Have you got a mouse nest on the cylinder head?

The Savage gets very hot in traffic, low speed travel, or sustained interstate speeds.  I have a head temperature gauge on mine and it runs coolest at 40 - 50 mph, the highest reading I ever got was on a 1st-2nd gear gravel road session when it was 90 degrees out.

Get one of these:
http://trailtech.net/tto_temperature.html

Then you won't have to guess.

I never heard of one getting so hot that the chrome on the side covers blistered but I am relatively new to the Savage.  Unless you are riding in a manner that overheats the engine as outlined in a couple earlier replies then something must be wrong.  Any other symptoms?  Does it seem to be running lean?  Did you install the Jardine and air pod and was the carb rejetted afterwards?  Did the problem start soon after any of the mods?

Since you suspect some sort of problem you might as well change your oil and filter and take a good look at both to see if there is any metal.  And you might as well put in the oil OF recommends, good stuff.

It is an engine,... so it does get hot... (have you tried touching a car engine?... and they are water cooled)...
If she ain't loosing power dramatically, or unwilling to idle... she ain't too hot...
Sometimes you just notice these things more in summer because you're hot and you start to wonder...
...

Charon wrote on 06/28/13 at 16:19:01:


The temperature sensor on my Trailtech Vapor is mounted on the left rear cylinder stud.  Temperatures are 260-270 during 50 mph rides on 85 degree days.  If I increase the speed to 65 mph the temperature goes just shy of 290.  On the gravel road climb in 1st and 2nd gear it got to 300.  I am not sure how much of that heat makes it to the chrome covers......but I bet they are really hot if you touch them.

Until you get some form of temperature gaging that tells you a number, we can't really appreciate what your "hot as hell" really means.

You have already taken corrective action for extreme heat (T6 for your oil) so until you can beg, borrow or steal a temperature measuring device you will just have to solder on with it.

Hint:  if you were really over-cooking the engine your exhaust pipe would be a bright blue color all the way into the muffler -- is this the case ???

And yes, the engine head and barrel gets hot enough in normal use to give you a second degree (blister) burn if you grab on to it when you first stop.   The exhaust pipe goes from second degree burns to third degree (steak searing in the pan) and that is normal too.

Stop from a hard run and idle it a bit and it gets a lot worse, BTW ....

And that my friend is why I use T6 for my oil, because I sometime do silly shite that really abuses my engine up in them high mountains, and then I idle the engine some afterwards sitting all still-like with no air circulation ....  

(or with it lying on it side as the case may be)        

how hot is it?  


there are temperature sensitive markers available at welding supply shops,

different solders melt at different temps, too

http://www.rfcafe.com/references/electrical/solder.htm