Oil cooler on a curvy engine?

[millemille]

Am I right in saying that the curvy models (specifically an '02) didn't have an air/fluid oil cooler fitted as standard?

Given that I'd like to make my project bike "future proof" if/when I decide to extract some more power and I've been advised that a weak point of the SV engine, when tuned, is big end failure due to oil getting too hot and losing film strength I'd like to fit an oil cooler - are there oil line take off points in the cases that are blanked off and can be opened up easily for fitting an air/fluid oil cooler?

[yorkie_chris]

Yes, but personally I don't see that is cause of failures. 99-00 had oil surge/pumping issue, there were mods to cases especially where crank area leads to sump which resolved it in 01-02 and onwards.

[millemille]

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

Yes, but personally I don't see that is cause of failures. 99-00 had oil surge/pumping issue, there were mods to cases especially where crank area leads to sump which resolved it in 01-02 and onwards.

Yes to which bit? Yes, they don't have oil coolers fitted or yes, the take off's are in place and can be used easily.

I was advised of the oil overheating/thinning "issue" on highly tuned SV engines by a internationally known (as in bikes they've built have won world championships) tuning house who've built SV engines raced, and won, in Minitwins and Thunderbikes.

In building my project bike I don't want to be limited by what I could do with the engine in the future if I chose to, so fitting an oil cooler from the outset would be ideal if it's not a major undertaking....

[yorkie_chris]

Yes they can be fitted, JHS sell an expensive kit to do just that. Or it should be possible to use the gen2 cooler, but bear in mind exhaust pipe clearance.

Or a water-oil cooler can be fitted, which has the added advantage of bringing the oil up to temp faster too.

[millemille]

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

Yes they can be fitted, JHS sell an expensive kit to do just that. Or it should be possible to use the gen2 cooler, but bear in mind exhaust pipe clearance.

Or a water-oil cooler can be fitted, which has the added advantage of bringing the oil up to temp faster too.

If I use an air/fluid cooler I'm going to mount it where the headlights would be on a normal bike (the project bike will be bereft of lights). If you've ever seen a Guzzi MGS-01 in the flesh, that's what I'd be aiming for.

Plus I'm going to be having an under the engine silencer a la Buell/KTM RC8 and header routing will be open to manipulation.

As far as fluid/fluid coolers go I've got, somewhere, an ex Suzuki WSB SRAD cooler and its' super trick hollow titanium mounting bolt ....I wonder if that can be made to fit? *strokes chin*

[yorkie_chris]

Should be, think SRAD uses same filter as SV. Not too much of a leap of faith that the mounting spigot would have same threads on engine side.

[embee]

FWIW, I fitted an oil/coolant heat exchanger on my curvey, used a ZX6 item. For road use it's pretty much a waste of effort, racing will be different.
You would need to do a bit of careful selection of water connection detail to get the flow appropriate.
See this thread

[millemille]

Originally Posted by embee

FWIW, I fitted an oil/coolant heat exchanger on my curvey, used a ZX6 item. For road use it's pretty much a waste of effort, racing will be different.
You would need to do a bit of careful selection of water connection detail to get the flow appropriate.
See this thread

Excellent, many thanks.