Oil Cooler?

[Guest]

What's up Gang?

What's a good oil cooler to get for a stock GS1100E? The reason why I'm asking is, I live in Maryland and we have been having some hot days lately. Temps have been in high 90's and when I took the bike out for a ride my temp got up to 220-230. Thanks for your help.

Thanks, Supavert

[Nessism]

If you search on "cooler" in Title Only (advanced search), you will get lots of information.

[lurch12_2000]

What's up Gang?

What's a good oil cooler to get for a stock GS1100E? The reason why I'm asking is, I live in Maryland and we have been having some hot days lately. Temps have been in high 90's and when I took the bike out for a ride my temp got up to 220-230. Thanks for your help.

Thanks, Supavert

I have a Derale oil cooler that was already installed on my '83 GS1100ES.
Never gets past 190-200 temps even on 95 degree days, after over an hour of riding, including stop and go traffic. I use dino oil, too.
It attaches to the oil filter cover and doesn't leak either. Just have to be a little more careful when changing the filter to line up the cover and gasket when installing, with hoses attached.

[Steve]

I am intrigued by all those who are suddenly concerned about oil temps "because it has been rather hot lately". You mentioned that your temps have been 220-230 and are concerned. You say the air temp has been in the high 90s. Let's drop that down to the high 70s. Oil temp would (maybe) drop to 200-210. Is this that much better? Personally, I want my oil to get over 212 just to boil all the water out of it. And, even though the air might be 20 degrees cooler, there is no guarantee that the oil will be 20 degrees cooler. Now you want to add an oil cooler on it to get the oil temp down to ... what? I have not checked on the most recent batch of oil products available, but I seem to remember a previous study that showed that most of the oils you can buy were good to 250 or so. Although your oil would run cooler, you also have a BUNCH of places just begging to leak some oil, too, with all the hoses, fittings and, probably, adapters. I would suggest not worrying about it too much and just enjoy the ride.



Hijack over. Now back to your regularly scheduled thread.

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[lurch12_2000]

I am intrigued by all those who are suddenly concerned about oil temps "because it has been rather hot lately". You mentioned that your temps have been 220-230 and are concerned. You say the air temp has been in the high 90s. Let's drop that down to the high 70s. Oil temp would (maybe) drop to 200-210. Is this that much better? Personally, I want my oil to get over 212 just to boil all the water out of it. And, even though the air might be 20 degrees cooler, there is no guarantee that the oil will be 20 degrees cooler. Now you want to add an oil cooler on it to get the oil temp down to ... what? I have not checked on the most recent batch of oil products available, but I seem to remember a previous study that showed that most of the oils you can buy were good to 250 or so. Although your oil would run cooler, you also have a BUNCH of places just begging to leak some oil, too, with all the hoses, fittings and, probably, adapters. I would suggest not worrying about it too much and just enjoy the ride.



Hijack over. Now back to your regularly scheduled thread.

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Not sure that people are "suddenly" concerned with oil temps as much as a lot of folks have expressed legitimate concern for awhile regarding our old air cooled GSes and effects on oil on hot days, stop and go traffic and prolonged runs at high speeds.
I agree that if you do tend to shorter rides and are never really reaching a "warmed up" temp that sludge would possibly build up from moisture and be cause of more concern and why get a cooler?.
Is it worth adding a cooler?...depends on your type of riding. Maybe higher oil temps (over 220) under normal riding may indicate something else is up with your engine.
On my G I don't have a temp gauge or an oil cooler, so I guess I don't worry about it and just go and ride anyway. But I also change my oil regularly with dino oil.
Nor do I worry that my ES (WITH an oil cooler) doesn't reach 212 degrees as I usually commute 35+ miles per ride and would take an educated guess that there is no water moisture left in my oil to worry about.
Besides, if we all didn't submit our concerns about oil temps, which fork oil weight to use, if our valve clearences are .038 or .09mm then what would we talk about?

[buckeyemike]

steve

I like that post on the cooler. I was thinking about one myself and after reading your post I dont need the overkill of a cooler, and I never thought about it doing harm. thanks

[TheCafeKid]

Having recently installed an oil cooler on my GS1100G (with Steves help no less ) I can say that it IS added piece of mind for me. I live in the inner city, travel about 20 or so miles eachway to work, and often durring rush hour. I sit at times for 15 minutes or more in stop and go. Usually, however, if im sitting in stand still traffic, the bike gets shut off. However, the bigger peace of mind with the oil cooler installation came durring the Red River Rally, when temps were well over 90+ degrees, we spent a decent amount of time with the revs in the 5-7k mark while running roads, (at least i did) I didnt worry about the bike revolting over it. However, not many others were running a cooler, and suffered no temperature related failures, so it probably isnt that big a deal. I just sleep better at night