Adding an oil temp guage, ideas or suggestions

Since the 550 is running really right and I need it badly to commute, I am adding an oil temp guage and then an oil cooler to monitor and prolong this XJ.

I need some ideas or suggestions:

The good:
-Have a good gauge, it's an electrical based step motor with a 1/8" sending unit (100-270F)
-Creating a mounting system for it to go above the tach/speedo.
-It will match the existing cluster in appearance and light color! Yea.

The bad:
-The 1/8" sending unit does not match the 6mm mounting hole that Yamaha used in their drain bolts.
-Even if I get an adapter (found online, none locally) the sending unit will be well out of the oil and would rely on heat transfer through the bolt, adapter and then to the unit. I'm concerned this will give a false (low) reading.

So I am considering drilling and tapping the oil pan to insert the sending unit and give it direct contact. But I only have 1 pan for the bike and I don't want to screw it up. Figuring out where to put it is a quandry (not much flat space except right below the #2 pipe). Of course I am also concerned about getting it to seal up well, it is only 1/8" so it's small but the landing beyond the threads that a gasket would go on is also small.

I know it's been mentioned on here before, but what are the allen head bolts for below the front covers? Could that be another way to do this?

Ideas and suggestions welcomed. I will post pictures and explain the process once completed to this thread so it can be used by others to do the same.

 

acewell have the adaptors ,all different sizes

http://www.acewell.co.uk/Acewell%20Acce ... /index.htm

 

If you are talking about the big round allen bolt plugs below the crankshaft/oil pump/timing covers.

Item 35 in the following
http://www.yamahapartshouse.net/pages/O ... MOTORCYCLE)/CRANKCASE_XJ550H_J_K_(XJ550H_-_1981)

Those are for the main oil feed gallery to the crankshaft, and would provide an excellent location for both temp, and pressure readings.

The big question would be getting the sending units to fit, and seal properly in that critical passage. You would have to make absolute certain that the oil flow is not restricted in any way.

Ghost

 

Since you're adding an oil cooler why not put it on the line to the cooler?

 

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the sending unit will be well out of the oil and would rely on heat transfer through the bolt, adapter and then to the unit. I'm concerned this will give a false (low) reading.
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i was under the impression that the threaded hole in the adaptor ,went all the way through, if so then the sender would be in contact with the oil, if not why not drill one through, it would be much less drastic than drilling the sump,
stu.

 

1/8 inch, as in 1/8 diameter smooth or 1/8 NPT threads taper or straight ?
what temperature would you expect to see and what would be a shut down temp?

 

Thanks for the input everyone.

Yea those plugs Ghost. From the diagram it looks like the passage is clear beyond them enough to fit the sender, that makes me think you are right that would work as long as I can get a plug that will fill the original hole and have a threaded hole to fit the sending unit.

The adapter would be hollow but not the Yamaha drain plug it has a hollow chamber that ends and on the other side is the magnetic rod for collecting metal. With the adapter 1/8NPT to 6mm, it would be way out from the oil.





I thought about tapping into the 'out' line of the oil cooler but I can't see an easy way to do it. Its a single line with compression fittings so I can't just unscrew it and drop in a tap, can I? How hard would it be to cut the hard line and plumb in a tap there? (sorry plumbing is my weakness)



As far as I can tell and from the advertising I believe it's a standard 1/8" NPT tapered fitting.



Without the cooler hooked up, I'm betting I will see around 205-220F under normal riding, 250-260 sitting in traffic, and if it went past 270F I'll either be looking to get air or shutting down and finding a nice place to chill.

With the cooler I'm hoping to see a 10-20% improvement at least.

 

It's longer than I would have guessed.

If you were to put it in the oil line you'd have to fab up something to go on the engine then attach the line to it. You need to make sure it doesn't obstruct oil flow.

Frankly, people have been riding these bikes for years without issue. You're probably wasting your time.

