CVT Temp Guage Actuals

[AXE]

I recently put a Razorback Technology infrared thermometer on my H2 CVT, because I didn't like trying to guess what the stock was interpreting the belt temperature in the CVT exhaust outlet sandwiched between the header and exhaust.

I had a chance to make several runs about 10 miles each on a combination of desert hardpack road with some loose sand and gravel innsome areas and on paved roads. I tested with both the EVP Bad Ass Belt and the Kawasaki OEM belt. Ambient temps were 80-90F during afternoon testing. I am running the Tapp primary clutch and stock secondary with CVT cover on.

Here is what I measured on the Razorback guage compared with stock guage (approximate for my conditions). The stock guage will be showing a small amount of black somewhere between 70-90F. The stock guage begins to climb at about 100F belt temp. At about 1/4 on stock guage, the belt temp is about 140F. At 1/2, you at about 160-170F. At about 5/8 stock guage, belt temp is 180-190F. At 3/4 the stock guage starts to show a little red and your about 195/200F belt temps. As you climb into the red a little more you get to 205-215. At 7/8 and well into the red, you are at 220-230F. Basically, thats the very upper limits before you just melt the belt.

Here is a picture at the end of my run and after several hard roll ons to 75 mph on pavement. The red color on stock cvt guage is hard to see in the photo, but zoom in and you can see it. I wouldn't want to be in this range for very long, but after all my testing the belts still look good. The OEM has 300 miles of desert and dunes and the Bad Ass has 150 miles of dunes.

 

[AXE]

Some other observations! The stock guage has slow to respond on the way up, but very slow on the way down. In fact, it soaks so much heat intonl the plastic exhaust tube that when I got the belt temps back to 170F the stock guage was still well into the red. I shut it down at 165F and was still slightly red. So it works, but is not very precise and gives poor feedback under high performance running conditions.

Also, when you stop after a few hard runs, there is a huge spike in the belt temp on both guages. This is caused by lack of air movement through the CVT cover and heat soak on the belt from the sheaves. I removed the cover and shot belt temps with my hand held IR thermometer and the portion of the belt sitting in the secondary was +10F hotter than the portion between the sheaves within just 30 seconds of coming to a stop. So never stop driving if you want the belt to cool a little quicker. Once its below 180- 190F, I think you can idle it down to 160-170F and be ok.

Also a lot of heat soak on the CVT housing. The outside surface of the CVT cover was 150-160F on the primary and about -10F cooler on the secondary when belt temps were 190-200F.