Engine temperature gsx1100e

[_luke_]

I am wondering about engine (not oil) temperature of my 1100e 80´. Before renovation (10y ago) worked ok like it does now. But i cant remember how hot was engine. I dont have oil temperature gauge but it seem very hot. After normal ride in summer (30-35°C) i can beary tuch engine...

 

Im using Castrol Classic XL 20W-50. Pretty much new oil in engine. 

 

Are these engines that hot? Is that normal?

[HUM]

Hi
I use 10w40 from Liqui Moly motorbike oil or other brands. With an oil cooler, the oil temperature can sometimes exceed 90 - 100°.    I had a GS 1000S which, without an oil cooler, sometimes reached 120° to 140° when driving quickly... I can't say how hot the engine gets, the front head gets hotter than the cylinder, definitely very hot, well over 100° what is normal for an air-cooled engine. I think the oil temperature is important and you can keep that in check with an oil cooler….

[_luke_]

Ok so 100°C is something that is defently too hot to touch. Then i should get oil gage.... 

[TonyGee]

1 hour ago, _luke_ said:

i can beary tuch engine...

you can't touch any engine when its up too working temperature 

[Gixer1460]

2 hours ago, _luke_ said:

using Castrol Classic XL 20W-50. Pretty much new oil in engine. 

Are these engines that hot? Is that normal?

As an aside - there is no need to use 20w50 oil in this engine. There is no benefit (unless you are maybe in a desert @ 40+ deg C) and the increased viscosity leads to increased drag. 10w40 mineral was recommended back when new but modern oil technology has moved on so similar weight oil using SEMI synthetic formulation would now be acceptable. DO NOT USE Fully Synth oils - even Bike branded ones as they are too slippery for old clutch materials!

As said - any engine over 55-60 deg C is pretty much untouchable - 100 deg C is boiling water temp . . . . would you stick your hand in a kettle? An IR thermal heat 'gun' is a better tool than a gauge - just check after a ride. Sub 100 deg C and you are fine, over and either a cooler would be a good idea or halve your oil change routine so oil doesn't get 'cooked'

[rodneya]

I have a temp sender by my oil pressure switch, and on hot days going slow in traffic it gets up around 120 quite easily even with a oil cooler. spark plug temp sender is usually about 20 deg higher

Edited August 19, 2022 by rodneya
added info

[Arttu]

18 hours ago, Gixer1460 said:

 DO NOT USE Fully Synth oils - even Bike branded ones as they are too slippery for old clutch materials!

Personally I haven't noticed any problems with fully synthetic bike oils.

Regarding the temps. I think for oil 80-100°C is pretty much ideal operating range and below 120°C is still ok. If you are constantly getting over that I would start getting worried. For short periods even higher temps shouldn't be a big problem.

I haven't checked much the engine surface temperatures but the cylinder block seems to follow oil temp quite closely. I assume that exhaust side of the head will get significantly hotter. But in any case the engine at normal running temp is too hot to touch.

[Gixer1460]

5 hours ago, Arttu said:

Personally I haven't noticed any problems with fully synthetic bike oils.

Arttu, Only say as I find. Fitted a new clutch to a 1200 Bindit (fibres and steels) used Mobil One oil and clutch lasted approx 50 odd miles. It felt 'odd' from the off and eventually the fibres glazed over and it spun enough to blue all the steels! Never used fully synth again, never had a similar problem. This was a good while ago and synth oil may be better these days 'but once bitten' as they say.

[Dezza]

Aircooled engines, especially large capacity ones, get hot. if ridden regularly in an ambient air temperature of 30-35C, fitting an oil cooler would probably help. If it already has an oil cooler, fitting a bigger cooler will probably help. Using 20/50 oil under these conditions is unlikely to cause problems; I saw Steve Burns topping up his Spondon framed turbo EFE with GTX 20/50 and when asked he said he used this with no problems (PB Trick Frames Frenzy, Bruntingthorphe airfield, July 1988).

[Isleoman]

8 hours ago, Arttu said:

Personally I haven't noticed any problems with fully synthetic bike oils.

 

I have one hundred thousand miles on my Suzuki GS and 300 hundred thousand miles on my Yamaha using Mobil One fully synthetic "Car" oil.  I did use Shell Rotella Diesel oil for a time with the Yamaha but went back to Mobil One.   No clutch issues.  

With a big Earls cooler my temp gauge on the GS11 reads 210F most of the time (however those gauges aren't very accurate).  

 

[Duckndive]

My 1150 Turbo used to run at about 110 to 120F or 44 to 48C ...Hottest spot was rear of block between 1 and 2....

In contrast when it was was N/A it ran about 110 to 115F  ...........Hottest Spot was rear of block between 3 and 4  

The Oil Boiler powered turbo ran about 120 to 140F......again rear of block between 1 and 2 was hotest .."it was also running small coolers as it didn't go very far" 

[coombehouse]

On 8/19/2022 at 4:14 PM, Duckndive said:

My 1150 Turbo used to run at about 110 to 120F or 44 to 48C ...Hottest spot was rear of block between 1 and 2....

In contrast when it was was N/A it ran about 110 to 115F  ...........Hottest Spot was rear of block between 3 and 4  

The Oil Boiler powered turbo ran about 120 to 140F......again rear of block between 1 and 2 was hotest .."it was also running small coolers as it didn't go very far" 

That doesn't sound very hot at all to me.

Running efi on my katana, the cold start enrichment switches off at 65c & I regularly see temps of 140c. The sensor is clamped to the fins on the block between 3 & 4.

The maximum oil temperature I have seen is 105c on a very hot day.

I consider these temperatures fairly normal when compared to water cooled motors.

[Arttu]

On 8/19/2022 at 1:31 PM, Gixer1460 said:

Arttu, Only say as I find. Fitted a new clutch to a 1200 Bindit (fibres and steels) used Mobil One oil and clutch lasted approx 50 odd miles. It felt 'odd' from the off and eventually the fibres glazed over and it spun enough to blue all the steels! Never used fully synth again, never had a similar problem. This was a good while ago and synth oil may be better these days 'but once bitten' as they say.

As far as I know biggest risk for the clutch are "energy conserving" additives used in modern car oils. Bike oils shouldn't have these. So if you just stay away from synthetic car oils you should be on quite safe ground.