Oil cooler poll

[planedick]

I installed an oil cooler on the '79 Standard I had before Pathfinder and it increased oil pressure 100% in very hot hard riding conditions. (20#'s to 42#'s) I know that oil will carry tremendous amounts of heat from the engine and I also know that excess heat is detrimental to engines. I wonder how many of you have an oil cooler. Either stock or aftermarket doesn't really matter.

Also I'm trying to find an oil cooler adaptor plate for an XS1100 if anyone can help. Just the adaptor is OK, I can make hoses, special bolt for the center and find a heat exchanger.

[John]

My bike had a POS cooler set up when I bought it in 91. The cooler lines were sourced from the oil pipe that feed the cams. I didn't like that set up, so I found one on a 850 Special, and adapted that. A few years ago when I bought the 78E (Organ Donor), it had a Lockhart cooler on it, and that has since taken up residence on Twilite Special. When I bought the Pile O'Parts from btdtdan, there was another complete Lockhart setup included, so it found it's way onto Foster Child. Here in Texas, I wouldn't run without one. I couldn't tell you how much it actually cools the oil, but it has to be better than not running one.

[Pat Kelly]

I put a Lockhart on my E a few years ago.
I recently took it off to put it on my LG after installing the bigbore kit (and subsequent break-in).
I have one from an XS850 that I was going to put on the LG but it just dosen't fit like I want it to. If I mount it with the stock brackets to the frame reflector mounts (lines-up perfectly) then the forks hit it on left turns.
Someday I'll get another one for the E, maybe. It does get up to and sometimes over 110 deg here in summer. The LG is my summer ride. The E is for winter and long trips.

[TADracer]

At present I do not run a cooler but I have been thinking about installing one. I guess the only thing holding me back is that there seems to be so much pro/con discussion about them. And hey, the thing came without one.

[Pat Kelly]

I don't think it's as much a "pro/con" as a "pro/why bother" kinda thing.
As long as the bike is moving it is going to cool-off. An oil cooler won't make the engine run cooler while sitting in traffic. Someone talked about using a 12v fan off a computer to move air over the oil cooler. I may tinker with this idea (I don't split lanes).
It was pointed out that the bikes were designed without a cooler so they're really not needed. I live in a hot climate so I added one. Since I am modifying my LG with the bigbore kit I'm putting the cooler on there because of:
-thinner cylinder walls
-higher compression
-I ride it mostly in summer when the outside air is hot, over 100 deg.

If I put another one back on my E I will get a thermostatic control to bypass it in winter when I use it the most.
If an engine runs too cold then it can have a problem with sludge build-up. When I had the pan off my E for the tranny fix it was very clean inside.
I think a cooler may not be needed but they dont hurt (well-oil machine being an XSception ).

[mason79]

yes i took mine off and l never looked back but 4000 miles is no acid test, the po had one and change the oil every 2000 mile religeously.

the motor is tight as a drum and makes good power, i thought about a large type car fan with a switch but that would pull too many amps huh? not to mention looking rediculous.

i turn my motor off at stop lights in the blazing summer, thats lame too but i do it. now my starter get more worn...

the bike had a huge leak from the cooler and neutral switch and the engine was caked with sludge, i think that alone may have negated any benifits of a cooler,the bikes fins are clear now.

plus the cooler does not look clean, with all that plumbling and places to hang up on the exhuast system and posibble, area to leak, sorry i vote out,

i was talking to a new yamaha saleman and the new aircooled crusisers that are air cooled do just fine without them, i think it may affect the back end life of a motor, but everything is temporary and nothing is foever...

[John]

Let's remember that the 81 H came with a factory cooler, as did the 850's, so there must be some reason that made the engineers add one to those models.
Click on my webshots link below, and look at pic # 20_22A. You'll see the Lockhart cooler installed on my bike. That was done after I did the big bore a couple of years ago. It's a clean installation and the cooler lines are run up along the frame rails.

[mason79]

i wonder if that retrofitment contributed to the increse survivalbilty of the flagship bike, do you think if oil technology today was availible in 81, would yamaha have did the retrofitment?

[79XS11F]

My added oil cooler is hooked up between the block and the head as many after market units are. I don't have an issue with this because the bulk of the heat created by the running engine is in the top end so adding cooled oil there is in my opinion the right thing to be doing. The earlier year models may have come off the factory floor without oil coolers installed but seeing them added in later years is for me an indication of the need for one.
Rob

[Crazcnuk]

What we would have to look at it is where the factory bikes, that came with the coolers, were shipped to.

I don't remember seeing any with coolers up here in Canada, but I may just not have noticed.

I could see the cooler helping in say Arizona, New Mexico, or the Sahara Desert, but not sure it would help much up here in Canada.

In fact, on my Monte Carlo, I have an external transmission cooler, with a thermal control valve on it. The valve is there, not for hot weather, but for cold weather, so that the cooler does not OVER cool the transmission.

Too cold oil is just as bad as too hot, under certain conditions. Most racers will not race thier cars until the engine oil temperature hits at least 160 degF.

Since I tend to drive my bikes down to about 5degC a cooler may actually not be good for the bike.

On my Shadow 1100, I would block the radiator with cardboard from Sept. to April. The fan never came on, EVER while actually riding the bike. I had to leave it idle on the kickstand for while just to make sure it worked. I put colder plugs in it to make it warm up faster and run a little hotter.

What would be very interesting, is if a few people put oil temp gauges on both cooler, and non cooler models, to see what the bikes run at under normal conditions. This would give us some idea as to how well they work, and if they are needed.

[Lamric]

Oil Coolers in Europe

Don't forget the XS1100 2H9 models ( the European version of the Standards ) were sold from 1978-1981 and all had oil coolers.

So did the European XS1100 5K7 '1.1 Sport' models sold from 1981.

I still haven't worked out why they thought places like England needed oil coolers and Arizona didn't.