Engine Temps With And Without Lenale Cooling Fan

[Rocket J.]

No passengers for me. I even removed the passenger floorboards (those things must weigh 10 lbs each).

Thanks for the concern for my safety. I don't plan on taking readings other than while stopped at traffic lights. My primary goal is to observe temps both without and with the Lenale cooling fan in stop and go town riding to learn the effectiveness of the fan in such situations.

I got 8 temp readings today. They were all taken in town while stopped at lights. I WAS riding but stopped for the light while doing so . The laser was aimed at the base of the rear push rod tube. The outside temp while I was doing this was 92 F and overcast. I use Mobil 1 20/50 V Twin motor oil and Mobil 1 gear oil in the transmission; Harley Formula in the primary. My high reading was 109 F with an average reading of 108F. I'm thinking that's too low of a temp to be an accurate reading of my engine temp (I was expecting temps much higher). Tomorrow I'll do the same run with the Lenale fan on and check temps at the same point on the engine for, at least, a comparison of the readings I got without using the fan today..

I can hit the boot of the rear plug with the laser (although I'll have to use my clutch hand to do it) and will try doing that day after tomorrow..or soon. That was a good suggestion. The boot is much less reflective and probably will give a more meaningful reading than at the base of the push rods.

 

[Carroll B]

I have a large but old IR temp gun and there is a dial on it that you have to set for the emmistivity (sp) of the object you are reading the temp on. If this dial is not set correctly the temps are not accurate. There is a table in the book with the gun that tells you what to set the dial for. An inexpensive gun will probably not read different objetcs at the correct temp. I would think your engine should be in the 250°-350° F range. You didn't have the gun set to °C did you?

 

[biscuit]

I have the Lenale fan fitted to my Deluxe,and i also have a Zippers Digital Speedo/Tacho,which among other things also displays the cylinder head temperature.

Recently,i got stuck in traffic and i decided to check out my head temps.I have set my head temp alarm to 310 degrees because i dont like surprises.When the temp got to 310 degrees,i switched the fan on.Over the next 5-10 minutes i watched the temp fall to just over 280.Same traffic and same conditions.

Empirical data i know,but it points in the right direction and gives me a fallback position and some peace of mind.

 

[Troy1225]

Thanks for the concern for my safety. I don't plan on taking readings other than while stopped at traffic lights.

I never thought about you taking readings while stopped at a traffic light. I was picturing you riding down the road trying to get readings off the motor. LOL

I like the idea of the Lenale fan and I hope that your data will show that it helps in cooling the motor. biscuit's experience with the Lenale fan sounds promising

 

[HDDon]

I have the Lenale fan fitted to my Deluxe,and i also have a Zippers Digital Speedo/Tacho,which among other things also displays the cylinder head temperature.

Recently,i got stuck in traffic and i decided to check out my head temps.I have set my head temp alarm to 310 degrees because i dont like surprises.When the temp got to 310 degrees,i switched the fan on.Over the next 5-10 minutes i watched the temp fall to just over 280.Same traffic and same conditions.

Empirical data i know,but it points in the right direction and gives me a fallback position and some peace of mind.

Empirical data or not it looks as though the Lanale will bring the temp down, which is what we are all trying to do when we purchase coolers and fans. Thanks Biscuit

 

[Jim B.]

I've had the LeNale fan for about a year and a half. I turn it on whenever I'm stuck in traffic. I feel quite a lot of hot air being blown away from the engine when I turn it on. I also have an oil cooler. The oil cooler helps keep the engine cooler when I'm moving and the LeNale fan keeps the engine cooler when I'm moving slow or stopped.

I haven't taken any formal measurements to determine the exact extent of the cooling produced by the fan and the oil cooler. I can say that my oil temperature gauge never goes over 235 even if I'm riding slowly in 100 degree weather.

 

[Rocket J.]

Great info about the fan. Cylinder head temp running cooler with the fan blowing is very encouraging. Yeaaaaah, those temps of 200+ degrees (F, by the way) was more what I was expecting to see with my engine temp measurements. I have a cheaper thermometer which doesn't have a calibration dial for the types of surface. Oh well, I still should be able to compare the readings with and without the fan blowing. The readings seem to be consistent (within a range of a few degrees) even if they do seem very low.

Today I ran the exact same route with the fan blowing. The outside temp was 92 degrees and it was partly cloudy. I took 6 readings with an average reading of 97 degrees F. All of the readings were within 3 degrees F of each other. That's 11 degrees cooler than the identical run without using the fan yesterday. I could probably drag my old basic statistics 101 textbook out to see if that difference is statistically meaningful, but 11 degrees cooler certainly intuitively seems like the fan works.

This weekend I'm going to take some readings using the (warmed up to operating temp) bike in my driveway, at the idle with a stopwatch to measure consistent times at idle before the temp measurement.

I'm thinking, tentatively, that the Lenale fan does cool the engine. The extent of the cooling is still to be determed by gathering more data.

 

[Bodeen]

I have a large but old IR temp gun and there is a dial on it that you have to set for the emmistivity (sp) of the object you are reading the temp on. If this dial is not set correctly the temps are not accurate. There is a table in the book with the gun that tells you what to set the dial for. An inexpensive gun will probably not read different objetcs at the correct temp. I would think your engine should be in the 250°-350° F range. You didn't have the gun set to °C did you?

Being in the HVAC field, I can tell you that the accuracy of these IR's leaves a lot to be desired. The other issue with them is that you are lead to believe that you are taking a temperature in a spot as small as the IR dot. If you read about the particular model of gun you will find that you are probably taking the temp of a very large area depending on distance from surface being measured. For comparison purposes such as this its great. I've seen guy's hang their hat on what their brand new shiny IR tells them and they have been wrong a lot.

Bodeen

 

[Spade5]

Thanks for the post Bodeen. I don't have one but was wondering how it could read just the dot area.

 

[Rocket J.]

Good info about the IR thermometer, Bodeene. Today was 96 F here with a heat index of 101. I don't have any new readings to report other than I did touch the area on the engine where I took the temperatures. At my first stop today I shot the laser at the same point at the base of the rear push rod tube and got a temp reading of 101 F. I'm thinking the reading is very low and that my engine is probably more like 280 F, or so, but... more measurements come up at 101 F. I learned a long time ago not to touch a hot motorcycle engine, but I just had to know. I first just lightly tapped my index finger on the block at the base of the rear push rod tube and it wasn't really hot. I touched it again and held it there and decided that the 101 F temp felt correct.

I'm going to save my $ to replace that useless, idiotic air temp gauge on my dash with an oil temp gauge. I'd really like to know the status of my oil temp when using and not using the Lenale fan.