are oilcoolers really necessary?

[sly1300]

Not quite 1-0 just yet.

sigh. im talking about MY yx160...
cases are apart at the moment and i was thinking of converting it to electric start (engine is in a MotoVert RX)
and the starter motor is gonna hit the nipples for the oil cooler. was looking at ways around this. right angled banjo fittings, starter motor mounts. But blocking it off is gonna be the quickest, cheapest and easiest whilst i sort out converting it to electric start. I will run the "radiator" style cooler again once ive sorted the elec start.. ive upgraded the oil pump, it should now handle the extra duty.

i understand what ur all saying but maybe i should have been more specific about the engine i was talking about..
ill take a pic of the internals and show you what i mean.
hard to explain without pics.


but the pic posted above from Cactus is a Great idea. especially if you are unsure on the internals of your particular engine.
But yeah, all mods are AT YOUR OWN RISK. I personally wouldnt trust the testimony of a keyboard warrior (like me) as gospel. Id take the rough gist of what they're saying and suss it out myself.
If you are going to remove your cooler, i would do exactly as the photo above unless youre 100% sure its safe to block off ports.

But i still stand on my beliefs on oilcoolers/oil pumps... These are a aircooled motor after all. Only use a cooler if your pumps can handle it.

 

[dafunk]

yeah you guys are great . but back to the subject .
these motors arent slipper bearing motors and require minimal oil pressure .
cooler motors make more power .
go the coolers!
i can smell the incence here too!!

 

[Fiddy@norway]

and fiddy...i wanna see this thing in the snow when it starts afallin

Oh yes I'm already shopping for Ice screws so I can make my own studded tires won't be much need for a cooler when It's 20 below freezing outside
gonna run my CR500 on the ice too, I can't wait!

 

[Cactus Jack]

Yeah , you'll probably be OK without one where you live ...

But here's something to think about ...

IF you were riding without a shirt on during a hot day and you were being heat affected ... would you lean forward so that your upper body is horizontal to cut thru the wind ... or would you sit upright so that your upper body is vertical and cops the most wind exposure ? ...

The same goes for on a cold day ... would you sit upright to help minimise wind chill ... or would you lay over to cut thru the wind and drastically reduce the surface area that's exposed to the cold air ? ...

And there's your answer ... Horizontal engines with the cylinder facing forward aren't really too efficient at shedding heat ... That's WHY the manufacturers fit oil coolers where they are positioned as standard equipment on all of their high performance engines ... IF they didn't ... they'd be copping heaps of complaints from people cooking new motors ...

An engine that has been run-in properly and gradually heat cycled over time has adapted to live with higher running temperatures so there's far less chance of the piston seizing in the bore ... but the structure will still be copping heat stress every time it gets flogged and heated up ... You only have to over heat alloy ONCE and it's stuffed ... even IF the engine runs OK and shows no ill symptoms ... It'll build up internal stresses which could cause seemingly unrelated problems ... such as blown head gaskets , tranny shifting problems etc ...

I'd advise anyone who keeps stacking or hitting things to seriously work on their riding skills ... LOL ...

 

[headsmess]

awww, but cmon, judge cactus, he rides on ICE!!!!! guaranteed to fall over occassionally....



whos mad enough to be riding with no shirt? they deserve to fall over!

what? oh...yes...oil coolers....

ummmmmm.... ahhhh, im just being a post whore now

 

[Cactus Jack]

Ha ha ha ... I wrote the "shirt off" bit to see what people would say ... but mainly for 11 and 12 year olds who are bound to come on here ... We don't want them removing their coolers and blocking up the ports thinking they're performing performance enhancing mods ... then slagging Mini Riders for giving shoddy info after their motors blow up ... Do we ? ...

If you wanna get technical ... A YX 150 engine is 290 mm wide ... the plastics and tank are 280 mm wide ... a wide oil cooler is 240 mm wide .... The brake lever sticks out 100 to 110 mm wider than the cooler on the right side and the shift lever sticks out 40 mm wider than the cooler on the left hand side ... A peg bar WITHOUT any pegs on it is 360 mm wide ... THEN each side of the handle bars sticks out 150 mm either side of the tank on full lock ... So how are these guys damaging their coolers if you can lay the bike on it's side on the ground without the cooler going anywhere NEAR the ground ?????? ...

 

[Fiddy@norway]

you would think the coolers should be safely tucked away, that might be true if you ride on groomed tracks or prepped trails, but I like to plow straight through the forest, rocks and roots sticking up from the ground don't care if your handlebars are so so long, I ALWAYS land on something sticking up from the ground...

and yes, I do crash a lot, 'coz if you aint crashing you aint trying hard enough

 

[Cactus Jack]

There you go ... THAT's what I mean ... To damage the cooler the rider MUST be doing something weird ... What YOU need is CRASH BARS or steel plates welded to the side of your bike ... LOL ...

Man , no wonder you're smashing your knees up and copping mad staph infections ...

 

[Fiddy@norway]

There you go ... THAT's what I mean ... To damage the cooler the rider MUST be doing something weird ... What YOU need is CRASH BARS or steel plates welded to the side of your bike ... LOL ...

Man , no wonder you're smashing your knees up and copping mad staph infections ...

maybe a rollcage is what I need, I managed to flip my CR500 last weekend doing a wheelie in 5th gear close to 60mph, by some sort of miracle I only pulled something in my groin, but I'm walking with a limp again, I've been limping for the last 15 months straight... bike was fine though

 

[tormentandglory]

I've got a koso tacho/oil temp meter in the mini classifieds, might be just what u need, Fiddy@norway

 

[rossetti]

Rosetti going by your build thread, it looks like you may have the older Pre-oil cooler style frame... if it used to be battery start, you could consider mounting the oilcooler on the side of the frame near or below the upper shock mount... Kinda tucked in behind the kickstart if that makes any sense...
If not, take a look at Snitchy's build thread on his Z50... the pics in there will show you what i mean...
I'm pretty sure the thread is called "My Whip" in the CRF/TTR/KLX/DRZ section...

hmm might have to try that aye. thanks bruu

 

[Pitbikerider]

Well i'm happy i saw this thread. In my mind, if you're going to spend 500$ on an engine, might as well get a good working oil cooler. These things will cost you 150$ max for a good kit. Thinking about it, do you preffer paying that 150$ and keeping your engine maybe twice as long or saving that 150$ or less and paying an other 400-500$ for a new engine in a few years?

If its to much hassle, and breaks all the time, then don't use one. As simple as that, but fact is, oil coolers exist for a reason and that reason is as simple as to get more performance out of your engine. If it wouldn't be the case then why in the hell would they even exist?

I know for sure, i'm running an oil cooler kit once i get my 155z engine. I do alot of trail, street riding, and i have no idea how i could be hitting the oil cooler. The lines getting caught up in things, i could see that happen. But even there, if something was going to get hit by something else, it'd be my legs getting hit by branches and tossing them away from any of my oil lines.

Just thought i'd add my 0.02$