Oil Cooler

I wouldn't worry about the oil strainer on a triple. According to how much you ride, a look every few years should be fine. (at our age, that might be never :) )

Paul
 
I thought recently that I realy should check the oil strainer, havent looked at it for several years (read five) of about 10/15 thousand kilomewters per year, I was forced to do this since I had dropped the cam chain down into the lower intestine, no choice it had to come off, sparkling clean, nothing to speak of in it, 2 tiny bits of asolid that looked like gasket shavings, washed in petrol and reinstalled with a bit of silicone grease on the O ring.
CLEM
 
CLEMTOG said:
I thought recently that I realy should check the oil strainer, havent looked at it for several years (read five) of about 10/15 thousand kilomewters per year, I was forced to do this since I had dropped the cam chain down into the lower intestine, no choice it had to come off, sparkling clean, nothing to speak of in it, 2 tiny bits of asolid that looked like gasket shavings, washed in petrol and reinstalled with a bit of silicone grease on the O ring.
CLEM
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That would seem to imply that dropping cam chains was part of the maintenance schedule?
Paul
 
Yep agree, I ran a 30 micro mesh filter with a pressure switch on the dash to warn if it blocked and its bypass was activated. Really hard to find a place to fit it and get at it to clean. Way more trouble than my now insanely anal oil changes. Really not worth the hassle. All that came out on the mesh was what I now get on the Rare earth magnet on the drain plug, a tiny mist of grey paste. It's probably typical of new owners who care about the bike to think this way but as stated above, been there done that.
 
Vince said:
Yep agree, I ran a 30 micro mesh filter with a pressure switch on the dash to warn if it blocked and its bypass was activated. Really hard to find a place to fit it and get at it to clean. Way more trouble than my now insanely anal oil changes. Really not worth the hassle. All that came out on the mesh was what I now get on the Rare earth magnet on the drain plug, a tiny mist of grey paste. It's probably typical of new owners who care about the bike to think this way but as stated above, been there done that.
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I beg to differ.

For doing big mileages, a proper filter is well worth the effort. With a filter installed, my oil would still be a nice brown colour after 4000km, whereas it would be pitch black after 2000km without the filter. I stretched my oil change intervals to 7-8000km, in line with the H-Ds I was working on at the time, with a new filter every second oil change. I was doing 15-20000km annually at the time. The crank sludge traps of the engine were spotless after 60000km when I swapped out the crank for a lightened one. Normally, there is about 5-6mm of crap in the traps after that sort of distance, no matter how religiously the oil is changed.

If total annual mileages don't exceed 3-4000km, it probably isn't worth the hassle, the oil should be dumped yearly anyway. But residue in the sludge traps/slingers will be greatly reduced with a filter.

Absolutely no need for a pressure indicator, etc if using suitable components.

piet
 
At my age, it's probably academic. Especially with my new bike hopefully halving the ks I do between them. My Atlas should arrive before Christmas I hope.
 
The one I had was about the size of a cigarette pack, that bolted together with a big O ring. Very clever gadget but fitting it was very hard. It ended up above and just behind the oil cooler laying flat above the engine but needed to come completely off to get the valve cover off. It's still in the shed. I ran it for years and still would but in the end, I just now do an oil change after every 2 or 3 hard days riding. So that's probably every 1500 to 2000ks or when I feel guilty at abusing the bike. BTW in the end we didn't need the trailer, Marty turned up just before we left to get him, it's been a while since anyone, better not say that.
 
sfcpiet said:
I beg to differ.

For doing big mileages, a proper filter is well worth the effort. With a filter installed, my oil would still be a nice brown colour after 4000km, whereas it would be pitch black after 2000km without the filter. I stretched my oil change intervals to 7-8000km, in line with the H-Ds I was working on at the time, with a new filter every second oil change. I was doing 15-20000km annually at the time. The crank sludge traps of the engine were spotless after 60000km when I swapped out the crank for a lightened one. Normally, there is about 5-6mm of crap in the traps after that sort of distance, no matter how religiously the oil is changed.

If total annual mileages don't exceed 3-4000km, it probably isn't worth the hassle, the oil should be dumped yearly anyway. But residue in the sludge traps/slingers will be greatly reduced with a filter.

Absolutely no need for a pressure indicator, etc if using suitable components.

piet
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With all due respect, with a top quality oil and a well setup engine, my oil isn't pitch black after 2000 km, it's only a darker shade of it's original green.

Paul
 
Tippie said:
Did you fit one to the oil cooler hoses as we have seen a few others have done?
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Just plumbed it into the feed line of the cooler, ie, oil went through the filter before passing through the cooler and back into the engine... simple as.

piet
 
sfcpiet said:
Just plumbed it into the feed line of the cooler, ie, oil went through the filter before passing through the cooler and back into the engine... simple as.

piet
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I have toyed with the idea to fit one to my SF. I have the fittings plumbed in for an oil cooler I once fitted but they are blanked off, if ever there was a bike that didn't need an oil cooler, but it is tempting to fit a filter beside the generator if I could find a simple enough solution.
 
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