has anyone installed the oil cooler kit on Fatboy Lo? Does it lower the heat enough? Is it worth the investment?

 

how much do you ride and how hot is it there?

 

I would like to know about this also. I have an ABS version Fatboy Lo. I live in the desert and we routinely have 100+ degrees. I was looking at the Ultra cool... but it does not work with ABS.

 

To answer your question directly, no, I have not installed an oil cooler on a Fatboy Low. If you want to ignore my further response because of that fact, please stop reading.

To get at the core of the underlying issue at hand, I have to say that I have always been dubious of oil coolers on our bikes. I am not saying that oil coolers do not work (at cooling oil). I think they do, in fact, cool oil. What I doubt is their ability to have any real effect on the engine temperature of our bikes. Our bikes are air-cooled, not oil cooled. Hot oil is a symptom of hot engine temperatures, not the other way around.

What I am saying is that if one has a stock or mildly modified engine that is operating at hotter than safe engine temperatures (measured by engine temperature, not oil temperature) then one needs to be looking at the fuel mixture (and/or octane rating) and/or ignition timing.

Unless one has a full-bore race engine with sky-high compression ratios (which will run hot no matter what - and is meant to have a short life but huge power) or radical changes in cam overlap, then high temps are not really going to be effected in any way by cooling the oil. Water/meth injection, yes. 10-30 degrees cooler oil, not so much. I doubt that an oil cooler could even make 30 degrees cooling difference to the total oil volume anyways.

I am also not saying that cooling the oil will have no effect, just not that much of an effect. Certainly one would get better engine cooling effect by getting rid of all of the chrome and polished finishes on the engine and oil system (as polished/chrome finishes retain heat - that is why tea kettles are shiny) and replacing them with black-finished parts. Flat black, ideally - it sheds heat the best.

In the end, I am saying that if you are riding in 120 degree ambient temperature, you are friggin' nuts no matter what temperature the engine is. That said, a 20 degree ambient air temperature difference does not equate with a 20 degree difference in engine temperature. Your engine can only shed so much heat. Period. So long as the outside air is cooler than the engine temperature, it will loose heat. Please don't try to compare riding at 0 degrees and 100 degrees an engine operating temperature, because a 100 degree ambient air difference will make some impact, but it will not make the engine operate at 100 degrees cooler than a 100 degree day. If you don't believe me, ride your bike 25 miles on a 100 degree day and hit the exhaust pipe at the head with a infra-red temp gauge. Then next winter do the same. Compare the temps and try to relate it to the ambient air temps. You will see that there is little difference in pipe temps.

In the end, do what you want. Destructively hot engines have issues that an oil cooler will not fix.

 

interesting......and good to know..

 

good points Dave

 

I have always shyed away from oiler coolers unless it was high performance to the core with a oil pump that was to die for.

 

I've was considering about putting an oil cooler on my Softail but came to the conclusion that an oil cooler only really works when you are moving unless you have some sort of fan attached to it and as long as I keep my bike moving I don't any problems its the prolonged stops in heavy traffic that I don't like and I can't see an oil cooler helping much in that scenario,I did recently switch everything over to synthetics and that has dropped my temps even better than expected

 

As long as you have air moving over your engine, you should be OK (If everything is in tune). Now, if you ride in a lot of stop and go traffic, Harley makes an optional engine cooling fan for bikes that are used in parades. I believe it mounts on the horn side of the engine and is thermostatically controlled.

 

Here's an aftermarket version I saw this morning. http://www.cyrilhuzeblog.com/2012/04...er/#more-93601