Oil temp/oil cooler question

[IanFrancisco]

I have an aftermarket oil temp gauge in place of the dipstick. It was installed by the PO. Cruising under 60 it reads around 200-210 degrees Farenheit. If I work the bike a little harder the oil temp goes up quickly. Yesterday doing some moderate canyon carving in 90F weather got the temp up to 250F. Scary! 8O When the motor was this hot rolling on the throttle at 3500 or 4000 in higher gears caused some nasty rattling so I cut my ride short and filled up with premium 91 octane. The rattling went away but to be honest I didn't try the low-rev roll-on test again, I just wanted to finish my ride with the motor intact.

I have gone thru the carbs and raised the float height to get them running a little richer at mid-throttle openings. These carbs have no way to raise the needles. The needles can be lowered to lean out the carbs with a spacer that was installed at the factory and removed by most savvy owners. Idle and wide open work great. See previous posts. Running stock airbox, filter, exhaust and jets. Running 10-40 full synthetic. I have not gone thru the ignition system yet, spark is a little weak but as prev. mentioned, idle and wide open work great as does mid-throttle running now.

Should the bike be running this hot? A little old GS450 shouldn't need an oil cooler, or should it? I've been watching this forum for a while now and have never read anything about anyone adding one to these 450's...

 

[retrex]

Oil temp woes

Oil temp woes

Ian, I don't think that the 250 degree temp is out of line for a high reving 90 degree run. The temp in the nether regions of your bike's engine are probably even higher. Ambient temp plays a big part in cooling. If it is 90 vs 70 your oil temp is 20 degrees higher than it normallly is due to the effects of hotter air temp on the cooling ability of the air. So if it were 70 degrees out then the oil temp would be around 230. Definately not a high temp. Would I worry, probably not. You are doing good by running synthetic, don't go to a higher viscosity than recommended as this causes an increase in oil operating temp in itself. I don't think a 450 prduces enough heat to break down synthec oil. You can put an oil cooler on the bike but unless you install a thermostat you may run too cool which is probably far more damaging to your engine. I have an 11 with a cooler. I don't have a termostat, but I know that my engine produces enough heat to warrant one without it. Suzuki knew this too when they made the bike that is why the thoughtfully proved aftermarket oil cooler galleries in the block itself. No oil cooler, but the place to attach it to. Ha Ha. Good luck.

 

[gspaul]

No Ian ,the 450 does not require an oil cooler , it's not that it's not a large motor it's because it's not in a high state of tune.
But I have to ask ,as stated why would you want to lower the needles to lean out the mix. Could be just a typo thought I would ask anyway.

 

[tfb]

Oil temp gauges are a great idea until you find out how hot your engine really gets. 8O I fixed the temp. gauge on a GS1000S once, and regretted it ever after, because whenever I parked at the traffic light the needle would rise and rise and it just became a source of worry.

Just make sure your jetting is right, that there are no inlet manifold leaks, that the air filter is clean and installed, and then trust that the Suzuki engineers got it right. Which they almost always did, with the grand exception of the charging system. :lol:

Mike.

 

[IanFrancisco]

No Ian ,the 450 does not require an oil cooler , it's not that it's not a large motor it's because it's not in a high state of tune.
But I have to ask ,as stated why would you want to lower the needles to lean out the mix. Could be just a typo thought I would ask anyway.

Well, no one but the factory wants to lean out the mix, and probably not even the factory except that the EPA mandated the bikes put out less emissions in 1980, so Suzuki put in a spacer to get USA-bound bikes lean enough to get past the EPA knowing full well that most owners would promptly discard it and make the bike run as originally intended. Something us Yanks have to deal with, and bikes bound for California have even more stringent standards to meet. We can't even register an old bike in CA if it has less than 7500 miles on it. By law, it's considered new and must carry the EPA sticker that shows it to be CA-compliant. Thankfully Calif. hasn't required emissions testing for older street bikes yet. Oddly, they do for off-road bikes. A "red sticker" means the bike can only be ridden offroad 9 or 10 months of the year while a green sticker allows for year-round access.

