I need some info. I installed the HD oil temp guage in my 07 Street Glide this week. I already had the HD oil cooler installed, so like the instructions ordered, I cut the top hose (Long hose) of the cooler that goes to the top port of the cooler oil filter adapter, and installed the T fitting with the sensor in the hose.

When I turn on the ignition the lamp in the new guage lights up and the needle raises up to the 110 degree spot on the guage. (According to the HD instuction sheet this is what the guage should do if installed right) The problem is after riding for about 10 miles the guage still shows 110 degrees. I stopped the bike and felt the cooler hoses and found the top hose some what cool to the touch, while the lower hose was HOT to the touch. So I went home and took my wife's 05 RK out for a spin, as I installed a HD oil cooler on that bike some time ago. After rideing for awhile, I pulled over and found the same thing. Top hose cool and the lower hose HOT to the touch. The ambient temp today was 80 degrees.

Now I remember reading a post on this forum that talked about the HD cooler having a thermostatinside ofthe cooler that will not allow oil to flow through it until the oil gets up to a 180 degreesto avoid the engine running too cold,,,,if that could ever happen.

Has anyone had this experiance with their HD oil temp guage kit? I would not think this is normal, as I would like to watch my oil temp from startup to normal operating temp, not once the engine starts to overheat and the oil starts to flow through the cooler. And, if the thermostatstory is true, one would think the cooler is basically useless until the oil goes over a certain temp. Any ideas???

Also, as I already had an oil cooler on the bike, I did not need the oil cooler adapter that came with the guage kit. So I took the adapter apart and found no temp sensor inside, but I did find that when the oil cooler is not allowing oil to flow, the oil going through the filter is basically bypassing the cooler through a small hole drilled between the cooler hose ports inside of the adapter. This makes me wonder hom much oil filtering is going on during the time the oil flow is not flowing through the cooler??

 

I have the non HD version of the oil temp quage and the HD premium oil cooler with a thermostat. It has been my experience the past 2 years that it takes about 20 miles to get the temp quage to move. Rarely will the guage ever go over 210 degrees after the oil cooler installation. In the past, the dealer had quoted me about 10 miles per quart of oil to get it up to operating temperature, thus those short rides in the middle of winter don't do the oil/engine much good as much moisture will be left inside the engine...

 

I just installed mine a few wks ago. Mine is doing the same thing. I beleave the directions are wrongfor sender. I beleave itwas put on the out flow from the cooler so you/I are getting a wrong reading. Im moving my sender to the bottom of the oil pan in a week or so. I want to get a accurate reading also.

 

OK, here's a fix that will work for you guys.

Remove the sensor and replace the original hose.

Reinstall the sensor in the engine Case using a step down bushing in the casting plug at the front of the oil pan portion of the engine (the one with the large hex plug.)

Now the gauge will read the actual oil temperature in thepan instead of coming from the oil cooler.

It is the way many have always installed the factory gauge as well as the installation called for in some after market gauges.

EZ

 

I went to Laughlin Nevada today, as I had never been there during bike week before. So my wife and I ride there and get stuck in traffic with all of the other thousands of bikes. The ambient temps around 110 degrees and my bike starts running like it's going into over heat management mode. So I look at my brand new HD oil temp guage and notice it has now moved up from the 110 degree mark to around 130 degrees which means the dam thermostat in the cooler has not even opened yet and my bike is over heating!

So we pull over into a gas station where I check the cooler hoses on my bike and my wifes bike. Sure enough, both my bike and my wifes 05 RK that has a HD oil cooler I installed on it, have one cooler hose hot to the touch and one hose cool to the touch.

So what the hell good is an oil cooler if the thermostat does not even open when the bike gets hot???? Plus after thinking about it, what good is the cooler anyway? When you need it, there is no air flowing through it, as you are sitting in traffic going no where. When you are at speed and air is flowing through the cooler, the bike is running fine and the cooler is not needed anyway!!!

