nervekiler wrote on 01/30/08 at 09:14:42:


Sorry to hear, Love for the bikes can be a hard one. She must be happy!

Onederer wrote on 01/30/08 at 16:17:08:


Thanks good to know that! put a little money back in the old pocket.

verslagen1 wrote on 01/30/08 at 20:46:27:


You could get a screw in filler plug temp gauge I guess and see what temp your really running the engine - 80C is where it seems to be finally warm'd up - 90-100C it and the rider are happy - 100-110C both the bike and the rider are getting a little hot under the collar - >110C and I'll park it for a bit and have a cold something or other

I've been running an oil cooler on my '02 for about a year. The feed line goes to the plug on the front of the engine and I had to drill and tap a return port in the side cover above the oil filter housing. The way it is set up right now I am getting about 1/2 of the oil pumped thru the cooler with the other half following the stock passageway to the filter. I measured a 1 liter/minute oil flow thru the cooler with a hot engine at 1500 rpms which is respectable. Tried to run a higher rpm but had the PVC test chamber spring a leak. The most interesting thing is that the cooler stays cool for about 5 miles till the engine heats up then you can feel the temperature difference across the cooler as the flow increases, it's a temperature/oil viscosity thing. My feelings so far about the cooler are it's great because it adds extra volumn and cooling to the oil but when you are stuck in traffic the engine still gets hot because of the lack of air flow. A fan would be benificial, maybe on a toggle switch, but that would be even more stuff on the front of the bike. I was looking at the Harley combo filter/cooler setup but realized it was too big. I think I ended up using a cooler out of a GSX'r. Still don't know if it was worth doing it but it works fine.

Arthur wrote on 01/31/08 at 21:39:50:
Mostly, yes.
Oils break down mostly through exposure to temperature (mainly oxidation) or physical sheer.  When the molecules are ‘broken’ under physical loads, they literally become different substances.  For example, of you break a pair of joined carbon atoms off the oil molecule string, you get a molecule of ethane gas produced – that just bubbles off and disappears through the vent system.
The blackness that forms in your oil is just suspended carbon – single carbon atoms in a graphite lattice structure – which are produced both from oil breakdown and, mostly, combustion by-product (ie, burned fuel residue washed off the bores by your oil).  The detergents in the oil stop this carbon from sticking to steel and aluminium, then the dispersants polarise it and make small bits of carbon repel from each other – in that way the carbon particles are kept smaller than the oil film thickness and should not contribute to wear.
Others bits of oil molecule are boken off and in effect become lighter strains of petroleum product, but in very, very small quantities.  

Those molecules can’t be rearranged or mended, but through filtering and re-distilling the recycled oil stock, they can be mostly eliminated, so recycled oil is useable. Quite happy to put it in my lawnmower or an old high mileage dog of a car – but it wouldn’t come within yards of my bike’s sump!

Ed L. wrote on 01/31/08 at 20:29:34:


Ed,
 By taking 1/2 the oil before it gets to the filter,  aren't also reducing the oil flow thru filter in half, and thus the oil going thru the engine in half???????    

I remember seeing a pict of his fitting going in to the engine,  but not sure where it would dump back in.  

Of interest, the cross-over occurs between the crank-case & side cover,  would be super simple to plug.  Actually,  one could easily re-route a oil cooler to 100% of the oil.    

Hmmmmm wonder if the better half will approve of money $ for my toy  .....  

EDIT:
Needed fittings for the two caped ports can be found at:
http://www.egauges.com/vdo_acce.asp?Subgroup=Metric_Adapter_Bushings