The need for an oil cooler for street riding? (GS1000G)

[ptexotik]

Think of them as a brick you decided to bolt to the frame just for the hellofit.

[Griffin]

Some people get really worked up over high oil temps. I don't so much after a little trip I took in 1991.

I rode my 700ES from southern Louisiana to El Paso, Texas in one day in August. 1,064 miles in 100+ degree heat, 80 mph (or more) the whole way.

The temperature gauge on my bike was reading 300 degrees F for about 10-12 hours of the ride, and never was below 250 degrees. Once I got to Fort Stockton, with 250 miles still to go, I began hoping the bike would blow up and a friendly trucker with air conditioning would pick me up.

(Un)Fortunately, the bike never missed a beat, and I made it to El Paso in worse shape than my bike. I did have to add half a quart of oil every 250 miles or so, it was burning it up that quickly.

The ride back across Texas four days later was mostly done at night. I left El Paso at 10:00pm, and took a more northerly route. I stopped in the Tyler area after only 750 miles for a break and good night's sleep.

I still have that bike, she runs like a champ. I now use only Rotella 5W-40 synthetic in it, and have no problems engine wise after 70,000+ miles.

Even after that beating it took 21 years ago.

[Nessism]

I concur with the use of synthetic oil during the heat of summer. Particularly if you drive at slow speed, such as when getting stuck in traffic. At high temperatures dino oils thin out more and provide less film strength than synthetic. I consider it a cheap risk mitigation technique.

[Mercaholic]

I rode my 700ES from southern Louisiana to El Paso, Texas in one day in August. 1,064 miles in 100+ degree heat, 80 mph (or more) the whole way.

The ride back across Texas four days later was mostly done at night. I left El Paso at 10:00pm, and took a more northerly route. I stopped in the Tyler area after only 750 miles for a break and good night's sleep.

Just reading this route made my body ache. Maybe could have done it while in my teens but now at the double nickel, I need to be in my VStrom.

[Chris]

Interesting thoughts on oil coolers and permissible oil temps. I've owned two '79 GS1000S's, one back in the day and one currently. My experience based on those two bikes mirrors what several posters have written. Without a cooler mounted the bikes will run temps around 275 - 300 degrees in the summer when ridden in a sporting fashion and I have seen well over 300 when racing at the Texas World Speedway in College Station back in 1981-2. With a cooler mounted temps stayed around 250 or thereabouts. So the coolers seem to do exactly what they promise. More troubling might be the question of whether they are needed at all. I think if you're running synthetic they probably aren't. Synthetics flow almost exactly the same at almost all temps and are very tolerant of even very high temps as befits oils originally developed for use in jet engines. But if you are running dinosaur blood I think the cooler is a worthwhile addition. Ideally traditional oils should run hot enough to boil away any moisture in the oil but cool enough that the oil doesn't start to deteriorate or change it's flow characteristics. That would seem to suggest that slightly above water's boiling point and no hotter would be ideal. That would be around 225-230. So the oil cooler reducing the oil temps on a bike from 300 down to 250 is a good thing and keeps the oil near its ideal working temp. I've only recently put my money where my mouth is and mounted a rather nice oil cooler kit by Active in Japan which uses a Earls cooler and custom adapter replacing the usual Suzuki oil pressure sender mount on my current GS-S. Now I can flog the bike a little on the Dragon and not feel guilty and avoid looking at the oil temp guage while having fun. As always, this is just my .02 and isn't intended to be contentious with any of the good folks who took the time to submit their thoughts on this subject.

PS: Griffin...I made the trip from Austin, TX to Phoenix, AZ via I-10 a couple of times with my first GS1000S in 1981. West TX goes on, and on, and on, and on......

[7981GS]

Cooler engine oil means a cooler running stator.

Eric