oil cooler

[Anonymous]

will installing an oil cooler on a 78 gs 750E actually help with engine cooling or is it a waste of time I do have the cooler that came with it and was wondering if it is worth it to reinstall it

[Anonymous]

Cooler oil doesn't break down as fast and a cooler running engine lasts longer, in my opinion. I have one and it gets pretty warm on trips, so I say mine earns its place on the bike, not just a cosmetic piece.

[Anonymous]

On the other hand, I've owned five GS shafties, (four 850's and now this 1100GK), for a total of 17 years and 200,000 miles. No oil cooler. Bikes all ran fine without one, even in the hot midAtlantic summers.

Nick

[Anonymous]

Re: oil cooler

will installing an oil cooler on a 78 gs 750E actually help with engine cooling or is it a waste of time I do have the cooler that came with it and was wondering if it is worth it to reinstall it

Maybe, but there's some other things you should do before considering it.

Use a decent oil and change it according to riding conditions, keep the engine clean and free of corrosion, and keep it in tune & serviced.

(What's decent oil you ask? Don't mean to start a religious war. I use one of several 15W-50 synthetics. There are plenty of choices. Search this forum for the threads)

Of course you may be doing this - don't mean to say you're not. You'd be surprised how folks do stuff intended to make motors run better, cooler, longer and neglect basics.

Another thing - let your donk warm up before pushing it. Just ride steady for 10 minutes. Very few things shorten engine life quicker than wringing it's cold neck.

GS engines are built like tanks and will go megamiles if simply looked after.

[saaz]

I have owned the same bike (78GS1000) for 145,000kms. If you want to keep the bike long term use a cooler. Mine was due for an early rebuild due to overheating (now that I look back!) You can maintain closer tolerances etc on a more consistently cooled engine. I have now run as far as the original pistions on a set of MTC pistons, ported head etc, and it still runs really well and tight, as opposed to using oil, smoking etc etc. Valve stem seals may be a bit hard though, but cant help old ge!

If you don't want to worry about long term wear and performance, change the oil more often in hotter weather. Air cooled motors stress the oil in hot weather. This will keep the motor reliable, but components will still go through more extreme expansion and contraction.

[Anonymous]

For my bike?

I have a 1983 Katana 750 (GS750S). I do a lot of city riding and therefore my engine is under stress quite often and a good candidate for overheating, damn traffic jams.
What oil cooler is available for my bike? I did a quick search on Lockhart Phillips but only found Harley and Ducati coolers.
Can anybody lead me in the right direction?

[Anonymous]

Re: For my bike?

Cowboy and saaz,

Interesting subject.

My bike only seems to get really hot in stop-start traffic in very warm weather. Just wondering how effective an oil cooler is when there's no useful airflow? Take away the thermal inertia, fan and effective surface area that water cooled engines have, then airflow would have to be the key?

I got caught last summer in 10km/hr traffic climbing out of the Burnley tunnel with a following breeze. Meant I was effectively in still air and things got quite warm. How much can a cooler work in these circumstances?

cheers

[saaz]

I think the cooler would work as effectively as the engine finning. One advantage is that there would be a bit more surface area radiating heat away, the airflow would make that more efficient.

The GSX1400 has thermostat controlled fans behind its oil cooler, which is massive! This would be great to retrofit to a GS...

[Anonymous]

The GSX1400 has thermostat controlled fans behind its oil cooler, which is massive! This would be great to retrofit to a GS...

Might buy one of these coolers for the GS.
Comes with free GSX1400 8O

[saaz]

Yes, a free GSX1400!

Even when still there is an appreciable temperature drop across the oil cooler. The current derale one (the old copper tube type) works, better than nothing, but my older plate stack cooler really radiated the heat and dropped the oil temp across the cooler.

If you can't put on a cooler, changing the oil more often in these conditions will help. These modern oils are a lot better than when the GS was designed. On a standard bike this should help a lot. Once you hot these things a bit, the increased temperature is really noticeable.