Is my eyeballs deceiving me? Are these liquid cooled? I see what looks like a little radiator at the front of the frame, below the horn, on some of the new models.

What's up with that?

 

Oil cooler.

 

Hmm. I don't like that much, but that's just me.

I like my Slim with the clean downtubes and cooled by the air. Guess I got one of the last of the Mohegans.

 

And I like my motors with a single camshaft and unencumbered by balancers, the way God and Bill Harley intended. Sorry to disagree, the last of the “Mohicans” was the Evolution motor.

 

They pretty much need them now. The Softail engines pump oil through the same passages around the exhaust valves that the touring bikes pump water through, the the oil is getting a lot hotter than on the TC.

 

Water or oil, they are both liquid cooled now. A look at the future when air-cooling goes away due to emissions.

 

Being in Texas, I wouldn't mind having an oil cooler. I had one on my shovelhead, that I turned off/rerouted in the winter.

 

Just thinking out loud, will a Front tire send a rock up and into that radiator and what kind of damage will it do to it, if it does? Are they built a lot more heavy duty than the average radiators, and how much will it cost to replace one? The reason I am asking is because I was flying down a dirt road doing about 70 MPH and the front tire on my 2000 Wide Glide sent a rock into my engine oil pan and knocked a hole in it.

 

I don’t think many people take their big twin Harley down a dirt road at 70 mph, especially ones that have rocks on them.

While we are tossing out outrageous bullshit these new Softails probably aren’t worth a crap in deep mud.

 

Touring TC's had oil coolers since 2012. Located lower than the 18 Softails without any issue.

I always put oil coolers on the Softails, Dynas and Sportsters. Glad that I don't have to do that anymore.

By the way the M8's run cooler than the TC's. So the oil is not hotter. Partly because of the cooler, partly because of a 33% increase in oil pan capacity and partly because of less heat soak in the M8 design.

A cooler engine lasts longer and runs stronger.