced, or carbs too lean, or ???

Have you had a full service done, timing checked, looked at plug colour, valves set etc?

------------------
Grant Johnson

Seek, and ye shall find.
------------------------

One world, Two wheels.
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Hello Grant,

I know. 170 is rediculess. 140 is almost absurd. And that is with Lockhart oilcooler - I will now swap to BMW original to see if that makes any change; or do as a guy in Kenya, to mount dubble coolers.

Carbs are set leanish, nicasilcoating is "polished", no real findings inspite of 8-10 years different overhauls. And as I wrote - BMW AG top it off by stating this is normal.

I do fully agree with your reaction though.



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Albert Lindberg, D.C.

Hi,

Wow, I thought the engine would melt at 170c !!

I have the original BMW oil cooler re-mounted on the front part of the frame behind the, high, front mudguard.

The highest temperature I've seen is 130c while balancing the carbs. I turned the bike off immediately I saw this temperature and let it cool down. In normal running the highest was 120c, the ambient temperature on that day was about 75c and I was on slow moving country lanes, in 2nd & 3rd gear.

If you read the rest of this thread Grant suggests a mis-reading gauge. What gauge have you got and have you tested it ? My 'RR' gauge only reads up to 140c !

Bob..

[This message has been edited by mcdarbyfeast (edited 08 October 2002).]

I asked Oak Okleshen for his thoughts, and here's what he wrote:

Wow-Absolutely yes, 340 degrees F. is way too hot for engine oil. No ifs or buts. As one of your inputs stated, it is not uncommon to see 270F on an airhead machine without a cooler. That is precisely why BMW added the coolers. The maximum oil temperature should be no greater than 240F. The oil companies recommend 180-210 or so for maximum oil life. Some of the additives destruct almost exponentially after 220F . 240F is almost permissible for short periods of time but certainly not recommended.

340 is not only totally unacceptable for oil temperature, it is no doubt damaging to the engine. Some hardened bearings will start to soften much above 250 degrees. In short, an engine that is on the way to self destruct. Who was the person that suggested 340F was a normal or monitored temperature? Maybe he should check his temp gauge to insure it is reading correctly.

You site was interesting as were the threads on the subject. Tell them to use an oil cooler. BMW's thermostatic model starts to come on about 215 degrees F and opens up completely by the time the temperature hits about 235 deg. The hotter the oil the more the cooler fights back to cool it. Usually with a cooler you won't see oil temperatures above 240F-at the very most.....Oak


------------------
Grant Johnson

Seek, and ye shall find.
------------------------

One world, Two wheels.
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Temp conversions:

C F
--- ---
50 122
60 140
70 158
80 176
90 194
100 212
110 230
120 248
130 266
140 284
150 302
160 320
170 338
180 356
190 374
200 392
210 410
220 428


------------------
Grant Johnson

Seek, and ye shall find.
------------------------

One world, Two wheels.
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Hi Indu[/B][/QUOTE],

R1150.

On my R80/7-1984 RT converted and raised compression CC-highflowvalves dual ignition and retared 3-5-degrees ignition timing.

What I did not write in my question about high tempratures were that we did get them down in normal range with Omega 777 50W straight racing oil. 35EU + VAT/L.
From 140, with omega 757 20W/50 we did get 120-ish with oilcooler and 140-150 without.

I have helped one guy changing to 757 20W/50 in his R1100RS - oil consumption dropped and the engine were in fact hard to heat up, and would certainly not overheat.
Service intevall on this oil is 40 000km or plus. Price is 25EU + VAT /L

So if you can afford this oil - you should not be having any trouble. The mechanics / shops I consult complain about the sticky greasy slippery oil I use - hard to clean without strong detergents.

In sweden it is sold by www.smorjteknik.se you can look on internet; search word, Omega and Magna Industrial Inc., Hong Kong.



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Albert Lindberg, D.C.

I'm not very much into BMW-Technics, but would think anyone should check the thermometer either...

...if THIS IS what is going wrong all the hassle's gone...

I realize that this topic is a little old, however I came across this while searching for information about cooling my R1150GS. Currently I use the bike for everything, including my daily commute in to Manhattan. During the summer months here temps in the 90-100f range are not uncommon and a combination of heavy traffic into the Lincoln tunnel will sometimes have my bike showing all the way to the bar just below the ‘red’ on the temp gauge.
I have so far managed to keep it from going over that point by:
a) Careful management of where I am (keeping a gap between myself and the vehicles in front and riding the ‘bow wave’ of air from large vehicles such as busses in the next lane;
b) On downhill sections in very slow traffic I kill the engine and coast.

I believe that the police version of the R bikes have some kind of fan that runs and pumps air through the oil cooler and I was wondering whether these are commercially available. If anyone has any information on where I could get one of those I would be much obliged.

Barry
P.S. This heat has caused some bubbling of the paint on the rocker covers…

I've never worked on BMW's, just a motorcycle gear head.

I thought I could add a little thing to it.

1.) Grant may be onto somehting with the gauge. The boiling water method of checking tempurature is very sketchy. Water can be boiling and be warmer than 100 C. IF you under stand the term heat of vaporazation, then you could attempt a better test.
HOV definition deleted....

So, stick your temp gauge in the water. Heat the water rapidly. The temp gauge should constantly increase in tempurature. Near the boiling point the temp gauge will stop climbing even though your still adding heat energy to the water. When the temp gauge stops rising, THIS is 100 c. Also be careful of the heat source adding to your reading. IN a beer can , the heat source can also heat your thermometer. So dont let it sit on the bottom.

2.) The other function of the oil cooler is oil reservior. Simply adding an oil reservior will decrease oil temps. So this is another reason I would say leave the cooler on. If nothing else you can carry more oil with a cooler, which is always good. This could be what BMW was thinking. They may have just wanted a reservior, and they said hey, might as well fin it to help dissapate some heat.

Thanks,
TOdd Bellew