Atc250r Inline Temperature Gauge....Options??

[Rustytinhorn]

I'm trying to prep my bike for this dune season, and have been wanting to build something for my liquid R so I can tell the engine temperature while riding. Have looked at a couple options such as measuring exhaust temperature, little heat strips you stick on the engine, and also those Trail Pro digital gauges. I found these inline temperature gauges on ebay today, but I wish they would read just a little higher. The link is: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/TEMPERATURE-GUAGE-BANSHEE-250R-ATC-TRX250R-TRX-YFZ450_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ43977QQihZ011QQi temZ320207823624QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW.

If anyone has anything on there R's related to temperature readings, please let me know. I am trying to explore my options here. Pics are definitaly welcome, as it will give me a better idea of what you have.
Thanks, Rusty.

[edog]

Rite now I am running the temp strip.Works good.

I will be putting a digital temp and tach on there in the next couple months.

[brapp]

esr (eddie sanders racing) amkes a inline temp guage i ahve used already with good results

[TeamGeek6]

Oh Lord, you opened a can of worms there!

Yes, definitely measure it. There are only two that matter:

1.) oil temp between piston and cylinder wall, must be below 400-450*F or the oil will cook
2.) combustion temp (piston crown temp) must be below about 1100*F or the piston melts (depending on which aluminum its made of)

Good luck measuring either of them.

Many use EGT probes put in the exhaust stream just past the exhaust port. Thats the only practical place to measure cylinder temps.

Radiator shouldnt go over 190F on idle, or beyond where the rad cap pukes water out. Put a sensor in the coolant overflow line, thatll catch overheating- if it suddenly jumps, that means the radiator is puking coolant out.

The average R will go around 600*F on the pipe head after a ride, depending on outdoor temps. Mine goes 170F on the pipe and around 200 on the side of the head on full hot idle, but thats a radically modified R.(extremely radically). It runs so cold I had to put a thermostat in the radiator hose to keep it warm.

Youll probably have to buy a kit, the usual is a "bead type thermocouple" which is two wires welded together on the ends. The bead goes wherever the temp si to be measured, usually through a hole in the pipe ( or the side of the head, or the coolant).

The cheap options are a digital infrared thermometer (make sure it reads up to 600 or so or itll freak out!) or "indicator crayons" which is a crayon looking thing that metal working people use to indicate metal temperature in heat treating processes.

Real real cheap, lick a finger and touch, or spit on the pipe.

[Rustytinhorn]

I can tell when my coolant temp reaches 250, cuz it boils over, makes a big mess and is a sight to see running around with steam pouring everywhere. lol.
So far I have just been trying different coolant temperatures by seeing how long I have to wait after I shut the bike off before I can fully contact the pipe. Its when I do lots of extremely steep hill drags one after another is when I tend to get in trouble, and I have no way of telling the temp. to know if its safe to run another shoot or not.
In the winter, it probably takes about 20 minutes of riding and idling before the bike ever warms up. (I'm recalling this from when it was below zero at nights.) But its the hot summer riding I worry about.
I'll look into the exhaust, as that is what a guy from accross town that races cars recommended. The other one I will look into was the Trail Tech ones where I can place a sensor in the coolant line and measure the coolant temp.

Edog, let me know how the digital temp and tach works out. Are you looking at the Trail Pro, ( I think thats what they are called). The one with the temp, tach, speedometer, riding time, and distance and whatnot?? I contacted them several months ago and the guy told me what make and model would work for the 250r, but I cant remember off the top of my head wich one it was. I think I will check back with them again just to get a confirmation to be safe.

[ccdhowell]

I recently put a mechanical water temp gauge on my Quadracer 250R.

Gauge like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/GML266-TEMP-GAUGE-HOLDER-FOR-WATER-COOLED-MOTORS_W0QQitemZ330203493342QQcmdZViewItem?hash=it em330203493342

I rode it hard for hours last Saturday and was quite surprized that the water temp never got above 170 - 175 degrees. It was cool outside, but that's not really hot. I put the in-line sensor as close to the water hose outlet on top of the head as I could. The gauge was freaking me out at first, at steady idle the gauge would settle down to maybe 170 degrees and when you blip the throttle, the gauge would react almost immediately and move to a lower temperature. Did it every time. Finally decided that my throttle blips were circulating more water and that cooler water that more recently came from the radiator was passing by the sensor.

I didn't get my gauge off ebay, got it from JLATV, but you can't link directly to a page on their website, it throughs all links to the home page.

Hope this helps,
Chris

[TeamGeek6]

"In the winter, it probably takes about 20 minutes of riding and idling before the bike ever warms up. (I'm recalling this from when it was below zero at nights.) But its the hot summer riding I worry about."

It shouldnt even get warm when the airs that cold. Last time I went ice riding (15 years ago?) it was about -10F and the engine was stone cold all the time, spark plug wasnt even warm.

[Rustytinhorn]

Thanks for the help you guys. I will look into each of those probably.