At 300F plus, I would be feeling sorry for what I am doing to my motor. "thats too much" is totally up to you and how long you want your motor to last! At 240-260 you should be making decent power, at 280 you should be screaming, at 300+ you should be crying and screaming.

Amen to that... tuning for performance is not for everyone. at what price are you willing to pay for performance is what you should be asking. common sense tells me that metals in general when you heat it up will soften and expand. at 280+any metal will soften up combine that with 43000 rpm+ you can do the math. my friend do what your common sense tells you. everyone here feels that their way is the way, rightfully so in some instances. just be careful..

I don't think we posted different ways here.
I think all of us said almost the same thing!!

Tune for performance and then check the temps if they are at safe levels...that's it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's 280F on the outside. On the inside it is at least 450F degrees. I agree though that if you are running your engine over 300F then you should be cautious.

Yes Jeremy i am mad , thats why im in this business lol

There is no way you can limit an engines temp range for tuning, you tune for performance and where ever the engines temp is at peak tune thats where it like to be.. pretty simple.. If you were to tune to temp , lets say you get it to 120 deg c then change the pipe, 9 times out of 10 the temp will change, then if you change the fuel , it will change again, if you change the body , tires , surface , air filter .. all these things will change the engine temps. So that why i dont bother with it, I tune for performance only adn the logevity of my engines and that of my racing team is better for it .. Im just stating real time experience..

Anyway its a scarry thought to run engines that hot but believe me they dont mind it at all .. A well built engine should lean choke on fuel intake before it causes a malfunctoin.. it a malfunction occours running at say 140 deg c theres a good chance that the engine materials couldnt handle it.

MnM

For those that are Celsius challenged (such as myself)...

120C = 248F
140C = 284F

lol Celcius challenged ..

250f is fine. 300f is pushing it a bit!

I stopped using temp guns years ago. I only tune with spit now, as it is always consistant.

If you dab a drop of spit to the cooling head and it stays there and slowly evaporates then you are too cold. If it quickly jumps off the head then you are generally too hot. You want the spit to sizzle for about 1-2 seconds then dissapear to be within a safe range.

More important in my opinion is to remove the head button regularly and view the combustion color on the head button and piston crown. This gives you a much better idea as to whats going on inside the engine. Also you will get quick warnings to dangerous running conditions such as detonation and lean conditions.

Also look for slight wetness to the piston top. Too much oil and your too rich, and dry piston you are too lean.

Constantly removing the head button will also give you the opportunity to readjust the head clearance with shims, which is one of the most important tuning adjustments with these engines for all out performance. Just take care to always seat the head correctly and tighten evenly. And lastly, don't overtighten the head screws or you can deform the block putting pressure on the piston sleeve. This will cause pressure points and you WILL loose power and destroy your piston/sleeve set.

Just my 50cents worth!

BK

Ok I got it anyhow, I was just concerned with temps while running with the body on and comming in to refuel and the tem was way up. I think I got it now.

Hey MXWRENCH

i have friends in RC that have had way more experience than me running engines to about 350 F and have no problems. Im not meaning to go against what your saying, its quite sound advise to stay within a certain temp range but some engines just like to run hot.. some dont its hard to guage thats all..

I know I had a motor than ran 280F anything lower the motor didn't perform well and people would say the motor is too hot all I can say I still have the motor after about 3 gallons.

Go to any major race & watch the top engine tuners. Notice they never use a temp gun? I have never seem Mario Rossi, Andrea Rossi or Rody Roem use them.

if it "smells" hot and is at a screaming high idle when it comes in...... it's too hot

FWIW....... At both the '06 Nationals and '07 WinterNat's most guy's are pushing 300F with engines these days.

That's like saying that Emeril Lagasse measures ingredients.

we dont have engines named after ourselves, well... at least I dont.