36 degrees, blew out my oil cooler

[franknsr]

ok, is it me? I seem to spend more time wrenching that riding. Today's adventure started when I fired it up to go for a ride. Its 36 degrees but I've ridden this bike in colder temps. Almost immediately it started pissing oil out on the driveway. A seam on my oil cooler blew out. Just put the bike back together and I'm using Mobil 1 20w50, which is the only thing I've ever used in this bike.

So, should I be using a lower weight oil, or is this just bad luck? BTW, this is the bike with oil in the case guard so and I've never had an issue with running hot or puking while running the factory cooler.

[Jumper]

What Oil Cooler are you running other than the Crash Bar Cooler?
Jumper

[franknsr]

Just the EH cooler. Its the one in the pic.

[wytfut]

I think it was just bad luck frank.
It's fooling into believing it's running so much pressure it blew out the seam.
That kind of pressure you'd have oil coming out all over your bike. Valve cover gaskets, output shaft seal, etc....
I believe you got a factory defective oil cooler.
If in doubt, put a manual oil pressure gauge on your X at the oil pressure sending unit.

[franknsr]

Thanks for the input, appreciate that.

Follow up question, I'm looking at a Hayden oil cooler and seem to recall that someone came up with a stand pipe to go inside one side of the cooler to make sure the cooler fills up with oil. Tried searching the forum with no luck. Does this ring a bell for anyone?

[wytfut]

Yes, that's Jim Turek.....
He doesn't watch any of the sites any more...
But I have his email at home...

Hopefully I'll remember Tonite and get it for you.

[jimxt1338]

Hey Bruce,
I watch the sites, I just don't post. I check them every month or two. Franksr, I don't have any standpipes left and my connection for having them made no longer exists. Sorry.

[blackheart]

What Jim is trying to avoid is the oil cooler becoming air bound.  Its doubtful the air separates so readily this can occur with oil/air.  Its possible but this assumes the entrained gasses/air seperate immediately on the inlet side of the cooler and that the cooler is single pass where by you have multiple parallel circuits and the air stays in the upper circuits.  Id say the cooler would have to be grossly oversized for this to occur.  The other way to eliminate tge concern is to select one which oil enters in bottom and comes out the top, or one thats multi pass on oil side

[jimxt1338]

Franksr,
If I remember correctly, you are in HVAC. You can easily make the standpipes yourself if you can braze or solder copper tubing. Just ask 66john to remove his standpipe from his cooler to see how it was made. I just can't recall what size tubing was soldered into the fitting or the length. I am not sure what cooler you are installing either and if the standpipe is even necessary in that particular application. My standpipe was intended for use on the NFP style cooler that many of us run on these bikes. Hope this helps...

[franknsr]

Thanks for the responses guys. The problem I was trying to solve was the oil not getting to the top of the oversized cooler I was going to use in an inverted position, that is, with the inlet and outlet at the bottom.
Blackheart, you got me thinking; if I just go with the biggest trans cooler that will for the bike I'll probably be fine. The cross section is pretty small so hopefully it will fill up all the way.
I know the easy answer is to pick up one of Atlantic's coolers with the fan, but its a little out of my reach right now.
BTW, not an HVAC guy. Hell, I cant even spell HVAC. ;-)

[blackheart]

Well not sure of the size of the connection but if its A 1/2" i can make you the tube.  If its 3/8" then probably could still possibly make one depending upon diameter at outlet of cooler.

What model hayden cooler you thinking of?

Mostly i think its a moot point.   Look at HD.  They inherently have lower oil flow due to roller bearings and the have used single pass bottom inlet and outlet coolers for years.

[jimxt1338]

Sorry Frank,
  I had you confused with Ed T, another Illinois Xer. It's hell to get old...forget all kinds of stuff! The NFP cooler is a 24 row trans cooler made by B&M. Similar to the cooler in Jaime and Marty's kit but twice as tall and not polished.
  You can also buy the polished or black B&M 12 row and not have any filling issues. It might easily mount to your stock cooler brackets. You shouldn't need any more than this if your running the oil through the engine guard.
  I have a used 12 row polished B&M cooler for sale if your interested... I removed it from #1338 and exchanged it for the 24 row with fan assist. Let me know if your interested. I am in Saint John, Indiana.

[rt66john]

I found this on the Yahoo board about Jim's stand pipe design.  His words from a post a few years ago:

"a single piece brass 90 fitting and 6" piece of copper tubing brazed into the end"

If memory serves, these parts were purchased at a local hardware store.  Just get the 90 degree fitting and find a piece of copper tube that fits in it.

[franknsr]

Just threw a Hayden 676, 9 row trans cooler on the bike. A little wider and twice as tall as the OE cooler, and already noticed that the top gets hot so I'm sure oil is getting all the way up. Blackheart was right... no problem with a reasonably sized cooler.

[blackheart]

Franknsr: You aren't the only one whose blown an oil cooler.  In my trials with this #307, I had finished in time for the ice and cold to show up.  Here a few weeks ago it got to 40 degrees so I fired it up and rode it 20 miles with no issue.  I'd say my shop was 30F when I fired up.  This last weekend I rolled it out knowing temps might hit 50.  After an initial fire and warm up I noticed a nice stream coming out of the factory cooler on the inlet side.  This time the bike was at my house garage probably in the mid 40's or more.  I suspect the cooler was weakened earlier and I noticed the factory compression clamp was working it's way off the cooler nipple. So pressure was obviously high.  Since I'm breaking in new rings I am running shell rotella 15W-40, so it's not like its super heavy oil.  However on mine I had a jagg 10 row cooler downstream of the factory cooler so that doubles pressure drop potentially depending upon flow capacity of each.

So I had a question. You mentioned your bike had oil in the case guard, are you implying that oil was also routed into a frame rail?

Good thing is my bike appears to be OK with normal rings in it and I learned a hard lesson the expensive way.