Hey all;
i'm thinking about putting an oil cooler on my Sportster, an 06 1200. have any of you put an oil cooler on your Sportster? Does the Sportster run hot enough to justify the expense and time to do it? I live in Florida where it is a litle warm at times. my riding is divided about evenly between city traffic, back roads and highway riding. i am usually a speed limit or a litle above kind of rider. if any of you have any experience with an oil cooler on a sportster i would sure appreciate it. Mostly what I am after is longer engine life.
thanks
Lou

 

I live in Idaho and it gets hotter than heck here in the summer and I've never needed one on either of my bikes.
If you ride your bike like a rented donkey at times it might be a good idea but I think most Sporties are just fine without one.

 

A good quality Synthetic Oil will lower your engine temps 20 degrees.

 

I put one on mine at the same time I did the 1200 upgrade so I don't know how much cooler it runs. It's been running about 200-205 with synthetic. As an 883 temps were about 190-195.

 

If you've got a lot of engine mods, especially with really advanced timing you could probably justify it

 

+1 - a good Group IV or V synthetic oil will typically drop your oil temps 20*.

I live in S. FL and my oil temps don't approach anything close to justifying an oil cooler.

The normal operating oil temp should be in the range of 180* -220*. Unless your temps are consistently pushing 250*, you don't need a cooler. If you don't know what your actual oil temps are (by measuring them) then spending money on a cooler may not only be a waste of money, but it increases the risk of potential problems like leaky oil lines & fittings.

Most overheating problems occur in stop & go traffic. Just like the radiator on your car, an oil cooler only really works if you have airflow through the cooler, and if you are sitting in stop & go traffic, you don't have any airflow. The only slight advantage a cooler will give you in this case is from having a larger oil capacity, giving the oil more time to dissipate heat before being recirculated.

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I have a Jagg oil cooler on the Sporty. It's nice because there's a **** to twist when the weather is cool and I don't want to run the oil through the cooler. A very easy install but I don't know how it's helped with oil temperature because I didn't measure temp before the install. I also have the Harley oil cooler on my Road King. I did the oil coolers because living in New York City there's some bad traffic delays and I wanted to try and protect the air cooled engine.

You can see it in the down tube just behind the left fork leg;

 

During the summer temps here are often 105 to110. I use synthetic oil and a cooler and don't think twice about it. I get overheated befor the bike does.

 

Around here in the 'lower midwest States' temperatures in the summer of 100+ degrees are not uncommon, and I've never felt the need to install an auxillary oil cooler on my Sportster or any of my other Harley's.

Just use good quality synthetic fluids and forget about it....

(Most of those I know with Sportsters, including myself, run the below fluids and none of use have ever had a problem with overheating... Other combinations of fluids will work just as well)...

For what it's worth, I sometimes run RedLine 20W60HD during the summer (it's a very high quality Group 5 Ester based synthetic), but to be honest don't notice any difference between it (at around $12.00 a quart) and Mobil 1 15W50 (which costs about $4.25 a quart)....