mm tomorrow is a beautiful saturday to break in my savage FINALLY!!Now guess what...my temp gun is not working!!it is not showing the right reading...my hand is 31f according to it.Is there any other way i can measure the engine head for it to be around 200f,such as feeling it or something?Or am i going to have to wait? Thanks.

is the battery dead and yes. its the spit test!

Don't quote me on this but it goes like this

if ur spit is on the head and sizzles as soo as it hits its to hott, now if u spit on the head and it sits there for more than 5-10 sec its to cold, you should be able to spit on the engine and it should sit there for 2-3 seconds that means its good,

but i'm not sure, i can't find the link, i found it at!

What's wrong with spit test or water drops on your head?
I don't have a temp gun but that seems to work fine.
If it sizzles...Richen up.

Rod

Thanks guys!Ok well from what i hear for the heat cycle it needs to be around 200f,so howlong should it take to sizzle to be around 200f?
If it sizzles in 2-3 seconds how hot does that mean the engine is? Thanks guys!

Not sure exactly but that's how I run mine and friends do same and they get up and go without damaging...

Ok anypne know howlong it takes to sizzle at 200f???(since im breaking in) Thanks.

The spit test described in detail...

Spit on the head (spit is better as it has a slightly higher boiling point than water), if it goes pop and jumps right off, THEN you're too hot. It should sizzle for a couple of seconds before evaporating, that would give you a temp in the region of 250, which is fine. If it just sits and does not very much, evaporating slowly, then you are lower than 200.

There is no "need" for a temp gun to do anything on a nitro engine. All a temp gun is, is a relitivly modern tool of convience. As a matter of fact if you will teach yourself and learn to tune w/o using a temp gun you'll be a far better nitro tuner and operator than someone that is constantly worried about engine temps. Come to think of it I cannot think of one decent nitro tuning guide that has a single thing in it about tuning for temps. They all teach you to tune w/o one and then reccomend checking temps after tuning to be sure that the engine is operating in a safe range. For the first 30 years I was in this hobby there was no such thing as a temp gun, there was only the spit test. It's just in the last 5 years or so that temp guns have become the be-all, end-all of tuning on the fourm boards.

I've always operatied on the 3 - 5 second rule. Less than 3 seconds and you're too hot, more than 5 seconds and you're too cold. That's always been my rule-of-thumb anyway.

I've been around planes mostly and was new to cars. I had a friend that was into cars and insisted the temp gun was the way to go. well I couldn't afford one so I broke mine in without one. I did it by ear. No spit and no gun.
When I got my motor it was way to rich. So rich, it wouldn't stay running more than 15-20 seconds. So I leaned it a 1/4 turn and started my heat cycles. I ran three tanks that way and after that I listened to it from idle to half throttle. If it was trying to go faster at half throttle and if I felt that the richness was holding it back and I could still hold my hand on the head then I leaned it out an 1/8th turn and never more than that for a tank till I got to about a 1/2 gallon and then started going a little over 1/2 throttle to around 2/3-3/4 throttle and still listening. Also if it was sill running cool with lots of smoke after after a half gallon I'd give it full throttle for a 1/2 second and if it still bogged real bad I knew I was rich enough.
Somewhere around 3/4-7/8 I started to race tune it and it was broke in. When I took it over to my buddys place and had him put it on his gun it was running a consistent 235f. and strong. So strong that I took out three three drive axels on my first bash session amongst the other parts from bad landings.

I'd agree with that, but I'm an advocate of running an engine hot if the engine wants to run hot, I've never kept the same engine long enough for it to lose compression anyway (or I've treated my engines well). I guess since I claimed I was describing it in detail, I should have defined a 'couple' of seconds. 3 sounds about right to me too.

Ok thanks guys and i know what your saying.In a few hours im going to start it up(after lunch) and so what are anymore symptons that it is around 200f.Such as the spit boiling in about 8 secs?Could andbody possibly start there car up tune to it is 200f with a temp gun,then put some spit on the head and count howlong it takes to disapear,has anyone ever done that?Im starting at flush with all needles(maybe a little bit off) and its is going to be about 17-19 celsius outsaide,i live in melbourne,sunbury.

it sounds like ur temp gun is set on celcius and not fahrenheit. i did 31C on a converter and it said 87F about skin temp. plus since u live australia it may of been factory set to celcius.