R1200S 10:40 or 20:50 - Engine Overheats in heavy traffic

[RayB24]

Last year in Toronto we had lots of hwy construction and therefore a lot of stop and go traffic. Now under normal conditions my bike doesn't overheat. But last year I had to get off the hwy and park on several occasions.

Now I was using 20:50 Synthetic oil. But would 10:40 work better. Its a thinner oil and therefore should run cooler?

This year we have more construction and the Pan-Am games during the summer so lol I will probably have the same issues..

Ray

[RIQUE]

Originally Posted by RayB24

Last year in Toronto we had lots of hwy construction and therefore a lot of stop and go traffic. Now under normal conditions my bike doesn't overheat. But last year I had to get off the hwy and park on several occasions.

Now I was using 20:50 Synthetic oil. But would 10:40 work better. Its a thinner oil and therefore should run cooler?

This year we have more construction and the Pan-Am games during the summer so lol I will probably have the same issues..

Ray

According to manual on my 1100 bike should idle no more than 5min. So if you were stuck in traffice could be normal for bike to heat up. You don't specify what temperature it was outside. Only other thing I can think of that will make your bike overheat is wrong spark plugs and not enough oil inside engine.

[ckcarr]

The oil isn't a factor. I have to think about it these days, but thinner oil is used in colder temperatures, not hotter. And, almost all people here use 10w50 Mobil 1. Living in the desert I always used 20w50 Mobil 1 V-twin when I had my R1200S & R1100S. Never had an issue. In construction (rare), I would turn the bike off. It's also not recommended to let the engine sit and idle, to even warm it up. Just start & go. Those engines need air movement to stay cool.

[Jozef Schumann]

Originally Posted by ckcarr

The oil isn't a factor. It's also not recommended to let the engine sit and idle, to even warm it up. Just start & go. Those engines need air movement to stay cool.

The man knows that of which he speaks.

J.S.

[blackduc238]

RayB24 Try the Motul. You can get it at Riders Choice and GP Bikes (it goes on sale at the show's but they're over now). I run it in my 1150RTP and it makes a huge difference. Engine runs quieter and stays cooler longer. I've been trapped in traffic at the buffalo boarder for looong periods and only had to shut down once but we were stopped for a long time at that point. Its the only brand I use on my bikes now.

[nathanmargolis]

I agree- oil is not a function of overheating even though different ones may one slightly cooler.

On an air cooled motor, overheating is a function of lack of airflow. Without an oil temp gauge on R1100S, how do you know it is really overheating?

Remember a few times hitting some horrible construction on I-45 on a R1150RT once owned with oil temp gauge running to Dallas and another time to Galveston. It did get up to danger zone but did not see any symptoms. It was 100 degree plus days on black asphalt. I would finally got off the payment to the dirt next to highway and would run between 5 to 10 mph for about a half mile and temp would drop with airflow. Doing this is against the law and had two thoughts if law enforcement pulled me over. They were to tell him bike was overheating as many cars did and could not afford a motor rebuild plus tickets are for public safety. I was not doing anything to harm public safety at those speeds away from traffic and at speeds of less than 10 MPH. If I got a ticket (which I did not), so be it. After an hour of this crap, finally got out of construction zone, got air flow, and bike would run a cool as a cucumber.

In conclusion- all about airflow on oil and air heads.

[Groceryrun]

How does one know if the R1200S is overheating ?
Does the R1200S have a temp gauge ?

[Jozef Schumann]

Yes, mine did. It was on the right side of the LCD display.

J.S.

[RayB24]

To answer some of the questions, the R1200S has a gauge and a warning light too. The gauge is your typical bar graph, but the light will flicker then go on solid until you get moving fast enough to get air over the oil cooler. Typical temps were in the 70's (22 c)
Its not an issue until you hit hwy traffic where its more stop than go. In fact it happened twice to me last year and it literally took 30 mins to travel about 3 miles. With me stopping to cool off and then restarting. Up here you can't filter. Since all the HWY users know this year will be worse than last I was looking for alternatives.

I use Mobil 1 20:50 for Vtwins. But on a Ducati forum some posters have made comment that 10:40 is thinner and therefore causes less friction, and on a higher performance VTwin oil intended for a range of VTwins like Mobil 1 might not be as good as a high performance 10:40 oil. I think I will try Motul though.

Thanks for the help. Ray

[WandererR11S]

For me, I hate riding in town, getting stuck at slow traffic lights, an sitting, now always shut my motor down, sit waiting till a green before firing up and going, filtering is not allowed here either, but I try to keep moving and ignore to some extent if I can, again shutting down while waiting for road works ect...
About to move my 11s on to 15/50 Motul 5100 semi synthetic at 30k kilometres

[PFFOG]

Shut it off start it up. My MO in those stop and go situations is when traffic starts to move wait until a gap opens, fire it up, get it moving and hit the kill switch, and coast as far as you can, motor off. Great for practicing low speed balance too.

[AZ-J]

I use Sythetic BMW 20:50 oil in my R1200S. Why, you ask?

Since we see 95 F days in March, and over 100 in May. That is why!

[SouthernYankee]

I recall (maybe dreamed it) that some R models had a fan behind the oil cooler. Maybe police models. Anyone know?

[nathanmargolis]

On hot days like this, lane splitting makes sense for airflow. Hope the law does pass here in Texas.

[Jozef Schumann]

You are correct. The 'RTP' units are fitted with fans.

J.S.

[Jozef Schumann]

Just located a photo:



J.S.

[BikerMiker]

There's this too...

The Heat is OFF (almost)

I know some have replaced the oil radiators with the OEM designed for the HP.

[Jozef Schumann]

Originally Posted by BikerMiker

There's this too...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/bmw-r1100s-r1200s-tech-forum/457083-heat-off-almost.html

I know some have replaced the oil radiators with the OEM designed for the HP.

Link is kaput

[BikerMiker]

Originally Posted by Jozef Schumann

Link is kaput

Fixed