Thanks for the input gentlemen! I'm not even sure the temp gauge is accurate as it's not long enough to dip down into the oil. It's more like an "ambient-air-temp-in-the-crankcase" gauge than an oil temp. I don't think it even gets splashed with oil much, it's never wet when I remove it, which is usually when the bike is cold.

 

[Anonymous]

Out of curiosity, what brand of synthetic do you run in your 450? Is it a motorcycle-specific oil?

 

[IanFrancisco]

Well, I lucked out and found Mobil 1 10-40 for motorcycles at the local AutoZone. Not cheap at $8/quart but what the heck, the old girl's worth it I figure. I went to get some more since she seems to be using a little. It's not dripping out nor is there any visible smoke but we've had some hot weather so... ? Autozone no longer carries it so I'll be looking elsewhere for it. Got a quart of Valvoline 10-40 for bikes (dinosaur juice) for topping off purposes in the meantime.

 

[BigMattyD]

My 450GA has a factory-mounted oil cooler. I do not have a temp. gauge, though, so I don't know what the oil temp is.

I am looking for an inexpensive oil temp gauge, can't find one yet...

I think the fact that I have an automatic is the reason for the oil cooler. I believe that the torque converter heats up when it is not rotating at the same speed as the engine. The engine oil helps cool the torque converter, thus more oil cooling is needed.

Matt

 

[IanFrancisco]

I think the previous owner adapted a "dipstick replacement" oil temp gauge designed for a Honda 750 to the Suzuki dipstick. He had to sacrifice the OE dipstick, machining it out and gluing the gauge in with some sort of white glue. Since the gauge is too short to actually dip down into the oil he made a dipstick from heavy wire with some marks filed on it. Since I didn't trust the accuracy of this "fabrication" I bought a dipstick on eBay and use that. Interestingly enough, when I do an oil and filter change and add the desginated 2600ml (2.7 quarts) of oil I have to screw the dipstick down to get the oil between the marks (this is after running the motor to fill up the new filter). The other bikes I have owned specified not screwing the dipstick in to measure the oil level.

I wonder if the GS450GA oil cooler could be used on a regular GS450 and if so would it keep the oil too cool?

Checked the pics in the above link and see a left hand lever. Is that for the rear brake, scooter-style? Does it lock to act like a parking brake?

 

[chrissinc]

I don't know if this helps you but my GS750EF usually runs around 80-90 degress celcius warmed up. The highest I've seen is 102 Celsius. There is a mark at 100 degress celcius on my factory oil temp guage which I assume is normal temp. 100 degress celcius is 212 degress fahernheit.

 

[BigMattyD]

The left lever is the "parking" brake lever. it actuates the rear brake, and locks into place with the oval button that you see on top of the lever.

The bike will roll whether or not the transmission is in gear, so this brake will hold the bike still.

Usually, I just put it on the center stand, so I don't use the parking brake.

Matt

 

[chrissinc]

It's still very bizarre to me this automatic schtick. Am I to assume it only has two gears? Low and Drive(?). It's like those old 2 speed automatic trannys on an early 60's cars. Do you still use the gear shift lever. I assume down is in gear, up is neutral? Weird but wonderfull technology.

 

[BigMattyD]

There are 3 gear positions on the automatic. Neutral, low, and drive.

Neutral is all the way down, 1 up is low, 2up is drive. very simple.

The transmission utilizes a torque converter which connects the engine output to the transmission, and a manually shifted two-speed gearbox.
Low can be used at lower speeds for higher torque and acceleration, or you can leave it in drive all the time, but it takes a bigger twist of the throttle to get going, and the acceleration isn't as brisk.

There is no clutch. The N-L-D gear change is accomplished by a dog gear that slides left and right on a shaft, engaging either the low or drive side of the gearing, or ir stays centered and disengaged in neutral. To shift gears, you back off the throttle, and select your gear, then back on.

Matt