Oil Cooler or Temp Gauge?
Road Warrior
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,716
Likes: 8
From: General Sherman's Christmas Location 1864
My 07 I installed a temp guage and down here in Ga I have only seen 240 a couple of times in traffic.
It maintain a nice steady 220 all day long stock.
remember to low and the water vapor will not dissapate
On the road in Sept. I did a 2800 mile trip , little cool but it maintained 190-200....
No oil cooler needed here
It maintain a nice steady 220 all day long stock.
remember to low and the water vapor will not dissapate
On the road in Sept. I did a 2800 mile trip , little cool but it maintained 190-200....
No oil cooler needed here
Ultimate HDF Member
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 9,254
Likes: 283
From: Lake City, Florida (Native)
My 07 I installed a temp guage and down here in Ga I have only seen 240 a couple of times in traffic.
It maintain a nice steady 220 all day long stock.
remember to low and the water vapor will not dissapate
On the road in Sept. I did a 2800 mile trip , little cool but it maintained 190-200....
No oil cooler needed here
It maintain a nice steady 220 all day long stock.
remember to low and the water vapor will not dissapate
On the road in Sept. I did a 2800 mile trip , little cool but it maintained 190-200....
No oil cooler needed here
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 56,052
Likes: 88,847
From: Western South Dakota
Oil cooler. I have the Oil Bud Cooler as it is the biggest and it is also the most expensive, but it has the biggest cooling area too. So in a sense you get what you pay for. I say that as a guy that I know has an ultra with the HD premium cooler and he says that fully loaded with crusing with his wife going 80-85 on the innerstate that his ultra still hits 300 degree temps.. FWIW.
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 11,476
Likes: 3,003
From: Charleston, SC
Having run the temp gauge "only" for years my observation has been this:
Without oil cooler:
Phase 1) Moving: 220-240 at 80 degrees, 230-260 at 100 degrees
Phase 2) Inching Traffic: If I'm running at 240 and hit dead stop traffic I now have about 5-10 minutes before the bike goes to 300+. If on a super highway with no where to pull over (has happened many times), the bike goes critical, and I'm crying because my legs are on fire.
Phase 3) Bike is over heated, traffic starts moving, it now takes 45 minutes of continuous riding to bring the oil temp down, if it comes down at all. The entire time the bike is without power and I'm babying it to keep from damaging something. Eventually you just have to pull over, shutdown, and let it cool off because it cannot cool itself...even while moving. The oil and engine are heat saturated. No amount of air is bringing it back down.
With oil cooler:
Phase 1) Moving: 180-220 at 80 degrees, 200-230 at 100 degrees
Phase 2) Inching Traffic: Bike is already at a lower temp than without oil cooler. Now I have MORE TIME before the bike goes critical. Usually about double the time than that without an oil cooler. Say like 20 minutes.
Phase 3) Bike is over heated, we start moving, oil temp goes back down within 5-10 minutes. This is awesome folks...
By "critical" I mean I smell burning paint and the temp gauge is pegged past 300, and my nuts and legs are on fire.
By "Inching Traffic" I mean traffic that goes on for 3-4 miles and moves 2-3 foot at a time. Can't shutdown, can't pull over. Think of an accident in the middle of a bridge.
Just my observations and the main reason I run an oil cooler. The bike(s) run better and are more powerful running cooler. Do they "need" an oil cooler? Prob not. But I like having the option of having more time in heavy traffic and I like having a more powerful bike.
lp
Without oil cooler:
Phase 1) Moving: 220-240 at 80 degrees, 230-260 at 100 degrees
Phase 2) Inching Traffic: If I'm running at 240 and hit dead stop traffic I now have about 5-10 minutes before the bike goes to 300+. If on a super highway with no where to pull over (has happened many times), the bike goes critical, and I'm crying because my legs are on fire.
Phase 3) Bike is over heated, traffic starts moving, it now takes 45 minutes of continuous riding to bring the oil temp down, if it comes down at all. The entire time the bike is without power and I'm babying it to keep from damaging something. Eventually you just have to pull over, shutdown, and let it cool off because it cannot cool itself...even while moving. The oil and engine are heat saturated. No amount of air is bringing it back down.
With oil cooler:
Phase 1) Moving: 180-220 at 80 degrees, 200-230 at 100 degrees
Phase 2) Inching Traffic: Bike is already at a lower temp than without oil cooler. Now I have MORE TIME before the bike goes critical. Usually about double the time than that without an oil cooler. Say like 20 minutes.
Phase 3) Bike is over heated, we start moving, oil temp goes back down within 5-10 minutes. This is awesome folks...
By "critical" I mean I smell burning paint and the temp gauge is pegged past 300, and my nuts and legs are on fire.
