Bike appears to be running hot *(as witnessed from points cover)

[rdsarefun]

I wanted to inquire if anyone has experienced what appears to be a bike running extremely warm/hot to the touch as witnessed via the points and the chain cover.  I am concerned as I can't hold my hand on it and worried that I may damage my Dyna S ignition or worst case , some sort of piston damage. Brief setup of bike is a Bill Bune trail ported RD350 cylinders, 1st size over Banshee pistons with skirt cut, head cut for squish, Dogster chambers, Banshee intake with reed spacers, Dave F carb mod, Y boot and a K&N. Dynamic timing is set to 1.8 BTDC, will verify again with dial gauge static (this long weekend) and then recheck dynamically. Does not appear to be detonating, have carb dialed in with air screw .5 turn out, 37.5 pilots, 180 main (dropped from 200 as exhaust had residual gas in silencers), needle in position #4.  Bike runs good, slight hesitation and pulls hard (especially from 6 to 9K due to porting), idles nicely.  Just concerned about heat.  This is my 6th Rd, from memory never had one that felt this hot.  The reworked cylinders are painted black (heat sink?), cylinder heads are  bead-blasted and are bare.  Am I being overly cautious?  Wanted to see from others if they have had similar concerns and how it was alleviated.  I know that gas is used to cool and horsepower is a function of heat, just concerned.  Thanks

[Striker1423]

Well, slight hesitation could mean lean. Your air screw is way out of whack compared to what the desired setting should be (1.5-1.75 turns out). Pilot is huge and the main jet is at the bottom of the range for these bikes with the Dave F mod.

My bike is at a 190 main and getting a bit of mid-throttle lean power loss. 32.5 pilot, air screw at 1.75 out on the nose. Needle will be put back to the middle from one position leaner. It's really close, but will either get a needle adjustment, or back to a 200 main.

[1976RD400C]

Warm/hot to the touch really isn't that hot, maybe 150? Put a piece of black metal in the sun for a while and you can't touch it. I know the cylinder heads can get up to 300. The points cover is going to be too hot to touch after a spirted ride, I never checked the sprocket cover, but I will next time out. I'll take an infrared thermometer and check the engine over and see what's up with my bike. Being summertime on an air-cooled bike everything is going to get hot. I don't think it is overheating unless the jetting or timing is way off and you are really cranking away with the throttle.

[m in sc]

dynas are designed to be run in fairly hot environments so i wouldn't worry about that. I have one on the kz and have run them on all sorts of big inline 4s and rds. the crank on a big aircooled inline gets pretty damn hot and the dyna takes it well. ive never had one fail from heat. 0.02

id jump to a 40 pilot and back the airscrew out a bit, get the circuit velocity better.

[rdsarefun]

Going to "reset' the carbs using some of the polling advice and comments from this thread this weekend. Thanks for the advice

[rdsarefun]

Pulled the carbs this AM, installed a 37.5 pilot with a 200 main and moved the needle clip to position 3 (center) with airscrew 1.5 turn out.  This was recommendation from Chuck Q when he machined my 350 few years back.  Fired on first kick, idled nicely and pulls good.  Slight burble at 5500, but I can power thru it. Looking at possibly selling my Dogster chambers and finding others, feel these are a bit restrictive.  Appreciate the suggestions.  Thanks

[Striker1423]

Spec II chambers for power.

[m in sc]

wait, i thought it had a 37.5 in it already? agree, specIIs make power great pipes.

[SoCal250]

This thread seems to have looped back to the jetting in the first post.

[rdsarefun]

My bad, I had 35's in it and not 37.5 pilots when I posted originally (I had this damn thing apart so many times it is ridiculous).  I used 37.5 as I did not have 40 pilots on hand. Was jotting down the combinations on a sheet of paper and recording the outcome from each setting. Originally posted as I felt the bike was running hot as compared to my other bikes, and now it seems to be "cooler" as I upped both pilot and mains now. Will verify temp with a sticky type K thermocouple and handheld reader as I have plenty from my job.  I went back to 200's as I don't have 190's,, will pull the bowl drain and put these in once purchased and retest.  The bike just seems lethargic as compared to my 73 with JL's and similar mods.  The Dogsters look decent, but with some QA problems from the vendor and performance wise not worth it in my opinion

[Striker1423]

Too bad, those chambers looked pretty sweet for the price.