In another post I asked about the value of an oil cooler. Flashback responded that they did no good when at a stop in trafic since you are not moving. I understand the comment, but those of us old enough remember the radiators in school in the winter. those babies stood still with no fans but they put out the heat!! after all the oil pump is still pumping. Any thoughts?

You will get some heat convection even if you're not moving. However, the benefit in lowering your oil temp. would be negligible. The only way an oil cooler (like a radiator) does much to alter the temperature is if there's air moving across the area of heat transfer. That's why radiators used for transportation have a fan that kicks on when there's no air moving across the fins.

M7

IMHO we don't need them. Relatively speaking the R* runs cool. Check out the length of your oil lines, they allow for cooling.

I ride with a buddy who has a HD dresser and in hot weather you can feel the diference 4 feet away - his is hot as hell & mine's not.

If it's too hot out, find a bar and don't have a beer. burp

I have heard good and bad. I probably am going to install a jagg. in the interest of science, here is what i will do. Pick a 90 degree day(no problem in houston)
ride a 15 mile course with some lights. when i get home measure the oil temp in the dip tube. start it up and let it idle for 20 minutes and measure again. Then i will install the oil cooler and repeat the above, trying to pick a hot day and same trafic and course. i will report when done. that way it may help to let other riders make a choice. any other suggestions to make this a fair test?

If the bike is truly running hotter than it is capable, and lowering the oil temp would save some engine life. the possibility of putting a fan on one of the oil coolers is an option, as computer fans are available in 12 volt and come in multiple sizes that may fit the cooling fins... a little engineering add a ignition relay and you should have the first fan cooled oil cooler on the market.
I live in Michigan you can send the royalty checks to lol...
not to many hot days here.

I like your idea of the computer fan mounted on the oil cooler. Could add a thermostat too. Here's something I read in a recent cycle mag, with extra oil lines, plumb the oil through the engine guard (I still call them crash bars). It would increase the oil capacity and surface area out in the wind, but one downside would be HOT engine guards. How hot does the oil get anyhow?

The R* engine oil is circulated through a separate tank along oil lines and into the transmission area and clutch .. comes into contact with enough cooling surfaces...as well... the engine cooling fins are more than adeqate


I think the need for an oil cooler is marginal...even in the hottest of conditions...

heres some info i stole from a harley site, about oil temps. The function of an oil cooler is to obviously cool oil. However there are factors involved that make the previous statement a little more complex. A TC88 uses engine oil for lubrication as well as for internal cooling of the lower cylinders and piston bottoms. In this modern age of internal combustion engines maintaining proper heat ranges of engine parts leads to longer life, lower emissions and better mileage. When oil temps rise above 230df the detergents and additives begin to deteriorate and loose effectiveness. As the temperature increases the longevity of these additives decreases. At about 300df the additives are all but oxidized and the oil has little lubrication qualities left in comparison to the lubrication available at 200df. By 400df petroleum oils are oxidizing, thickening, and volatiles are boiling off causing part of what is known as "oil consumption". This causes the volume of oil to decline and heat to rise even more. This makes the problem of excess heat carried by the oil even greater. Add to this the oil is now coating and baking on to most of the internal engine parts creating the first layers of varnish and sludge. Piston rings begin to collect the super heated oil and carbon forms from the oxidized oil leaving rings to freeze and loose their sealing properties.

If oil is kept too cool it can have detrimental effects as well. Oil below 212df will not boil off acids that form during combustion and condensation. Oil below 212df will vaporize acids more slowly than boiling however the process becomes slower as temperature drops. Below 150df oil has not thinned properly to provide for optimum lubrication and has a slow acid vaporization. Oil below 50df may not be thin enough to provide adequate flow through passages or may even promote moisture or condensation depending on ambient weather conditions.

Synthetic and multiviscosity oils give the greatest range of proper lubrication. Synthetics add almost 100df to the range of oil usability compared to petroleum plus are pourable to below -50df. Hope i didnt break any rules

rdunbar
I have an oil cooler, before installed the bike shutdown in traffic after about 1 hour. When I installed it was first for looks, second a challenge to see if I could put it together for much cheaper than a jaggs. Buck sells an oil filter cover and I believe he says it will lower oil temp 30%, but I have not compared mine. I can only say I went to Main street during bikeweek and was stuck in traffic for about an hour and half with no issue. My buddies R* and 2 Ultras both shutdown. This is a fairly inexpensive Chrome addon ($110 when I did mine)

Hope this helps
Steve

Good info there loadmaster,thanks.