09-13-2021, 10:12 AM
Probably not relevant here but I'll mention it.
My long gone Harley Softail was programmed to kick into high idle if the oil temperature got above a preset limit. The idea is that with the engine on the brink of overheating they want oil circulating faster to cool the engine. Given that I'm sure that they've tested this thoroughly and it works as an emergency measure, it kind of surprised me to read about this in the manual because I would have just assumed that higher rpms automatically meant higher temps, but then this is the idle speed and the engine isn't running under a real load when this happens so I guess it makes sense. It had happened to me a few times on that bike and once traffic got moving and the engine cooled down the idle speed would go back to normal.
My long gone Harley Softail was programmed to kick into high idle if the oil temperature got above a preset limit. The idea is that with the engine on the brink of overheating they want oil circulating faster to cool the engine. Given that I'm sure that they've tested this thoroughly and it works as an emergency measure, it kind of surprised me to read about this in the manual because I would have just assumed that higher rpms automatically meant higher temps, but then this is the idle speed and the engine isn't running under a real load when this happens so I guess it makes sense. It had happened to me a few times on that bike and once traffic got moving and the engine cooled down the idle speed would go back to normal.
