Heat Sink Oil Coolers

[Col_Sanders]

Anyone ever used one? I am thinking about using one for an ATV and wondered if anyone had any experience with them and if they actually work.

My radiator is on the front rack so I dont want to stack the oil cooler on it. I could buy one of the coolers with a fan on it and bolt it where the radiator was from the factory, but it would pack with mud and really reduce the cooling ability. The heat sink coolers dont look like mud will affect them as much.

 

[4X4HIGH]

Heat sink coolers don't work anywhere close to as good as a tube/fin or stacked plate cooler but anything is better than nothing.

 

[Col_Sanders]

I kinda figured that, but what about when you compare it to a tube & fin full of mud? I dont believe they didnt put one on this thing from the factory.

 

[K85 Octane]

grab a used one from ebay that came off an old trx400 or first gen trx450r, good strong oil coolers. PWR makes a combination oil cooler and water cooler in one unit. I've only seen them for the newer trx450rs, but that was just an add I came across.

I understand about the cooler never coming with the bike, kinda silly. I drilled and tapped into an oil passage on my old warrior 350, then ran an external oil cooler off it. Been working perfect for years. Gave that to little brother and been riding an '04 trx450r.

 

[Col_Sanders]

I never even thought about doing that. I see they had a fan originally, but did they have a thermostat in the cooler or would I have to install one inline if I wanted to use a fan?

 

[K85 Octane]

are you talking about the coolant radiator? or the oil cooler? The coolant t-stat and sensor are mounted in the engine head on the 450r. The 400 doesn't use a coolant radiator and the oil cooler has no sensor or stat.

The one I used on the warrior is a tube and fin style. Those are less likely to clog with mud (mine hasn't) but at the same time they are more fragile.

 

[Col_Sanders]

I'm only talking about oil coolers. Some of the oil coolers on ebay have a fan. They have to have some way to control the fan. I am sure its just a thermal switch so if I were to use a fan I would have to install one.

 

[K85 Octane]

I originally put a brushless computer fan on my oil cooler. I just ziptied it. It worked fine but I only had it on a switch. The bike was mostly used for difficult, technical slow trails. Whenever I found myself on one, I just flipped the switch to keep air movement through the cooler. Other times (like at the dunes for the weekend) I never turned the fan on.

For me, it was for the added oil capacity and cooling during the tight trails. It was an air cooled motor too.

 

[Col_Sanders]

For what I do a computer fan would last about 10 minutes. lol