There's always someone who comes up with a statement like this in these conversations. First of all, the oil temps are cooler to begin with when you first get stuck in traffic. Even tho the oil cooler isn't as effective when the bike isn't moving very fast, it's still doing something. The end result is, the temps come up more slowly and that gives the engine a little more breathing room. On the other end of things, once your free of the traffic and moving again, the oil temps will come back down much more quickly than they will without the cooler.

I put the oil temp gauge on my bike and rode for a little over a month before putting the cooler on. I wanted to see what my bike was doing on average before installing the cooler and seeing what kind of difference it made afterwards. As someone else already pointed out, the average temps dropped about 20 degrees or 10% while driving down the road. Before temps at speed were 230 or so and after were around 210, give or take a little depending on what the ambient temps are. I've got a long commute and often deal with slow traffic. Without the cooler, my oil temps would climb pretty quickly and the highest temps I've seen were a little over 260 degrees on three or four occasions. After the cooler install, the temps come up more slowly and the highest I've seen on the hottest days so far has been just under 240 and once I'm clear and able to get back up to speed, my oil temps will start to drop again, something they did not do, at least not significantly, without the cooler. All in all, I'm very happy with the improvement.

Now, having said all that, it is true that if we get caught in stop and go traffic long enough, the bike is going to over heat regardless of whether or not there's an oil cooler installed. Our engines are, after all, air cooled, not oil cooled, and they will over heat. However, the oil cooler does help to slow the process and considering the overall drops in oil temps that I've seen on my bike since installing the oil cooler, I think they're well worth the investment. If an individual doesn't want to spend their money on an oil cooler, that's Ok. Harley's have been running and surviving a long time without them but modern Harley's built in the last few years are running a lot hotter than their older brethren do or did and, I think, a good oil cooler is a reasonable option. I would hardly characterize it as "worthless."

JMO, FWIW,
Ride Safe,
Steve R.

 

Just curious, where does the oil temp gauge get installed? In place of the air temp gauge?

 

230-250 degress for me on my bagger with no oil cooler. I have an ULTRA COOL (with built in fan) in my garage. I have yet to install it maybe this summer.

I had a heat problem but after going with a true dual exhaust and PC-V everything was fine.

Good luck.

 

It is a dipstick thermometer. P/Ns : 63030-09 or 63004-09

 

It's not only a thermometer, it's an oil quantity indicator as well. You push the button on the face of the gauge, and the LCD lights up giving you a digital temperature and an oil quantity indication of 1 to 4 bars. The only problem is you can't really use it while you're riding...you have to wait until you come to a full stop and have the bike on the jiffy stand (at least for an accurate quantity indication).

If you can reach down with your right hand while you're riding, push the button and read the temp...well, you're a more accomplished rider than me.

 

I have a Jagg 10 row low mount that works well, I installed the bigsky fan kit with it, look at the pics and you can see the fans behind it, if stuck in traffic I flip the fans on, they are wired to my auxillary switch on the dash,I have a temp gauge on my dash as well, it goes where the ambient temp gauge would go

 

What year is your bike and what true dual exhaust did you pick?

 

I bought this one, not the versions that replace the oil dip stick.

http://www.harley-davidson.com/gma/g...6&default=none

It does replace the stock air temp gauge which is pretty much useless anyway. The installation process is very straight forward and looks factory stock.

TJ, Are you sure that's a Jagg 10 row? The reason I ask, is mine looks completely different from yours. The oil hoses enter and exit the unit from above on mine and I didn't have room to install my BigSky fans without doing a bit of modifications. Needless to say, your installation looks a lot better than mine does.

Just wondering? Thanks!

Ride Safe,
Steve R.

 

The temps folks are talkin with the cooler are about right from my experience. I wish I would have installed the temp gauge first, so I could have compared but I did them both at the same time. The oil temp gauge goes in the spot of the air temp gauge.

spiz

 

Got an HD premium on mine,don't know the temp drop,but do know that lower temps prolong engine life.Hey but thats just my opinion.