Xr650l Oil Cooler Mod - Redneck Engineering

[supertireguy]

Not as fancy or efficient as a true $250 oil cooler setup but for $7 it shaves maybe 15f degrees off the max oil temperature.

 

Next step is to try some thermal paste between the heat sink and the frame to see if any improvement.

 

 

Edited April 5, 2016 by supertireguy

[they call me thumper]

Hmmmmm that's an interesting concept

[brianhare]

i`d be highly skeptical of a 15 degree drop when an oil cooler only gives 25.....not a bad idea though if you could do the whole downtube..

 

B

[supertireguy]

Ok 15f maybe too optimistic.

The cooling fins do get hot hot so it must be shedding some heat from the oil tank.

[brianhare]

If you could do the whole downtube,,or a good part of it,i bet it would help quite a bit,,,just not enough surface contact as is..

 

if the rear of the fender wasn`t in the way and the tire wouldn`t contact it on full compression,,it would be interesting to see what it would do if you put that all the way up....

 

B

[garthr]

seen someone attempt this before. the concept is good, some improvement might be had if the base of the sink were flat for more contact area and the fins wrapped horizontally around 3 sides of the tube.no moving parts and nothing to leak.

[bork]

seen someone attempt this before. the concept is good, some improvement might be had if the base of the sink were flat for more contact area and the fins wrapped horizontally around 3 sides of the tube.no moving parts and nothing to leak.

I believe there is a compound for use as a bedding & heat transfer to sink.

[garthr]

I believe there is a compound for use as a bedding & heat transfer to sink.

 

yes, similar to dieelectric compound.

[MeCH_MaN]

The head has way more fin area than that sink. Besides when that's covered with mud it won't dissipate much more than the downtube. The frame offers good enough cooling surface area for 90% of situations.

[rwms15]

Does oil actually occupy the downtube en masse? Or is there simply a line running from the reservoir under the dipstick down through the downtube? 

[XR650L_Dave]

4 hours ago, rwms15 said:

Does oil actually occupy the downtube en masse? Or is there simply a line running from the reservoir under the dipstick down through the downtube? 

Fills it right up!

[rwms15]

49 minutes ago, XR650L_Dave said:

Fills it right up!

Awesome...so this might actually work. I just ordered a heat sink as well as some thermal conduction epoxy. I figure I'll pull the paint of the section of downtube, hose clamp the heat sink on and seal the joint with that thermal conduction epoxy. As a south Georgian, I can use all the cooling I can get. 

[TripleShot]

Welding cooling fins to the frame might be an option as well