Gixxus Christ! Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 Ok so the honda needs her blood cooled down a bit so I bought an adaptor that will allow me to not only run a cooler, but also run spin-on filters (bonus). I've looked at some off the shelf lockhart coolers and decided they just don't have that home brew bike feel, so I'm planning to put together my own. For the core I'm looking it this:http://pages.ebay.com/motors/link/?nav=item.view&id=371136074227&alt=web It looks cool, is the right size and 7 rows should be enough to drop my oil Temps 40 or 50 degrees. Planning on building my own braided lines at summit once I figure out my measurements. Anyone been down this road before? Any advice to offer? I'm all eyes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rslocum Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 Looks pretty cool. Not sure how much the powdercoating would affect its effectiveness. You take aluminum with great thermal conductivity and coat it with powder-coating which might technically act somewhat as an insulator. Hopefully it doesn't get all the surface area of the fins. Definitely believe it's better than no oil cooler but maybe wouldn't draw as much heat out as a bare aluminum cooler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxus Christ! Posted January 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 From my brief Google research the emmissivity rate of powder coated aluminium is much higher than polished or plain cast so it seems like that's a good thing. If paint/powder coating hindered performance why is almost every radiator and oil cooler black? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxus Christ! Posted January 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 Already ordered the blue one. Will monitor oil Temps going in and out to determine if it's doing its job.Radiators are painted black because a flat black surface has the highest emmissivity rate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redkow97 Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 I'm not saying the radiator linked won't work, but wouldn't it be simpler to use an oil-cooler from an existing motorcycle of similar displacement? The CB850 is similar enough in size to a Katana 750 that it would seem like that's a good candidate to poach from. same cylinder configuration, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxus Christ! Posted January 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 I'm not saying the radiator linked won't work, but wouldn't it be simpler to use an oil-cooler from an existing motorcycle of similar displacement?The CB850 is similar enough in size to a Katana 750 that it would seem like that's a good candidate to poach from. same cylinder configuration, etc.Yeah but you run into issues with the lines. 90° banjo fittings on the top of the cooler, to hard lines to rubber lines to 14mm threads into the crank case....more of a pain in the ass than its worth just to make the lines. With this I just use some an 10 to an 6 reducers to some an 6 braided line to an6 to 1/4 npt fitting and I'm done. Line is cheap, fittings are easily available and my cooler will match my tank and side covers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redkow97 Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 Yeah but you run into issues with the lines. 90° banjo fittings on the top of the cooler, to hard lines to rubber lines to 14mm threads into the crank case....more of a pain in the ass than its worth just to make the lines. With this I just use some an 10 to an 6 reducers to some an 6 braided line to an6 to 1/4 npt fitting and I'm done. Line is cheap, fittings are easily available and my cooler will match my tank and side covers. Sounds like you put more thought into it than I did with my seat-o-pants idea. Let me know how it works. I saw someone with an oil cooler on a big-bore XR100 (140) flat-track bike. I'm intrigued by the idea of adding oil coolers to bikes that don't have them stock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redkow97 Posted January 23, 2015 Report Share Posted January 23, 2015 Since we run the dirt bike engines at sustained high rpm so much, I'm speculating that an oil cooler would make the engine more reliable, and allow it to maintain max hp throughout the duration of the race. It's something I might toy with trying for an F3 or F2 build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxus Christ! Posted January 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2015 Since we run the dirt bike engines at sustained high rpm so much, I'm speculating that an oil cooler would make the engine more reliable, and allow it to maintain max hp throughout the duration of the race. It's something I might toy with trying for an F3 or F2 build.Sandwich plates are available for most filter sizes. Easy mod and for sure, cooler oil = happy motor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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