Oil cooler

A non-return valve will only stop the oil draining back through the pump. It'll still be free to drain from the outlet side of the cooler back into the sump.

If you want to keep the cooler full of oil, mount it with spigots at the top or put the cooler below the level of oil in the sump.

I don't reckon it matters anyway. It'll fill up pretty quickly after you start the engine. The roller bearings will be OK with whatever oil they still have in them for the first few seconds of idle. Just avoid Le Mans type race starts.

Alternatively, ditch the oil cooler.  :D
 
Dellortoman said:
I don't reckon it matters anyway. It'll fill up pretty quickly after you start the engine. The roller bearings will be OK with whatever oil they still have in them for the first few seconds of idle. Just avoid Le Mans type race starts.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I was thinking. When you pull the cover off to check the cam gaps there is always plenty of oil, certainly enough till it starts flowing again. And the crank is sitting in the stuff so will start splashing it around immediately it starts turning. Just don't rev the crap out of it for a couple of minutes.
 
Piranha Brother 2 said:
Like he said, ditch the cooler. Like I said, ditch the cooler. Like Tippie said, ditch the cooler.  :-* :-* :-*
Click to expand...

So you are suggesting that all roadgoing Laverda motorcycles should run without them?

Spilling no oil from either line was simply something that made me wonder if mine was a one off case, clearly not.

For the sake of longevity, perhaps they should be mounted lower than the crankcase, and perhaps that?s why Ducati started putting them in the firing line of stones? Maybe Ducati aren?t as stupid as they seem.
 
"So you are suggesting that all roadgoing Laverda motorcycles should run without them?"
No. Just that SFs (and SFCs) don?t need them. If you want to jump through hoops to get one working efficiently and safely, go for it.
 
chrisk said:
Exactly the same cooler I have Clem. Given all this oil missing after Park up. Someone on here had a picture of their bike with the cooler up in the fairing  :o that would mean no oil to the internals for a long time at startup.
Click to expand...

Oil takes a while to get around on start up. I had a pressure gauge in the feed line to the radiator on my Electronica, that was great fun, once the oil was warm, it would flicker on under acceleration meaning plenty of oil in the gearbox.

Paul
 
I was looking over a Mustang P51D with the pilot once.
After years of working in a museum it was thrilling to touch a hot Merlin (Packard).

We got talking about the horrendous maintenance costs of keeping this wonderful machine going. The pilot reckoned that an electric oil priming pump saved a lot in wear and tear on engine components. Not standard I believe - shock horror!

So as mentioned, when most engines start the oil is in the wrong place.
 
[ it was thrilling to touch a hot Merlin ]

Druids do it for me too....
sorry I think Ive mixed up my forums ::)


 
chrisk said:
Maybe Ducati aren?t as stupid as they seem.
Click to expand...

Ducati stupid? Sure, they made a few dodgy technical and business decisions over the years, just like every other manufacturer you could name. But they produced some fantastic and innovative and successful bikes and they're still in business.
 
Ventodue said:
It all looked pretty stupid at Jerez yesterday ...  :-X
Click to expand...

https://www.bikeme.tv/index.php/eat-my-fat-balls-gigi-you-are-not-the-boss-of-the-mamba-only-the-mamba-understands-what-is-the-perfect-tyre-for-every-condition/

Sorry, off-topic once again...  :D :D
 
I now think that my earlier post was wrong, surely the Citroen Dianne has the oil cooler mounted in the air cooling duct way higher than the engine itself and is there for positioned with the pipe connections at the bottom?
any Citroen experts?
CLEM
 
CLEMTOG said:
I now think that my earlier post was wrong, surely the Citroen Dianne has the oil cooler mounted in the air cooling duct way higher than the engine itself and is there for positioned with the pipe connections at the bottom?
any Citroen experts?
CLEM
Click to expand...

On my flat twin Visa, it was of course in front of the engine, but low down, with the pipes on the bottom.

Paul
 
CLEMTOG said:
its not actually a 2CV oil cooler, that item is now very rare and (almost) unobtainable at a reasonable price. The Laverdas use the oil cooler from the later (and date wise identical) Diane 6.

As supplied to Citroen, they are fitted with quite long ,bent, preformed inlet and outlet pipes, as far as I can remember, although struggling a bit, on the Citroen the cooler is mounted in the air cooling ductwork with the pipes on the top, I have one that I have cut the pipes down to Laverda length, and when straightening out a bent spigot pipe, I managed to snap it off (oh bollocks), I dropped it off this am at the local alloy welder, so I cant check for internal stand pipes, but I will later .

oh yes, and the Citroen items are painted silver not black!
CLEM
Click to expand...
Better to bring up an old thread than start a new one - what length did you trim the stub pipes on the cooler to, @CLEMTOG?
My old cooler seems to have pipes a fair bit shorter than yours look, and I am going to replace it with a Dyane type spare as I can't seem to get a oil tight seal with my pirtek hose fittings, and there's no room left on the old one to cut back and try and fit them again.
 
Sorry can't help you on you cooler pipe length.

I've a couple of temp figures for working engine oil in a triple. Larger oil cooler than stock.

It gets to 90⁰C on the road and takes a few miles to reach 50⁰ degrees, below which I treat it as a cold engine.

On track the oil temp reaches 109⁰C all with the same ambient temp of around 25⁰C
 
As for oil coolers draining when the bike is stopped because the fittings are at the bottom, well my modern BMW's do this. On my K1200RS the oil fittings are on the side of the cooler so half the cooler oil will drain away. The oil feed pipes to the cooler are at least four times the length of the ones on a Laverda triple, so lots of oil needs to be pumped to get pressure on start up. And it is a plain bearing motor and no oil pressure for a few seconds causes no problems.
 
I did some research on disposable Caniser Oil Filters and found some interesting stuff. About half of them have an anti-drain valve inside to stop backflow. I wanted that feature on the one I was adapting to fit to my 3c. So lots of modern bikes might drain oil out of their oil coolers, but that stops happening at some oil filters.
 
On my triple I use the Harley OHC version which has an anti-drain back valve. HF171 from memory, HF170 is for the OHV motor and doesn’t have one.
Vince said:
I did some research on disposable Caniser Oil Filters and found some interesting stuff. About half of them have an anti-drain valve inside to stop backflow. I wanted that feature on the one I was adapting to fit to my 3c. So lots of modern bikes might drain oil out of their oil coolers, but that stops happening at some oil filters.
Click to expand...
 
The best one I found was Hi Flo HF171 BRC RC, it's from their racing filters. They're quite a bit smaller, so they are easier to fit in small spots, and they have the anti-drain back bit as well, but I am not sure they have the thread that suits the Harley style mount, so I might need to make a double-ended threaded spigot. One end with the correct Imperial thread to go into the canister mount, and the other with the style thread that fits the actual filter. Easily doable for my Toolmaker mate, but I just haven't got around to it.
 
I am certain that it will fit your imperial mount. The HF171RC is designed to be a direct bolt-on upgrade to double your Harley output to, say, 110 Hp for racing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top