Or, when ducking walking the bike in heavy traffic, I could just lean over and blow on the engine.
good idea lol that would reduce the temp as much as those ridiculous love jugs. How could anyone expect two little computer fans blowing on one side of the motor to do any good
I have several oil coolers... sitting in a box, in the shed. When I buy a used bike with one on it, I add it to my collection box. I don't remember ever seeing a harley engine severely damaged from not having one. Seen a few locked up from having a cooler that started leaking though.
The engine may be a little more worn than if it had a cooler.
I have built stroker 106 that can get hot. While stuck in heavy traffic with no option for splitting, the bike has actually gotten so hot it started to misfire. This has happened probably 3 times since the new build. The problem with an oil cooler, they do not work without airflow. In the few instances where I had heat issues...an oil cooler would not have made any difference.
An update, since this is an old thread...., I blew up the 106 and now have a 120R in the bike. It runs cooler than the stroker and have never noticed any heat issues.
Of every bike I’ve ridden through the years I’ve noticed very little airflow behind the wheel. On my 2016 RG the oil cooler is directly behind the wheel, inches from the ground. Poor placement, IMO. I moved it to the inside of the left engine guard, out in the wind. I got some comments here like “…if you don’t mind it looking like ****…” Whatever. I think my bike still looks great.
One day I was 2 hours into a ride. At 75 mph I placed my hand directly behind the cooler and felt virtually no heat coming off it. It has very tightly folded fins.
Aprilia sport bikes have two coolers placed side by side. The frontal area on one unit looks to be as big as the unit on my bike and the inlet/outlet tubes diameter is larger. It also has a heat extraction apparatus inside the cooler. I plan to try try one out and see if I can get better results.
I understand all of this is being conducted unscientifically, I am simply going by what my hand can feel. What I’m sure of is the stock cooler in the stock location is doing next to nothing, and if I completely eliminated it I probably would not see much detriment, overall, regarding engine longevity.
I moved it to the inside of the left engine guard, out in the wind. I got some comments here like “…if you don’t mind it looking like ****…” Whatever. I think my bike still looks great..
The HD oil cooler I have on my Sportster is mounted on the downtubes, but basically the same position as yours. I too, believe it has a better air flow in that location. Can't say one way or the other how effective it is at lowering my oil temp, but prior to moving to TX, I knew it was "cheap insurance". TBH, most people don't even see it, and not really worried about their opinion on looks either. Neither of my bikes will ever enter or win a bike show anyways.
I think it's Jagg makes a nice cooler for my yr ST. It does hang down a little. I could see
where a big piece or road debris could poss damage it. I still plan on one. Oil temps on
this one hit 250 on an 80 + deg day. My carb 00 ran 220 TOPS. The cooler is on my get
list.
OOPS !! Somehow I posted twice
08-21-2021 | 06:09 PM
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