Oil cooler protection grill

Gilles

Gilles

Well-known member
Premium Member
Visit site
Very easy to do it yourself !

What you need is an aluminium grill and small silicone tube

The grill I got for 15€, black epoxy coated (enough for 3 cooler protection)

grille radiateur huile (1).jpg


The cooler face is 19 cm by 13 cm, so cut the grill 19 cm by 17 cm to get 2 cm on each side to be bent

grille radiateur huile (4).jpg


grille radiateur huile (5).jpg

Slit 4 pieces of silicone tube lengthwise

grille radiateur huile (9).jpg


Installation on the R18, the silicone tubes will prevent vibration of the grill on the cooler

grille radiateur huile (10).jpg


grille radiateur huile (11).jpg


It is done

grille radiateur huile (12).jpg
 
Svtweb said:
I think it looks really great. My only concern would be the reduction in thermal efficiency with the reduced airflow.
Click to expand...
Yes, I'm thinking the same thing. I may go back to the more open design come summertime. Online Metals actually rate the airflow percentage of some of their screening. I think the smaller 1/4" round holed protection screen I made is 58% air flow. The .75" diamond screening doesn't say what the air flow percentage is, so it must be negligible. Being an air/oil cooled engine, I don't think it will make that much difference.

Do R18s have an oil temp gauge?
 
Last edited:
enzo5000 said:
Being an air cooled engine, I don't think it will make that much difference.

Do R18s have an oil temp gauge?
Click to expand...
So while they are “Air Cooled” they are really Oil/Air cooled. Like the R1200 motor, oil circulates through passages in the cylinder/head to improve cooling.

no Oil temp gauge on the R18.
 
So engine temp would be a good surrogate of oil temp. I’d say just look out for appreciably higher temperature and change the screen if needed.
 
Being in a place that gets lots of fresh airflow (albeit behind the front wheel) I would bet that the reduction in flow caused by the screen would be unimportant.

Yes. The engine (like almost all modern air cooled motorcycle engines) is "air/oil" cooled. The primary reason for that new "characteristic" in engine nomenclature came about in the 80s when manufacturers began to install jets that squirted oil at the underside of the pistons and also (often but not always) to increase oil flow over the combustion chambers. Both places, as parts of the combustion chambers, get VERY hot and don't (usually) get any cooling from exterior airflow. The advent of using oil to help cool critical parts isn't limited to air cooled engines either. Most modern liquid cooled motorcycle engines get similar measures because it's difficult to put an effective "water jacket" over the combustion chamber and impossible to have one that cools the pistons. Using the oil to cool VERY HOT parts of the engine results in hotter oil than was common before they made specific "air/oil cooled" systems. So oil coolers have become common, also they still may not be required if the engine has sufficient cooling fins.

Still, AIR directly flowing over the engine fins is the R18s primary cooling medium. Of course, it also extracts heat from the oil cooler. But if oil were truly the critical cooling method, there would probably be a fan behind the oil cooler.

FYI: When Indian first released the 111 cubic inch V-Twin, air cooled, Thunder Stroke series of motorcycles, they put an oil cooler on all of them. Then they changed to only putting the oil cooler on the Roadmaster, which is the touring model that also has lower fairings that reduces some air flow over the engine (depending on speeds & wind direction). On my own Roadmaster, in the winter, I install a custom made ABS cover over the oil cooler, so the oil doesn't get chilled down when it doesn't need it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top