I know that every motor has recomended temperature to run at but what if there is more power to be gained?I am running an axial .32 and I am running it around 250-275 but it still has alot of untapped power.My question is how much life do you knock off a motor by running it above the manufactures temp.I have not touched the low speed or mid range needles and the high speed is 2 turns from flush and the motor is still putting out good smoke.Do I take the chance of blowing the motor by running hotter or settle for less power by runing it cooler.let me know what you think.thanks

Run it up to 280-300 it'll be fine. The smoke is EVERYTHING. I know several engines that ran happily at 300+ all their lives. It's not exactly recommended though, all you'll do is shorten the life of the engine. It won't 'blow', it'll just lose compression a bit sooner. Always tune for performance, and don't worry about temps unless they are extreme.

When tuning, keep leaning it out until you notice NO increase in power...then back it off a smidge (because the last increase probably gained you nothing anyway) and you should be good to go. Then check the temps and if its running over 300 I would check with another temp gun first and if you are happy that the temp IS infact over 300 then look at richening it up a little, also check to LSN is not too lean as well.

Ive never used a temp gun in my life and every engine that I have owned is still going strong. Except for my TRX that is in pieces mostly because its Traxxas and cause it was my first motor... Dont worry about the temps unless they are past 300, each engine has its own temp range and some like to run hot...