Finally was able to get a little data on flow and temperature on my oil cooler. Can't afford inline temperature sensors so ended up using a meter with the temp probe sitting directly behind the cooler. I was able to position the probe behind the inlet of the cooler for one set of readings and behind the outlet of the cooler for a second set of readings. Here's a picture of how it was positioned, gotta love duct tape.
 http://www.bikepics.com/pictures/886953/
Here's how I mounted the meter
 http://www.bikepics.com/pictures/886952/

Here's the information

Inlet Temp     Speed mph                        Outlet Temp
Degrees C                                                        
40-41                             50                                    37-40

47                                   60                                      41

48                                   70                                      37
 
48                                   75                                      36

                  Start/Stop in Traffic

52-54                                                    52

            Air temperature was 26 degrees C at the start of the ride. I allowed 15 miles at 60 mph for a warmup ( steady at 41 degrees) and rode 20 miles one way for the inlet test and 20 miles back the other way for the outlet test with the bike in 5th gear.
 What does it mean? well start/stop traffic was when the air around the cooler got the hottest, no big surprise. There seemed to be some, 3-4 degrees C, cooling at 40 to 50mph. Above 60 mph the temp difference increased to almost 10 degrees C and stayed about the same up to 75mph.
 I also noticed that under WOT both the inlet and outlet temp would rise quickly by about 8 degrees C, seemed that the higher the engine rpm the hotter the cooler would get. There is not a lot of data here but it seems that the cooler is working it's best at highway speeds.
  I also was able to check the flow thru the cooler at 1500 rpm. Here is a couple pictures of the test chamber I set up.
  http://www.bikepics.com/pictures/886954/
  http://www.bikepics.com/pictures/886955/
  The chamber has a total volumn of 550cc and took 45 seconds to fill. This gives a flow of .73 liters per minute. The oil pressure gauge on top of the chamber read 12 psi. I couldn't run any more flow tests cause the clear tubing got real soft real fast when the hot oil hit it and I didn't want to risk a hot oil blowout. I'm happy to answer any questions about the test and cooler setup, hope this made some enjoyable reading even though I couldn't get the columns of the temp chart to line up.    

Well,that's some neat info. I don't know enough about heat & oil to know exactly what it means, but surely, at highway speeds, staying cooler is better. I wonder what the temps would be without a cooler? Just having the increased oil capacity has to help. I really wonder what the "Stop & go, stop light" temps would have been without the added volume. I hope the cooler is holding that reading down, too.

Thanks for all the time you spent bringing this to us,

Greg,

What I think Ed is referring to is the air near the oil outlet of cooler versus the air near the oil inlet.

As long as the duct tape doesn't cover the sensor part, it's fine.

Ed, you could place the sensor directly on the outlet, cover with fiberglass insulation and wrap with duct tape.  Air temp is great info but still not oil temp.  You might consider the temperature strips I found.

Oh, so you were measuring the air temp around the surface of the 2 oil lines.

I was thinking inlet/outlet being like front/back of the cooler.

If nothing else, since the oil was cooler, then the air should have been warmer

I still like duct tape.

Good luck!  

I don't think there will be any problem with oil getting to the top end. It might take three or four more seconds for the oil to pump thru the cooler but once all the oil passage ways are full everything get lubed as usual. I just give an extra 30 seconds to a minute at an idle to get everything pumped up before getting out on the road. Most of the engine oils advailble have extra lubrication additives to prevent wear during startup. Next project might be a small fan on the cooler for when I'm stuck in traffic but that might look too cluttered.  

Quote:


I don't like that design for one main reason, you can't drain the oil in the cooler unless you go through some procedure to evacuate the lines.  Granted the cooler and lines may only hold 2 or 3 cc's of fluid, but I'd have a hard time living with that.

Now if you leave a small hole for the main oil passage instead of blocking it completely, you allow oil to flow quickly into the filter housing upon start-up.  Then high rpm running would begin to force a majority of the oil thru the cooler lines.  

That's my theory at any rate, I'll let you know how it works out.