Custom oil cooler ideas?

[Tricky13]

Hi guys, just looking for some ideas on a custom oil cooler for my Triumph Trident T160 Bobber project, i have junked the std item as its pig ugly, too big and i think overkill for the UK climate, but i suspect if pushed oil temps may get a little high,

I have seen some nice looking finned tube design coolers, but by the time they get to the UK from the US and have all the duty added, it just makes then wat too much money.

So i am looking for some ideas for a cheap alternative, maybe somebody has come up with something re functioned from another source that does the job?

[Tricky13]

Will give this another go....has anyone come up with any ingenious ideas for a cooler? otherwise i may just fit an external oil filter and hope the extra pipework and filter itself will give some extra cooling.

[Deckard43]

look in your local scrap yards. smaller cars like Kia, Hyundai and others have tiny finned oil filters behind their grill. I've seen some pretty decent looking ones. maybe ebay?

[4evrshovel]

you can buy some cool looking ones. I put 1 of a chevy s 10 on my bike. cost me $2 from the wreckers.

[Dougtheinternetannoyance123]

Will give this another go....has anyone come up with any ingenious ideas for a cooler? otherwise i may just fit an external oil filter and hope the extra pipework and filter itself will give some extra cooling.

Tricky, MOST Bike oil coolers are very expensive. I kind of like the stock Trident/Triple oil coolers myself, but heres my $0.02 and let you convert to pounds.
A) Look at automotive and industrial applications, they typically are a fraction of the cost as Bling-Bling Live to ride shit.
B) ONLY run a Oil cooler with a good thermostat.

I know a bunch of guys who have done extensive testing with thermocouples and complicated test equipment. Most British bikes dont run hot enough, run the wrong oils, dont warm up the bikes properly and certain parts of the motor cook the hell out of the oil but the rest doesnt get up to temp. Oil depending on grade needs to run in a specific range. Nortons for example rarely ever get the oil temp up to proper temps which means condensation (Water) never boils off like it should,. However parts of the cyl head cook the snot out of the oil.
So, On my Evo Sporty,, It does fine 90% of the time except in summer stuck in traffic and then it overheats.Knocks and is generally embarrassing and stressful. A GOOD quality thermostat is the key. It only routes the oil thru the cooler when needed.

The problem is a nice clean install without looking like a Industrial accident scene. On my OIF 79 Triumph cafe,, I Have a nice used setup I scored at a swap meet. I forget the brand but its the top name in Bike coolers-thermostats. Retail it was the cost of a Mortgage payment but I got it cheap on a swap table,. (Autojumble). I worked for a while as a Millwright in a aerospace manuf, and picked up some nice little trick coolers for some industrial machinery.. And I have several types of coolers for my Buells from Factory units (XB) to some cool aftermarket units. (I have a 1998 S1 Lightning) But they ALL run a thermostat.

(PS,, some of my old shop customers ran coolers off of Cars, Ford even made one for Powersteering systems)

[Tricky13]

Thanks guys, Doug, i would not normally run a cooler on a British twin, but the trident came with one as std, which i am not running just to see what sort of temps it makes, i am not convinced its really necessary anyway, but i just thought i would see if anyone had ideas for a neat solution should i decide that its really a must, i suspect not but you never know until you try.

Like i said i may just try running a commando type filter and see if that's enough, and going by the metal particles i found embedded in the mains, and the metal in the crank oil ways its probably a good idea despite the std one.

[WillSCB]

Not sure how it would work on a Brit bike, or how available they are, but I know here in the US they used to use oil coolers from automatic transmissions. Cheap. plentiful, and small.

[Dougtheinternetannoyance123]

Thanks guys, Doug, i would not normally run a cooler on a British twin, but the trident came with one as std, which i am not running just to see what sort of temps it makes, i am not convinced its really necessary anyway, but i just thought i would see if anyone had ideas for a neat solution should i decide that its really a must, i suspect not but you never know until you try.

Like i said i may just try running a commando type filter and see if that's enough, and going by the metal particles i found embedded in the mains, and the metal in the crank oil ways its probably a good idea despite the std one.

I would run some temp gauges and find out, as I said, Several other forums and newsletters over the years some surprising results in actual testing. Thats why I like a liquid filled oil gauge so much as it taught me to be more concerned about warming it up properly,,

As to the Oil filters, Oil is much different now with multi grades and all the chemicals in the oils. The old sludge trap (like a septic tank) used to be the method of filtration. But I would HIGHLY recomend a Oil filter, I often use the Norton kits as they can be mounted out of the way but one important thing to note. This may sound odd, but BLOW thru the filters to test. Many auto filters have a check valve inside the filters and dont flow until certain pressure is reached. The Norton types dont have this (Full flow). You dont want the oil system backing up because of lack of flow.
So There are MANY filters that will fit the bases, or even a generic filter base but make sure whatever filter you use doesnt have a internal flapper or check valve. It may look odd at the auto parts store blowing into filters,, but thats the test.