Does (oil cooler) size matter?

[Glyn Pickering]

Hi All

Looking at the various options with  oil coolers and there really is a huge variety. A one from say a GPZ550 is real dinky and I think would look quite unobtrustive. However that's no good if it isn't going to cool the oil enough. If  they are smaller do they have moe fins and therefore cool the oil just as well?? I guess also a larger cooler will increase overall oil capacity and work as a better heat sink anyway.

 Also isn't oil supposed to run at a fairly high temp anyway so that it flows around the motor correcly at a lower viscousity?

I use my bike 90 % of the time on a 20 km ride thro heavy traffic to work - althougth the motor gets hot enougth to make the fan come on - I'm just wondering with a larger cooler fitted if the oil would stay too cool for too long? ???

Regards

Glyn

[silicon_toad2000]

A smaller oil cooler will generally not disperse as much heat as a larger oil cooler, but sometimes a better designed smaller oil cooler may perform better than a poorly designed larger cooler.
As far as cooling the oil enough, anything will be an improvement! Remember you still have the radiator.
It may be possible to add an oil cooler to an engine that would cool the oil too much, but it would be practically impossible to mount one that big on the V. The additional cooling of the oil cooler will be balanced by the thermostat in the radiator not opening as far.
The way I see it, it?s like the old saying, if you have your head in an oven and your feet in the freezer, on the whole you're allright. The stock V setup is like that, hot oil but plenty of cooling capacity in the coolant, with an oil cooler you have more balanced temps.

[Lucky]

If you feel the cooler you've used is too big, after using it a while, you have a couple of options. you can cover part of the cooler to restrict air flow, or you can replace it with a samller cooler.  remember this is still in the learning stages.  I'm using one designed for an 850.

[jasonm.]

oil coolers have rows of passages which the oil flows through. The more rows or the longer the length of the rows the greater the cooling. The model 700 3 row racing cooler I have is rated to cool the oil a minimum of 30 degrees. ?A pic of the #700 is posted on the swap shop("oil coolers for sale"). The cooler Lucky has is a 4 row unit which should do quite well for him.

[MrMe]

A few questions on oil cooling.
What is the operating temp of the oil without a cooler ?
And what is recomended operating temp.
I know on my boat ( 455 bb olds .90 over ) I don't like to hit the go peddel until oil temp is at least 160 and let off when it hits 220.
Now i was thinking the oil cooler on the boat draws water in from the river and coole the oil with that.
How about a " closed system " like that for the  vision.
Use the cooling system on the bike to cool the oil.
Or does the coolent temps get to high to cool oil ?
Brian

[silicon_toad2000]

you know that idea crossed my mind too mrme (didn't take too long to cross). Do you mean something like what the big cars use to cool the trans fluid? a coil of hose inside one of the radiator tanks, at the same time we could increase the volume of the cooling system with a bigger tank.
I think the airflow oil cooler that lucky has fabbed up would be much more efficient, but still interesting idea mrme.

[MrMe]

yea
on the boat its done in a pipe with a bunch of copper tubes inside for the water to pass through, but same basic idea.

The only prob i have with the coil meathod is the oil temp would depend on your speed and placement of the cooler.
I am in chicago so alot of stop and wate..... and go traffic
is what i deal with.
With a water cooled system the temp would be the same ( or closeer to ) no matter the speed.
They arnt hard to build ... maybe i will experement before i put in that stator...

[Lucky]

or you could put a fan behind the cooler

[kiawrench]

  I am not real positive on this, guy at work suggested it>
  some snowmobiles use a radiator with a built in oil cooler,
he had a yamaha  snow sled that had a radiator /oil cooler unit , outside measurements are just two inches higher than stock vision radiator...
 would fit on the bike , but only without the cover, so a mount would have to be built

[silicon_toad2000]

a lot of seperate oil coolers on cars are mounted in front of the radiator, I dont think mounting the oil cooler in front of the radiator would detract from the radiators capacity too much given the relative sizes and all.