I wonder if even though we have high cylinder head temps, if the engine oil is not getting that hot. I now think installing an oil cooler might just bea big waste of money. (Unless you mount an electric fan on it like on a car) I'm thinking about taking mine off when I reinstall the temp sensor in the oil pan and selling it!! I wonder how it would work if the thermostat was removed and oil flowed through the cooler all of the time.

 

When I said in my earlier posts that I had taken the HD oil cooler oil filter adapter plate apart to check for a thermostat, I actually had taken the adapter plate HD sent with the oil temp guage kit apart. Both HD adapters that come with the two kits are the same, but on the adapter Harley sends when you order the guage kit, P/N 26133-07 $44.80, Harley leaves the thermostat out of that adapter.

So, wondering why I was not getting any oil flow through my oil cooler while stuck in traffic with my engine going into overheat mode, I removed the oil cooler and found there is no thermostat in the cooler. The cooler has complete open oil flow all of the time.

I then took the oil filter adapter plate that originally came with the HD oil cooler kit off of my bike. Inside of that adapter I found Harley had installed a small thermostat devise. The devise has a small pin that extends out when the oil temp reaches 180 degrees.

I took the devise out and put it in a pan of water and boiled the water. The thermostat pin did not move. I then took the thermostat and heated it with a Butane tourch. The thermostat then moved the pin out to the full extended position. Who knows at what tempature that happened??

So after examining the HD oil cooler adapter plate this is how it works. When the oil tempature is below 180 degrees, the thermostat devise allows the oil to by pass the cooler lines by allowing the oil to flow through a small hole that goes to a passageway leading to the oil filter. When the thermostat reaches 180 degrees, the thermostat devise extends the pin closing the small by pass hole. This forces the oil to flow through the cooler lines and then through the cooler.

The problem I see with this design is most of the time the engine oil is flowing through the small by pass hole and not entering the cooler. The by pass hole ID is much smaller than the oil cooler line ID. I believe the by pass hole limits the amount of oil flowing through the oil filter. At least in comparison to the ammount of oil that flows through the oil filter without the adapter plate.

What I decided to do is make the oil cooler flow all of the time. I removed the thermostat devise and drilled out the small by pass hole with a 11/32" drill bit. I then used a 1/8"-27 pipe tap and threaded the by pass hole. I then installed a 1/8"-27 brass plug in the hole using pipe thread sealent on the threads.

After cleaning the adapter plate assembly in my solvent tank and blowing it out with compressed air, I reasembled the adapter plate and reinstalled it on my bike. I now have full oil flow through my oil cooler all of the time.

Now some folks who live in cold areas might want to cover their coolers in the winter if they do this modification. As for guys like me who live in hot desert climates, I think having the oil flow through the cooler all of the time will work just fine.

 

Muleskinner? If you just removed the thermastat from the filter mount housing? would not it do the same thing without drilling and tapping and pluging? It would allow oil to flow from the filter to the cooler to the motor at any temp. Thanks Doc Or is your purpose to cool more oil with more volume?

 

Another ? do you have any before and after oil temps at the oil tank? Thanks Doc

 

Doc. Unfortunatly it won't. Here's why. Oil, like any liquid, will use the path of least resistance to flow through. The oil by pass hole is in the oil filter adapter. The oil will take the by pass hole route, as it provides less resistance than flowing through the cooler hoses and then through the cooler.

Basically if you remove the thermostat the oil will never flow through the cooler. Well maybe a small amount will, but as I stated in myprior post, when my bike was overheating the return hose from the cooler to the oil filter was cold to the touch. The supply hose was hot to the touch. That tells memost, if not all of the oil flow, is using the by pass hole to go right around the cooler. Unless HD knows something that I don't, I would hazard a guess that most, if not all of the time, the oil NEVER flows through the cooler using their design.

I checked out the another cooler site and noticed they offer a shut off valve that mounts in the cooler hoses. Thier adapters do not have thermostats in them.

 

Thanks for the reply. Do you have any before or after oil temp # ? Thanks Again Doc