 

if you put it in the drain plug you'll twist up the wires each time you change the oil.
the oil pan isn't thick enough to thread into.
maybe the side of the adapter plate for the cooler.
a "R" size drill for that tap.
normal temp has to go over 212 or the condensation in the cases would turn the oil that milkey color from having water in it

 

That would be my input. How long is your commute? Mine is 120+ miles round trip; from stop-n-go to 80mph freeway and everything in between. And even in the heat of the hottest summertime, my 550 is fine.

 

here's some temps i got today after 15 miles of 70+ then 4 miles of 40ish shutdown and read within 2 minutes.
spin-on oil filter......202
head by #1 plug ...278
valve cover............251
super trapp muffler 162
4-1 collector........... 212
clutch cover............142
#4 float bowl............99
temp sensor jb welded on cam chain tunnel on head...274
ambient.....81

 

Thanks Polock! That is some good info. I'm guessing your using a IR heat gun to check those? Wow it's hot for PA today?

My commute typically is 65+ round trip. I sometimes have to cross the mountains and that is 125 one way. So far the 550 has seemed fine, but this past summer on the days when the temp passed 100, and we had about 25 of those, I can tell a difference in the engine sound and the clutch operation so I know I'm getting close to the limit. One day it was 108 and UV of 11, I could feel the heat through my boots.

It might be that I'm wasting my time, but this bike is very valuable to me now and having the ability to monitor the oil temp seems logical. With a base line established it would also let me know when things are changing that I should be aware of. All performance cars have temp, pressure, etc. gauges, there is a reason for that and these bikes are a performance machine too, yes?

 

Wait 'till you see how low your oil pressure is . . . 8O

 

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The adapter would be hollow but not the Yamaha drain plug it has a hollow chamber that ends and on the other side is the magnetic rod for collecting metal. With the adapter 1/8NPT to 6mm, it would be way out from the oil.
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you would'nt need the yamaha drain plug, the acewell adaptor screws directly into the sump plug hole "14mm" or whatever your sump plug size is, then the sender screws into the adaptor, which is then in contact with the oil..... job done. :roll:
stu

 

Ahh I see grasshopper! That was simple. And to think I'm 1/4 British and I couldn't see that.

I think the XJ550 uses a 14mm x 1.5 thread bolt, can anyone confirm that?

 

Even better thanks to you Bensalf! I think I've stumbled upon a better solution.

Cheapbay comes through again! Check it out.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/150912394867?ss ... 2649#rpdId

Going this route, replacing the oil gallery plug, the gauge won't be in the way of any future oil changes and SU wires will be well away from the headers. Looks like it would be easy to add an oil pressure this way too. Only problem is nowhere to mount another gauge!

Thanks again for the insight.

 

One word of caution on using the oil gallery plug location. The plug uses an o-ring seal, and will also need to be used with the adapter.

A good bar mount gauge pod would handle that with ease. 8)

Be forwarned. A write up with pics will be required. :wink:

Ghost

 

Good to know Ghost. Do you think looking at the adapter that it will work with the existing o-ring seal? Does it fit into a channel or just around the bolt?

If I put the XJ on the side stand can I open the right side w/o a lot of oil departing?

Yea I thought about a bar mount originally, may still go that route, but I was trying to tie it all in with the OE cluster and make it look as O as possible.

For sure I will do a write up. I searched for one on here several times and only found and old reference to a guy who drilled out the gallery plug and put in an elbow but it was from 2007 and all his photobucket photo's had vanished.

 

The gallery plug is just a flat plug with the o-ring. There should be a small groove in the case for the o-ring to seal into. I would use a new o-ring in place of the gasket shown with the adapter.

You should get little, if any oil loss of oil from the gallery plug with the bike on the side stand.

Ghost

 

The photos may still be on web archive. what was the link to the post?

Ghost

 

Ok that sounds like a plan to me, at least this way I can reverse it if need be. Thanks again.

Here's the link, it was from a member named Oldgoat in Sept 07, from the post it sounds like he did a nice mod.

http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=7 ... +plug.html

 

Thanks for the link.

I have recovered a few web sites through the internet archive. Will see if I can locate the info for this one.

Ghost

 

My sender was a little smaller, I just ran in the 1/8 tap into the M6 thread.

Been OK for 2 years and 15,000klms.