Oil cooled?

[David Mantle]

Some manufacturers ( Suzuki , BMW ) are using oil instead of water to cool cylinders and heads. Has anyone tried to do this for our motors? I know that oil cooling will incur more of a cost compared to water but I have access to enough light weight oil to do the job just that I wonder if it has been done before. Any tips or advice will be gratefully received before I continue with this

 

[David Mantle]

tried to edit LOL - I just want to be different - I hate , with a passion , following the crowd. Plus as a side benefit , should the coolant leek into the oil less damage shall occur especially to such items as the starter clutch.

 

[slabghost]

These motors are designed to use coolant not oil. You can add cooling to the oil flow which will help cool the motor. Most of the motors that use oil coolers are also air cooled. I think it would take a lot of re engineering to go all oil.

 

[joedrum]

hmmmmm wow sheesh kinda cool thought

 

[steveb123]

While my most recent past ride (1100 Suzi Katana) is oil cooled, it doesn't have a separate cooling jacket for oil, it has a big honkin' oil cooler for the lubricating oil.
So the "coolant" is directly on the bearing surfaces, and on the backs of the pistons, so it pulls the heat directly from where it is made...in addition to the air cooling fins on the cylinder head. Not so the case in the GL.

Using oil in the coolant jacket in a GL motor is a downgrade in cooling performance, as oil doesn't transfer heat as well as glycol.

There are other alternative cooling mediums, if you just want to be different.

 

[Anonymous]

using oil might be interesting it would have to be light as you mentioned, the only problem I can see (and not sure about it) is it takes longer to cool oil than to cool water, upside is the water pump should last a lot longer and less internal corrosion. How would you address the congealing in cold weather?

 

[David Mantle]

using oil might be interesting it would have to be light as you mentioned, the only problem I can see (and not sure about it) is it takes longer to cool oil than to cool water, upside is the water pump should last a lot longer and less internal corrosion. How would you address the congealing in cold weather?

Congealing would not be a problem when I think of it. Oil by its very nature does not congeal - or does it?

 

[dan filipi]

tried to edit LOL - I just want to be different - I hate , with a passion , following the crowd. Plus as a side benefit , should the coolant leek into the oil less damage shall occur especially to such items as the starter clutch.

I like your attitude Dave.

Have a beer on me :salute:

 

[Steve83]

tried to edit LOL - I just want to be different - I hate , with a passion , following the crowd. Plus as a side benefit , should the coolant leek into the oil less damage shall occur especially to such items as the starter clutch.

I like your attitude Dave.

Have a beer on me :salute:

+1!!!

 

[David Mantle]

Could I throw out to the forum using two or maybe three oil coolers instead of the conventional radiator?

 

[slabghost]

might work. definitely an interesting project. Maybe using power steering fluid?

 

[Ansimp]

There is the question of the water (oil) pump!

 

[dan filipi]

There is the question of the water (oil) pump!

I bet the water pump could move atf just fine.

Would be interesting to try it.

 

[steveb123]

Could I throw out to the forum using two or maybe three oil coolers instead of the conventional radiator?

To what end? Complication for it's own sake?
Or something else?
opcorn:

 

[Ansimp]

Maybe just put a VW engine in!

 

[dan filipi]

Could I throw out to the forum using two or maybe three oil coolers instead of the conventional radiator?

To what end? Complication for it's own sake?
Or something else?
opcorn:

If nothing else, to see if it can be done.

 

[steveb123]

Maybe just put a VW engine in!

NOW you're talking!

Make mine a 2180cc with a pair of 40 DCNF's!

 

[toytender01]

the VW engine was done years ago opcorn: opcorn:

 

[Anonymous]

using oil might be interesting it would have to be light as you mentioned, the only problem I can see (and not sure about it) is it takes longer to cool oil than to cool water, upside is the water pump should last a lot longer and less internal corrosion. How would you address the congealing in cold weather?

Congealing would not be a problem when I think of it. Oil by its very nature does not congeal - or does it?

It thickens up in the cold is what I meant (and i know it gets cold in Windsor)

 

[mcgovern61]

Oil will not work with the original water pump, it will aerate big time with those vanes, bubble and boil. You have to use the right kind of pump for oil.

I have built a 100 % hydraulic operated ferry with CAT C-18 engines and hydraulic Z-Drives. The oil is air cooled through large radiators. The problems we encountered included the heat rejection rate of the oil being different than coolant and needing much larger radiators to handle the loads. The main CAT engines were still fresh water cooled (coolant).