DR oil-cooler relocation

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passin

Race Dog
Joined
Sep 2, 2009
Messages
634
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Location
Centurion
Bike
KTM 990 Adventure
I know many of you will probably disagree with this mod, and I have been advised not to attempt it, but because of the type of riding a do, and some other reasons, I have gone ahead and done it anyway.

The oil cooler on the DR,  gets full of seeds, and especially bugs, clogging the airflow and a mission to clean afterwards as I dont take the pressure washer to the cooler. This, together with some other reasons, have got me thinking about relocating the oil-cooler to very much the same place as is on the XR 400's, problem is there is not really enough space, so I had to put it on the forks above the mudguard.

I did a lot of searching on the internet, but could not find as single instance where this has been attempted, so I had to improvise as I went along. Bought an oil-cooler ( after some research, decided on a Setrab, made in Sweden, very good quality ) for R800 took the light assembly off and started doing checks.

Made the brackets, fitted the new oil cooler, removed the old one and connected the new hoses I had made up.

Here some pics:

From the front:
2014-08-03163008.jpg


2014-08-03162918.jpg


2014-08-03162905.jpg


New hoses:
2014-08-03162841.jpg


This was not an easy mod, mainly because the new cooler ( and oil hoses) moves with the steering wheel, and I tried more than a dozen ways to get them to function properly, found the best way was to minimize the movement by running the hoses underneath the steering stem.

Some other problems I encountered:
I had to measure the oil capacity of both coolers, as well as the extra volume of the longer hoses, and compensate by adding extra oil. I dont want all the oil in the cooling system and not have enough in the sump. New setup takes ~220ml more oil, not too bad, I can live with that.

I had to make sure that the oil cooler actually works, so I installed a proper oil-temp sensor into the banjo connector and a temporary meter on my dash. Currently it is measuring before oil enters the cooler, but I will switch it to the outlet side after I have some more averages. Temperature goes up to about 85-90 Celsius and then stops rising, seems okay.

Getting the correct hoses was a bit difficult. Hoses had to be durable, be able to handle high heat and temperature fluctuations, and have a workable bend radius. I experimented with quite a few, mainly made for the hydraulic market, but eventually settled for a 10mm stainless steel braided Teflon hose. Cost for the 1meter I needed R70 .

The headlight assembly and shroud had to move up about 2”, not too difficult, with the stock light bulb, but with the longer HID bulb it would not fit as it was hitting the ignition. For now I have the stock bulb back in, but will be replacing the ignition soon with a much smaller and simpler switchboard and the HID can go back in. I have been looking for a reason to replace the bulky stock ignition for some time and now I have it.

Things still to be done:

A cover for the new cooler will have to be fabricated, in progress
Some proper brackets for the new hoses infront of the frame, the velcro straps currently used is just temporary, thinking of combining the brackets with a carbon-fibre cover for the hoses.

As mentioned, this is not finished, still needs some work, but here some benefits of the mod:
1. Oil cooler will now stay cleaner longer, bugs and grass will no longer be such a PITA to clean
2. Much better airflow across the engine, no more interference from the oil cooler
3. Oil cooler is no longer vulnerable in case of a fall or rocks coming from my front wheel
4. Servicing the oil will be easier, as I will no longer have to take the oil cooler off when replacing the oil. Yes I know it is not needed, but do yourself ( and the bike ) a favour next time you do an oil change, and take the cooler off and fill it with new oil ( takes 140ml) shake and throw out in a separate container. You will see the oil coming out is pitch-black and dirty. Seems all kind of grime is accumulating at the bottom of the stock oil-cooler in the fins at the bottom. When I do an oil change I want to ensure the new oil is clean as best as I can.

Some concerns I have about the mod:
1. It is untested, very much a prototype at this stage. The real test will be this summer.
2. Im still not happy with the movement of the hoses when turning the steering. Although it is minimal, and the hoses very hardy, I will be keeping an eye on this.
3. It is not a straightforward plug n play mod. The brackets weren't straightforward to make, and some modifications have to be done to the stock system. I always work in such a way that should testing fail, I will be able to return to before. In this case the only permanent change I made was cutting out part of the headlight shroud at the bottom, and this I cannot put back. It is not too serious though, and I will live with it should I have to.
4. When I put the more aggressive tyres back on, there will be more vibration on the front and although everything is rubber mounted, I am not sure if this will cause problems later.

The total cost was about R1800 but I had to buy a lot of hoses and connectors while doing tests. If I had to redo it will probably be about R1100.

All questions, comments and suggestions welcome, especially negative ones as it give me time to sort out problems that I might not have thought of.
 
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