Anyone have a good place to find a selection of small oil coolers. The only thing I keep turning up is trans coolers for cars which are much larger than I am looking for. Thanks in advance for the help guys.
If it's for a race bike make sure you check the tech requirements for your lines before you install something. Do it right, do it once. If it's for a race bike, don't chance covering your rear tire and the track with oil.
Here's the installation of the cooler I linked above.
JohnnyB
I've often wondered about using an auto trans cooler as a motorcycle oil cooler - other than the fabrication work, I don't see why one could not be used. Using an oil cooler off another mc like the Yamaha (thanks to Hackasaw's pictures) shouldn't be a problem. Again - its a matter of fab work to get it to work.
I'd lean towards a cooler off a bike. That's what they are made for, they usually have those cushion mounts, and are already setup for the right size lines. I had to fabricate the mounts and such.
JohnnyB
PS. I was shooting more for "oil cooling" than an "Oil cooler" if you know what I mean. I was looking to radically reduce oil temps, that's why I went with a large unit.
the cooler of a brit triple is vastly huge but it is set up to take clamp on hoses only
however, it being quite similar to the one you have JB
I believe screw in pieces can be had to make it accept AN type fittings
I know for sure such ends can be silver soldered in place
transmission coolers have been used, most are vastly huge, like the brit triple cooler, and power steering coolers have been used too and are much more sensibly sized
I guess I have four or five of the power steering coolers
for most all engines that aren't brutally vicious to their engine oil (and a properly set up brit triple truly doesn't need such a large cooler if any cooler at all) it is possible to have too much cooler and cold engine oil is not a good thing for a street engine
not great for a race engine but far from as detrimental as a street bike
btw....... the triple oil coolers have really nice rubber mounts and are quite easy to adapt to others
Yeah mine runs a bit cool, needs some tape on it if it's under about 65 degrees. It's fine by the end of the race....but requires a bit too much warmup. There are times I've taken it out with I'm sure not enough heat in the oil...and the cooler makes that worse.
But at times when it's 95 degrees on the grid...it's a comforting thing to have.
Hack...going to post some pics of the shop before too long...I'm redoing all the storage and benches with 24" deep pallet racking. Makes for some nice heavy duty shelving and work surfaces.
You can use the broom to corral my dogs that run away every five minutes so I get nothing done
JohnnyB
PS. Hmmm...wonder why I never though to put a thermostat by-pass in those lines?
Hey guys thanks for all the suggests. Sorry for the late reply work as been crazy lately. But Branson if you are ever looking for a professional broom boy keep me in mind haha. I am pretty handy with a broom and can clean up an oil spot like it was never there haha. But back to the oil cool talk. I am leaning towards the yamaha cool. Its small and compact and accepts AN fittings. If anyone is a muscle car fan keep an eye on my build thread in the coming months. It should be something different.
Yea Branson I work at a shop here in St. Louis. It's pretty big and caters to some pretty rich clientel but if you are ever in St. Louis you should stop by and have a look around. We are close to down with some simple repair work on a '69 GTO. Sick cars
Kawasaki KZ 550/ GPz 550 oil cooler and lines works and fits best with your cover. You will need to make oil cooler mounts and cut the metal ends of the hose to adapt to the case. The top metal lines need to be tweaked for a better fit.
This oil cooler was labled as a KZ 550, but has 5 rows instead of the 3 row KZ 550 oil cooler that was on it.
How is the progress on this bike coming along?
if I had to guess I would say that is identical to the yamaha cooler except for the mounts and lack of end covers... lines have different bend but that's pretty much a non-issue for a custom app
I'd say the yamaha's narrower three point mounting is cleaner and the end covers likely make it a bit more effective
I only make these comments because you say this suzuki one works best and I can come up with nothing rational to substantiate agreement
so I am curious if those hoses/lines actually bolt right up to the XS650 but after re-reading..... it would appear they need some modifying as well so that has me back to my first supposition
The cooler is off a Kawasaki 550 (GPz/KZ).
It is probably made by the same people who made the Yam oil cooler.
I like these for the ease of mounting, It fits fine and doesnt need the fork stops to be modified to keep the forks from hitting it and it cools the oil. I have used several other oil coolers on the XS 650 and all will require some type of mount to be made. Sometimes a bolt on mount can be made to bolt to the horn mount (when the oil cooler mounts are close together, like on the oil cooler Hack pictured). On my bike, the "larger" top mount gives me a place to mount my front turn signals to.
Any oil cooler radiator will work. I like the GPz cooler because the lines are the correct size(diameter and length for my conversion) and are more of a bolt on (with minor mods) addition. A really large oil cooler may look out of place on a smaller bike (JMO) and the Kawa oil cooler has a nice size for the XS 650 and doesnt look out of place (JMO).
One thing I have found with the KZ /GPz coolers is you have to be careful when getting a used one as the metal screw-on hose end tend to seize in the aluminum fitting (in the threads) on the cooler causing it to strip when removed making it useless. It is a common problem with the GPz oil coolers.
DG
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