Unofficial Royal Enfield Community Forum
Royal Enfield Motorcycles => Bullet Iron Barrel => Topic started by: cyrusb on November 26, 2007, 08:41:42 pm
-
Since it seems that the plunger oil pump has caused a few problems, I was wondering if there were any gauge kits out there? I know that a plunger oil pump caused the demise of my '68 triumph daytona 500. I was thinking of tapping out one of the head oiling banjo bolts to fit a 1/8 pipe pressure gauge. At least I can check on the health of the pump now and then. Anywhere else gets complicated, and I'd like to keep it simple. Thoughts?
-
You could plumb one in there, but I wouldn't expect to see much pressure. These systems work more on moving a volume of oil at low pressure. There was a fellow who installed one on the yahoo forum a while back. You could probably find it in the archives there.
-
Does anyone know what the average oil pressure for these bikes is? I hope the shop manual I ordered has this spec. Anyway, there has to be something readable there.It looks like if you do the rear one with a weatherhead 45' it will put the gauge right in front of the choke lever, where you can see it from the seat.. I looked around and the harley guys have some nice little ones in some low ranges.
-
This just in, according to the enfield oil consumption video oil going to the rockers is scavenged from thecrankcase and is on its way too the sump via the pushrod tubes. A gauge there would still report on the pumps condition because if the feed pump was not working there would be no scavenge oil,and if the scavenge pump was not working you would have a smokey tailpipe. Still, I think I want the feed pressure, maybe the pump cap? Shop manual comes on friday.
-
True story
We made some oil pressure gauges back in 1999. After testing them we decided not to sell them because we were afraid of scaring people. The Royal Enfield runs on volume, not pressure and often times has pressure approaching 0. This is normal. 1-2 lbps is all you need. The pumps themselves when connected directly to a gauge will blow the gauge they make so much pressure (we found this out the hard way when the testing dyno for our blueprinted timing covers was designed). But unlike an automobile which has very tight bearing clearances to control pressure the connecting rod on the Bullet is more of a bushing, so volume is what you need.
-
Ah, interesting, I'm guessing the pulses from the piston pump must beat the heck out of the gauge. As far as the low pressure is concerned, it doesn't scare me, most old harleys had almost 0 also, especially when hot.But its not knowing the most important fact of engine operation that bugs me.
-
Yep, my ironhead sporty reads "zero" on the gage when hot, my RE would probably read the same.......Dew.
-
My Kawasaki KZ750 had a shell bearing engine - just like automotive engines. And had a 10,500 RPM redline.
I installed an oil pressure gauge and at cold start up it would read 55 lbs of oil pressure. But after the warm up period it would drop steadily till it settled on about 15 to 20 lbs of oil pressure at hot run - even up to redline.
My dealer said don't worry about it - and those onboard motorcycle oil pressure gauges were more cosmetic than anything. The dealer technicians had accurate test gauges and, anyway, my engine was within parameters.
Regards, Foggy
-
DVM, one of the accomplished Bulleteers in the royalenfield yahoo group (who has since sold his Bullet), used this option on his 65... he tapped the quill bolt and mounted the pressure gauge there.
As Kevin already said, when warm, the gauge showed almost 0 psi at idle, and would bounce up to around 30 psi when running. I recall he didn't think it provided any additional info on the status of his engine, he did it mostly as an engineering exercise. Looks pretty nice, though... let's see if I can get the image to attach.
Mike and Stumpy in Michigan
[old attachment deleted by admin]
-
It seems to me that an oil pressure gauge would be kinda useless with the low pressure. I wonder if there would be some sort of way to install a glass inspection tube on the oil feed line going to the head so you could see the flow is good. Might be a little more useful than a pressure gauge that almost always reads 0. Someone who is really creative could put a thermometer on it to to check engine temperature as well.
-
Is the oil light in your car just cosmetic?, if it came on would you just ignore it? Those usually come on at 5 lbs. who cares if the pressure reading is usually low, at least you have some indication that the darn thing is still working. By the way I like the dripping sight glass idea.
-
Is the oil light in your car just cosmetic?, if it came on would you just ignore it? Those usually come on at 5 lbs. who cares if the pressure reading is usually low, at least you have some indication that the darn thing is still working. By the way I like the dripping sight glass idea.
Then I think you might like this...
you can see the oil drip down and splash around...
you can also see the pushrods go up and down and spin....
looks cool in the summer but in cooler weather the oil kind of fogs up the inside
till it gets good and hot.
- Mike
[old attachment deleted by admin]
-
Baird4444,
What did you use to make that? That's pretty impressive.
-
That made me ;D
Looks just like you forgot to put something back on after a tappet clearance setting session doesn't it? :o
Make a few people talk and point at it eh?
Perspex or Makrilon?
-
Is the oil light in your car just cosmetic?, if it came on would you just ignore it? Those usually come on at 5 lbs. who cares if the pressure reading is usually low, at least you have some indication that the darn thing is still working. By the way I like the dripping sight glass idea.
My Kawasaki had an oil pressure light.
And setting right here beside my computer desk is an Auto Meter Cylinder Head Temperature gauge in the box. It's the professional one including the accurate thermocouple.
There would be issues on mounting to the handlebar. And there would be issues with the wiring. It's range is 140F to 340F.
It would be more useful than an oil pressure gauge on the Enfield. But don't know if I'll ever mount it.
Regards, Foggy
-
The first pic is of Horst Koch's Rennfield in Germany. His specs are as follows
Hi Mike,
the tappet cover was made by a friend of mine. But I can give you the
infos, even if I did´nt made it :-).
thickness: 8mm
hole dia: 8,5mm
gasket: cork and nothing glued to nothing
gasket2: an o-ring at the inner axle
Have fun
Horst and his Rennfield
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
this is a pic of mine. I used 1/4" lexan cut the same height and width as the cover. Centered the hole. To round the edges I just worked down on a bench grinder; coarse then fine. Then polished with a polishing paste... easier than you'd think. I cut my gasket From 1/16" rubber gasket material; Cork would do better, rubber was flimsy,,,. Found a thick O-ring to seal nut. Wound up cracking so I changed back... should try again as I have about 6 blanks to work with. I'm thinking this would be a good setup for you being in the tropics and all. Here in Illinois I ride when it is in the 30's and 40's so long as it is dry.
It really does look cool at a stop sign with the rods going up and down and spinning... oil splashing off the glass...
- Mike
[old attachment deleted by admin]
-
That cover is perfect! Lexan here I come.