Howdy,
I recently added a Harley Sidecar outfit to my stable. WHile it is my 6th outfit it is my first Harley outfit.
I discovered that the Harley oil coolers will not fit because the sidecar mounts interfere.
What is the best way to go to put an oil cooler on the bike. Although I have not hooked up the oil temperature gauge yet (just arrived in the mail yesterday) my experience with sidecars tells me it will need an oil cooler (and other Harley owners assure me it would need a cooler even without a sidecar attached...)
I see several tpes on the market but most look like they will not work with the lowers or the sidecar brakets in place. One is a 'billet' cooler that fits between the filter mount and the filter but I am dubious if it will provide much cooling.
What have others done with recent Harleys pulling sidecars?
Thanks,
Nelson
I have a aftermarket oil cooler on my 07 Harley Road Glide. When I order my Texas Ranger sidecar car I also order a sub-frame. It really workes well and I don't think it will interfear with your oil cooler. It's workes really simple. And makes your sidecar connection really strong.Rudy
I have a 1990 FLHTC rig and even on the hottest days with a passenger in the car my oil temp gauge, (on the oil tank dip stick) never gets above 220 deg. with no oil cooler. What should the operating temp be?
I consider 220 perfect for shovelheads, dunno about Evo's, the newer twin cams will run hotter due to tighter tolerances (acording to harley and my experience)........When travelling through Nevada and eastern Oregon in the summer of 01 with my 2000 twin cam 88 with sidecar and passenger and camping gear, my dipstick temp gauge read a consistant 250 degrees .....Really made me worried, so I sprang for an oil cooler......After the install my temp dropped a measly 5 degrees....down to 245....Hardly worth the effort or money really, although it did give me some peace of mind.....28,000 miles later, and I am half way through an Alaska to Oregon road trip with the same set up.....No problems, still running strong, Minus the oil cooler......
Howdy,
I finally got my oil temperature gage installed in place of the ambient air temp gage on my Harley. The wife and I rode over to Walla Walla on the 4th. The oil temp gage went to at least 300 degrees and maybe higher. 300 is all the higher the gage reads and I don't know if the needle was pegged or not.
I definately think I need an oil cooler.
Nelson
I've owned a number of Harley-Davidsons in past years. The only oil cooler that I had was a factory installation on my 1982 Shovelhead. It came with a Lockhart oil cooler and it would keep the temperature down to 220 degrees with straight 60 wt oil in the summer and much cooler than that in the winter.
If you are seeing 300 degrees, you should be running straight 60 wt oil and a cooler would be a very goopd idea.
The factory owners and service manials on all later model HD's tell us that we should only use 20-50 wt oil up to 60 degrees F. Between 60 and 80 degrees F. 50 wt. is specified and above 80, HD says to use 60 wt. oil.
It's always a good idea to keep your machine moving, too. Long periods of idling and slow operation are sure to cause overheating. Whenever I have to stop for a long time, say at a railroad crossing, I will shut the engine off and wait until the train is ready to clear before I start the engine again. Two or three minutes of idling at 90 degrees and the engine will certainly overheat since there is little airflow over the engine when sitting.
300 deg is way high. Oil, even synth, breaks down in a hurry above about 250 deg. That's so unusually high that I'm wondering about the accuracy of the gauge. Just seems out of normal range to me.
I have had other sidecar outfits with oil temp gages on before and after mounting a sidecar and I am not the least bit surprised that the oil temps are running up to 300+ degrees. Before we head out on any long trips, I will install some sort of oil cooler.
Because the sidecar mounts interfer with mounting a cooler, I am considering mounting the cooler on the sidecar frame. I am also looking at some coolers that do not use a standard radiator cooling core. One is a billet cooler with cooling fins cut into a billit that mounts between the filter mount and the filter. I am dubious as to how much cooling it will provide. Another option is long cylindrical oil coolers designed to mount on the front frame down tubes. I could relocate a couple of them to the leading edge of the front sidecar mounting tubes. Again, I have no experience with this type of oil cooler. Does anyone know how well they work?
If I go with a traditional radiator core type cooler, I may get a large one on the theory that I can always cover part or all of it when it is cold out.
I would like to hear from anyone who has installed an oil cooler on a Harley sidecar outfit. What type, where and how did you mount it and what were the results?. I am ready to simply get a cooler core and fab mounts and connections etc as you are correct: 300 degrees is simply too high.
Regards,
Nelson
