Ok!  I finished install of my oil cooler today, and let me just say, any doubts I had about oil pressure are gone!

(Sorry, no pictures yet, wife's camera still being fixed...another looonnng story.)

Anyway, I came out of the front pressure plug (just like Ed_L's mod) and into the oil cooler.  Out of the oil cooler and back into the top of the oil filter housing by drilling and tapping a thread there.  I used a car frame rail tranny cooler, 24 inches long and 4 inches wide and mounted it vertically on the front of the frame, opposite and in the same orientation as the header pipe.  I did not block the internal oil passage into the oil filter housing.

I know there's plenty of oil pressure even without further testing for two reasons.

#1 - I forgot to tighten one of the hose clamps at the bottom of the oil cooler all the way   and as soon as I started the motor, it began spewing oil all over the garage floor.   :'(

#2 - After I tightened the hose clamp and filled the crankcase back up with oil, every time I blipped the throttle, both hoses would flex noticeably under pressure and the oil level in the crank case dropped from all the way to the top to half way up the sight glass.

Can't ride today because of constant COLD rain, but may get a chance to ride into work tomorrow.  I'll update on first test ride and (still) post pictures when my wife gets her camera back.

Save some $$$ & stop in at a junk yard or two, scout around. They have oil coolers theyve taken off cars that werent smashed in the front, sometimes.

My main concern is all that extra oil draining out of the cooler and back into the engine.  I'm worried  that this would cause a dramatic increase in pressure at startup.  Even the smaller cooler have to add about 3/4 a quart capacity.  That's almost a 50% increase in oil.

toddlamp8 wrote on 06/20/08 at 08:10:01:

I'm a little confused at your reasoning.  If all the oil drained into the sump, it's no longer in the oil cooler/passageways.  Pressure will be zero, right?  I'd be more worried about the increase in lag between startup and delivery of oil.  But I beleave the check valve will take care of that.

I was afraid that it would put added strain on the pump to push it all.

I doubt that it will be there long enough to foam though which is the main concern of over filling.