Here's a long winded one ..... My Electra Glide cooked the bottom end and cams and other neat stuff last November due to (what I believe) was a failure of the oil pump. It's a 1999 / 2000 model so it was the very first twincam motor with the Factory recall of the oil pump. Last week I discovered the oil pump has an 'A' stamped on it which translates into 'it wasn't replaced at the recall as it was supposed to be' and comes complete with all the relevant battlescars, scratched and chipped. Nice chunks of case hardening embedded in the pistons etc etc etc.....I'll be having a whinge to the Motor Factory about the lack of follow up on that score, but that's another story and I don't think it will lead anywhere nice. I've had the bike for two years and it had quite a few kilometres on the clock already (117,000) and I replaced the cam chains and the tensioners which were running on bare metal, geez what a mess. I didn't know about the gear replacement at the time, so I stuck chains back in for the last time. Next time it'll be the S&S gear driven cams for sure!

Next was the problem of replacing the crankshaft assembly. No stock parts in Australia mate they all said. After weeks of dead-ends, I thought stuff it, get a stroker kit!! yippee, shortcut to divorce coming up. I got this 103 inch motor getting asembled as we 'speak'. BUT I'LL BE DAMNED IF I'M GUNNA PUT A STOCK OIL PUMP BACK IN!!! I got a great idea about running a Fueling Superpump on it to keep the good old Amsoil pumping as it should so I don't have to do the rebuild thingy for quite some time (hoping here folks!!). I found the Fuelingfolk could't be less helpful, I'm still waiting for an email, I've sent them 6 so far, for a price to ship one to Australia.... I gave up on them and found a local shop who had one left. My wallet is somewhat thinner these days and after parting with another $860.00, I ate baked beans for a coupla weeks. But I got a neat oil pump.

Getting closer to the subject here ..... a mate and I were talking about different ways to keep the oil cool. I've not heard of the fans before now, are they for airflow or for oil cooling? Mine is a Standard Electra, his is an Ultra. (While the rebuild is happening, the apes are going back on the Softy and I still get to play!)....We were discussing the fact that we couldn't see ourselves riding 'garbage wagons' ten years ago and yet here we are. Why didn't we do this years ago, they are soooo much fun.... but what about those crash bars?

It's probably not an original idea by any means and we are probably the last two people on the planet to hear about it, but has anyone thought of running the oil through the crashbars and putting aluminium heatsinks on the front? Would it work? Last time I saw the bars being used for anything except putting 'highway' pegs in there was an interesting bloke we met on a poker run who fills his crashbars (with a little tap on top) with bourbon and has a neat tap at the bottom so he can lie on the ground and drink from it. Bottles take up too much room in the saddlebags he reckons. After pissing ourselves laughing we stayed right away from him on the road!

So whattayareckon? Oil through the crashbars or what?? I suppose there a a coupla hundred companies manufacturing ones already with attacments so's the lines plug straight in lol

 

Yes you can. Check, J&P Cycles.
Got a friend that has a Bourget Chopper Custom,
they use the frame for the oil tank, doubles as
a oil cooler.

 

Welcome! Guys are already doing that but witout the fins. You could machine some fins to clamp around the bar and make a heat sink but the extra oil will probably help just as much.

 

Hi and welcome, I'am a little north of you at Townsville. Crash barsused as aoil cooler have been around for a long time, there are web sites with how to do it if you look. JAG have coolers that mount on the down tube if you want to go that way, this is what I have done.

 

Last winter I turned my engine guards into an oil cooler. I bought a remote thermostat for about $30.00 that I mounted under the front motor mount between the frame rails. I then tapped into the oil return line and routed the lines to the thermostat, then to the now drilled and tapped engine guard and back to the oil pan. With this setup, the highest cruising temps I achieved on a 104* July day were 200*...sitting in traffic on the same day while waiting for single lane road construction, the temps still only climbed to 210*. I then used a dremel tool and cutting blade to sculpt the cover over the oil return lines to hide the mess of hoses.

 

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Thanks...can you tell me what was wrong with the way I posted them originally? posting in those IMG links works on every other forum I frequent.[&:]

 

http://silvercrow.com/performance/oilcooler.htm

Check the link it has all the instructions for the entire install of oil cooler, engine bars.

Same install as SeaHag's pictures.

Enjoy.

 

Slightly different install, only in that it feed the oil cooler engine guard off the positive/pressure side of the oil pump rather than tapping into the return as I had done. The benefits of the silvercrow system is probably a little cleaner/easier install; but the negatives of this method are the higher pressures encountered on this side of the oil pump tend to make the fittings leak more easily...so everything has to be maintained good and tight. Still, I'm sure most people go this route with the oil filter/oil cooler/thermostat adapter.

 

WOW!!
Thanks for the warm welcome and thank you everyone that replied. I can see now (with all your input) that this will be a definate to-do. Special thanks to Seahag and 74 ironhead for the photos...invaluable
Kind Regards
Devo