6th gen oil cooler "mod" (let the hazing and name calling begin.)

Ok, so my brain has been working overtime on crap for the bike lately. Not so good when I need to get to sleep, LOL.
One of the things I had thought about was building a simple scoop to redirect some air up to the oil cooler. Why? I looked at that and scratched my head, asking 'How the F does any air get up there to cool down the oil?'

Case in point, this is looking straight at the front fairing:


As you can see, the oil cooler is hiding behind the fairing, and is pretty much up next to the headlight housings. There is no real way to get any significant air flow to the oil cooler. So I unbolted the cooler and let it hang there while I thought. Then I looked at it, and it hit me - 'Why not let it sit lower than it normally does?'

Like so:


All it really needs is some simple brackets. The forks clear the lines without issue, and you can BARELY see a small section of the line when the fairings are on.

So, am I crazy in thinking that getting more air to the oil cooler is a bad thing? I know when I had my Katana, which is oil cooled, it wasn't sitting behind a fairing. And since cooler oil is not a bad thing on a hot summer day, I figured it might help with keeping the temps down as well.

I'm bracing myself now for your comments and ridicule.

 

I've read that one before, Tink. Given that a 6th gen has a 3 row cooler, I didn't really see the need for a RC51 upgrade.
That 5th Gen is even in a different spot than the 6th gen. At least there it had access to unrestriced air, albeight warm air.

 

Interesting thought Talon.

Before you make any lowering brackets for that oil cooler I would suggest that you put your bike up on a set of bike stands and remove your front fork springs. Now gently lower your bike back down to the ground. Be EXTREMELY careful because the front suspension will now fully collapse and you don't want to drop your bike.

Prolly best to have a friend or two give you a hand with this. Might even be a good idea to remove your front fender before you lower the bike,just in case.

With the front forks fully collapsed this will now give you an idea of exactly how low you can safely mount the oil cooler without it hitting the front fender during maximum front suspension travel.

Now if some manufacturer made these carbon fiber radiator inlet scoops for the VFR800 like they do for the RC51 you'd have it made.

 

Those are pure sex!

Good idea on the compression test, hadn't thought of that.

 

Ok, looks like I would have about 3.5-3.75 inches (depending on final placement) from the top of the fender to the bottom of the oil cooler, at it's proposed location.

From the top of the fender to the bottom of the front fairing is about 5 inches. So, basically I would be losing 1.25-1.5 inches of suspension "cushion".

This may sound naive, but in what kind of conditions do you think it would take to compress my front forks 3.5"? Not that I'm saying I wouldn't EVER, but I'm trying to work out the small things before going to the steps of pulling my front wheel.

 

It's about time! LOL

 

if your not compressing your forks 3.5" your not cornering hard or fast enough! Id go with the rc51 cooler or mock up and build a ram-scoop.....hummm sounds like a personal project...ill get back to the group if I do it.

 

Yeah, I was going to build a ram scoop, but have you seen how tight the fit is where the stock 6th gen cooler sits? I suppose if you just built a scoop for the bottom of the cooler...

 

yeah i think ive seen how tight the gap is on my 6th gen. a simple S-scoop type idea would fit with only a little persuasion, I could even keep that air temp sensor in the stock local and blind it from road heat drift. I wont bother directing the out-flow as it wil hit the engine and follow the natural air flow out.
DAMN IT now im actually planning this insanity! my wife is studying to be a GA, Ill get her to do up a drawing.

 

I love it when I can put crazy ideas into people's heads.

 

My main concern was with the top few rows of the cooler... they nearly sit right next to the headlight housings:

 

Are you planning to add a screen or something to protect it from crap getting kicked up from the road now that it is exposed?

 

My take on this is that there are two issues related to cooling: airflow and surface area. The bigger the cooler the less airflow that is required to drop the temp to whatever you want/need. Is your bike running hot?

Don't get me wrong: a carbon scoop that was tall and narrow, tucked up against the inside of each fork leg would be very, very cool. But I don't think that our bikes need it.

 

Is my bike running hot? not at the moment. LOL
During the summer? Yeah, it gets freaking hot down here. In the 100's and 75%+ humidity sometimes. Even though my bike doesn't get over 225*, I see no reason to shorten the life of my oil because it's not getting cooled as much as it could. And given that I do a lot more stop and go commuting than I do long range driving, getting more air to the oil cooler seems like a no brainer to me.

As for the screen... yes, I plan no working something up that has a screen mesh in front of it. I haven't made the brackets yet, so I'll hold off on that until I do.

ALSO - I found some specs, on this site actually, that showed the maximum front suspension travel was 4.5" for a 6th gen. I know my riding style and I'm no Valentino, so if I ever do hit even 4" of compression, I'm pretty sure an oil cooler would be the least of my worries. Yeah, it's a gamble.

 

Yeah, I saw that too, regarding the fan blade and rocks.

Tink... you not have data to back this up?! Did the Mayan's just get that date wrong, and the world is coming to an end now?!?! :tongue:

I can see the benefit of adding a screen, given how the oil cooler for my Katana looked, if anything to help with any bug strikes and keep the fins as straight as possible. So far I have done more typing and figuring in my head than fitting stuff. I'm figuring a couple hours to get some brackets fabbed up and start working on a scoop with a fine mesh.

I'll post pictures as I progress.