The Dog-O-War now has a temp gague with special thanks to and old friend who graciously rolled her BW camper so I could have it. Thanks Jen.

Now it hooked up and calibrated (boiling water = 100c ... Temp gauge reads 100c) The sender is a dipstick type. Now with some offroading, highway and urban travel I've noticed it never gets out of the low red and into the green between 100 and 125c. It constantly reads 60, and 70c on a warm day.

Is this ok?
Do I need to do anything?
If not, what do I need to do?

I honestly thought it was running hot and was worried about the hot dunes and hard work on the motor but it seems fine.

Comments / Suggestions.

Hmmmmm.......dunno just seems wrong. 60 is just TOO low....even 70.
You have a Baja though ...... that "could" be keeping it low.
But even on these last couple of days you are reading that low?...... WOW!

Go for a blast......then pull the dip stick...can you hold it?

You running an oil cooler somewhere you forgotten about?

Why did you think it was running hot? Did it "smell" hot?

:puke

Way too low, this won't even boil off any water in the oil... at least that's my understanding. I thought ideally it should be above 100, around 115??

Cheers
Steve

Their is a full flow of air over the engine and the carb is in need of a new kit as I melted most of the rubbers with Carbi cleaner. It does smell hot and the air coming off it is warm but not how when at idle.

I though mabey the sender isn't in the oil when running perhaps because of the circulation but even when I shut it off and torn the ignition back on there is no change. I know the temp sender is working Ok cause I testeded it twice with boiling water and watched it go down as the water cooled.

Can't figure it out. It's going to my mechanic soon but I thought it would be interesting to get the Fourms opinion first. Ideally 100 to 120 is the best running temp. I'm running Castrol 10w30 oil at present.

Bronze, I reckon your right about the sender not being in the oils when its running. Can you plumb a sender into the block were the oil light switch is. Then it will have oil flowing over it all the time. This is the set up I have in my 57. Just bought some brass fittings from the NZ Hose Doctor shop. I have a spare 120degree VDO screw in sender if you want one. U2U your address to me and I'll drop it in an envelope for you.

my 1641 will never reach 100 degrees and i use a dipstick temp sender. it has the doghouse factory tinware and stock oil cooler. i can cruise at 80 to 85 mph and sits on around 90 to 95 degrees celcius. the secret i have found is my whale tale which i have many holes cut in.
placing a temp guage in different places on your motor will give different readings. i have found the dipstick sender to be most acurate

one thing to remember is that oil temp can be low but head temps can be high at the same time, its best to get a Cylinder head temp gauge as well as an oil temp.

eg. going up a hill in a higher gear (lower RPM) will make your oil temp lower as there is less friction, however your heads & combustion chamber temps will skyrocket (due to high load), there is some overlap as the closest oil gets to the chamber is the backside of the piston and the valve guides, however the amount of heat transferred to the oil from these areas isnt really all that much.

When running higher RPMs, there is much more friction, and less load so the opposite occurs, although there is also an overlap here as the faster spinning fan puts more air thru the heads and the oil cooler.

really hot oil and low RPM's can also cause oil pressure problems.

Thanks for the input guys. This has really helped me out in understanding better what is going on temp wise. Thanks for the offer 57 but I think I'll decline for now. Keep it because you may be able to give it to somebody who can put it in straight away whereas I can't.

Presently I have a dipstick sender which should be constantly in the oil anyhow. At least when I've stopped and at idle. Today was a 40c day and it actually got up to 95 degrees which is the highest it has ever read. I brough it up when I was talking with my mechanic yesterday and he pretty much raised the same points you have all listed here. Especially the head temp gauges which seems pretty scary stuff.

I was under the assumption 100 - 125 was the opt temp (judging by the gauge)to be running at and mabey the air plumbing was staying open allowing it to run too cold. Apparently 50 - 60 degrees is good and as a baja it will naturally run a little colder than a fully shrouded dacker.

Probably my biggest fear not is having some bastard pinch my dipstick sender. For that reason I'd probably like to eventually swap to an in sump / block sender when I have the space to do such a job.

Cheers chaps.

I would turn my engine off if it got to 110 deg C.

The highest mine has got to is 100 deg C.

The guage shows optimum temp 100-125 because it is a water temp guage.

My usually runs around 70-80 in summer. 60-70 in winter and sometimes colder. I have explained all this temp stuff before somewhere, but the post is probably gone now. Basically those temps are OK.

No worries Bronze, I have ended up with 2 of them and neither are any good to me as the VDO senders are not compatible with the Motor Meter temp guage I have in the 57. Took me two tries to work this out. The VDO sender unit is wired in reverse to guage. ie. hot is cold and cold is hot. If I swap the wires around it still does reads the same. The MotoMeter sender has low resistance cold and high hot, were the VDO unit has high cold and low hot.
So if you change your mind let me know, cause I have one blocking the extra in the block and the other lying in the bottom of the tool box.

If any one has a MotorMeter temp sender guage I'd sure like to hear from them.

Hmmmm. I was pretty sure Aircooled engines ran hotter than their watercooled counterparts. I'm glad I didn't bet on it.

Thanks for the advice and offers gents.

Interestingly after this string started we have had some really hot days here and it actually got up to 95 with the outside ambient air road temp at 40c.

I would like to invest in a couple of head temp gauges but their is more important stuuf that need to be done first like Tranny mounts, engine seals and a decent paint job.

The Bronze.

I think it was Ryhs that said " dont repaint, it takes away the Character ".

The paints so thin the fibreglass is showing on the bonnet ridges. I tried to get paint matched but they guy couldn't get it right after four tries so we gave up. He wasn't impressed. Sal wanted to jump the counter and do it herself.

Anyhow, I hate the orange. I will still keep the 70's theme but want a few coasts of gunmetal grey over the top before I do. I would like to put the Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon image down the sides which is a line of light going into a prism / pyramid and scattered rainbow exiting the other side.

Never been a fan of Orange, Red, Brown or any similar hues. Grey is it sorry folks.