By "Inching Traffic" I mean traffic that goes on for 3-4 miles and moves 2-3 foot at a time. Can't shutdown, can't pull over. Think of an accident in the middle of a bridge.
Just my observations and the main reason I run an oil cooler. The bike(s) run better and are more powerful running cooler. Do they "need" an oil cooler? Prob not. But I like having the option of having more time in heavy traffic and I like having a more powerful bike.
lp
Elite HDF Member
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 3,948
Likes: 54
From: The Burgh
Having run the temp gauge "only" for years my observation has been this:
Without oil cooler:
Phase 1) Moving: 220-240 at 80 degrees, 230-260 at 100 degrees
Phase 2) Inching Traffic: If I'm running at 240 and hit dead stop traffic I now have about 5-10 minutes before the bike goes to 300+. If on a super highway with no where to pull over (has happened many times), the bike goes critical, and I'm crying because my legs are on fire.
Phase 3) Bike is over heated, traffic starts moving, it now takes 45 minutes of continuous riding to bring the oil temp down, if it comes down at all. The entire time the bike is without power and I'm babying it to keep from damaging something. Eventually you just have to pull over, shutdown, and let it cool off because it cannot cool itself...even while moving. The oil and engine are heat saturated. No amount of air is bringing it back down.
With oil cooler:
Phase 1) Moving: 180-220 at 80 degrees, 200-230 at 100 degrees
Phase 2) Inching Traffic: Bike is already at a lower temp than without oil cooler. Now I have MORE TIME before the bike goes critical. Usually about double the time than that without an oil cooler. Say like 20 minutes.
Phase 3) Bike is over heated, we start moving, oil temp goes back down within 5-10 minutes. This is awesome folks...
By "critical" I mean I smell burning paint and the temp gauge is pegged past 300, and my nuts and legs are on fire.
By "Inching Traffic" I mean traffic that goes on for 3-4 miles and moves 2-3 foot at a time. Can't shutdown, can't pull over. Think of an accident in the middle of a bridge.
Just my observations and the main reason I run an oil cooler. The bike(s) run better and are more powerful running cooler. Do they "need" an oil cooler? Prob not. But I like having the option of having more time in heavy traffic and I like having a more powerful bike.
lp
Without oil cooler:
Phase 1) Moving: 220-240 at 80 degrees, 230-260 at 100 degrees
Phase 2) Inching Traffic: If I'm running at 240 and hit dead stop traffic I now have about 5-10 minutes before the bike goes to 300+. If on a super highway with no where to pull over (has happened many times), the bike goes critical, and I'm crying because my legs are on fire.
Phase 3) Bike is over heated, traffic starts moving, it now takes 45 minutes of continuous riding to bring the oil temp down, if it comes down at all. The entire time the bike is without power and I'm babying it to keep from damaging something. Eventually you just have to pull over, shutdown, and let it cool off because it cannot cool itself...even while moving. The oil and engine are heat saturated. No amount of air is bringing it back down.
With oil cooler:
Phase 1) Moving: 180-220 at 80 degrees, 200-230 at 100 degrees
Phase 2) Inching Traffic: Bike is already at a lower temp than without oil cooler. Now I have MORE TIME before the bike goes critical. Usually about double the time than that without an oil cooler. Say like 20 minutes.
Phase 3) Bike is over heated, we start moving, oil temp goes back down within 5-10 minutes. This is awesome folks...
By "critical" I mean I smell burning paint and the temp gauge is pegged past 300, and my nuts and legs are on fire.
By "Inching Traffic" I mean traffic that goes on for 3-4 miles and moves 2-3 foot at a time. Can't shutdown, can't pull over. Think of an accident in the middle of a bridge.
Just my observations and the main reason I run an oil cooler. The bike(s) run better and are more powerful running cooler. Do they "need" an oil cooler? Prob not. But I like having the option of having more time in heavy traffic and I like having a more powerful bike.
lp
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 11,476
Likes: 3,003
From: Charleston, SC
If we were "inching" it never would kick in which was the case most of the time.
lp
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Elite HDF Member
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 3,948
Likes: 54
From: The Burgh
For us, if we were at like 230+ and hit a dead stop it would kick-in in about a minute. In other words, it would go right into EITMS mode. Kinda a pain and when it was on it made little or no difference in the sky-rocketing oil temp.
If we were "inching" it never would kick in which was the case most of the time.
lp
If we were "inching" it never would kick in which was the case most of the time.
lp
This is not my experience. I have an oil cooler and my bike still goes into EITMS when I'm stuck in inching traffic, even if the outside temp is in the 60s. Happened to me saturday in a big traffic jam due to road construction. The outside temp was 65F.
I have an Ultra with lowers so the heat is kinda trapped around the engine. This could be the reason.