Oil cooler guards

[Ted]

Had both 1150 & 1200 GSs and never have had any probs regarding overheating exept when stuck in packed traffic in middle of summer.
Last summer managed to get to Turkey and had a few of times when the engine was getting a bit "warm" air temp in high 30s low 40 deg most of the day every day. Even when moving temp still running high and soon as we stopped temp getting very hot very quickly, even just traffic lights. Got some very strange, worrying noises.
Seen the posts about BMW and engine damage due to over heating, also noticed that Touratech now have a warning about overheating on there web site. We had oil cooler guards fitted, and looking at them thought how much air flow is being restricted. Have a relation who is an enginer in the aero industry and asked if she could work out how much of the total area was taken up by the structure of the guard. gave her a couple of measurments from mine, typical GS type with GS in the middle. Turns out just under a third of the total area is covered, and looking at others anything from a quarter to over a 3rd was covered (only looked at the alloy/lazer cut type not the mesh ones) the mesh ones would be more difficult to work out, but look the better option.
Also a guard slightly away from the cooler would allow air to join up again and hit more of the cooler fins.
I know this is not really a problem under normal UK conditions but may be worth thinking about if you are planning on getting a new guard. notice new GS has bigger cooler fitted. Come to the conclusion that if going an a trip to warmer climes a mesh grill is better and the strange wunderlich one is better still. Still bet BMW would still give you a hard time if there was a problem.

 

[snaponphil]

Agree

I am inclined to agree, got a 2011 GSA & been touring Europe September & the outside air temp was 37 deg occasionally, I was surprised how much of the warm air from the cooler was directed at the rider, my engine was just a little hotter & was happy there was no overheating, but, I had not fitted the similar oil cooler guard, & don't intend to.. I could see issues in the event of a warranty.
As yet over 7k in 3 months, no problems & what a great bike, shame winter is coming & my garage now full of bikes..

 

[Mark Hooton]

Area of protection

I looked very carefully at this and my first designs were too restrictive (OMHO I always thought the TT ones were really really restrictive) and after a lot of time spent looking into this the following design seemed the best compromise between max airflow and protection - personally I don`t like the design (looks too much like expandamet) but it seems to work and I have not had any issues with overheating whatsoever with eaither of my two bikes or the many I have made for other brethren. I`d love to hear from anyone who has one fitted and has used it it very hot climes..............

Where you are concerned mate, I would keep a very close eye on the temp guage with or witout any guards fitted - I hope good advice!

I would, however, really really underline the above comment about warranty - BMW would look for any reason, justifyable or not, to avoid further liability to problems. At the end of the day lots of riders use them with no probs whatsoever but as long as you keep an eye out on the temp, either way, you should be ok.

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[Farmer Palmer]

Oil Cooler guards!

Same thing can happen restricting the guard with clogging mud and dead insects.....!

It would be handy if you could just pull the guard off quickly and leave it off for a bit to let the bike run cooler. I've always wondered why you couldn't fit a 'wee' cooling fan behind the oil cooler and switch it on for a bit when the bike gets really hot like my trials bike had.

As a side note our John Deere tractors have screens that you can slide out and clean in seconds although the radiators/coolers are huge and so is the cooling fan behind them.....! My JCB has an even bigger hydraulic fan and you can reverse it blowing all the dust and crap out of the coolers which is really handy......!

I've run Touratech alloy guards on my 1150GSA and HP2E in the past and have one on my GSA30 but touring in the 'north' hasn't been an issue but things were getting a bit hot in the Black Forest last may and I did wonder about removing my cooler guard at one point.

FP.

 

[SMB]

Quote Farmer Palmer
I've always wondered why you couldn't fit a 'wee' cooling fan behind the oil cooler and switch it on for a bit when the bike gets really hot like my trials bike had.



I always thought that the Police RT's had a fan in behind the oil cooler. Can anyone enlighten me if this is true?

 

[Ted]

Mark I'm sure that yours would be no problem as quite small/fine grid on the guard, mine was the older TT type with thicker bars similar to pic on yellow bike. Changed to the Wunderlich type now, don't look as bad as I thought and is a couple of inches away from rad as well so hopefully even less restrictive. Did experiment with a removable grill that slotted between rad and beak from underneath. Worked quite well but couldn’t get a permanent way to secure it, just used gaffer tape. But that would have been the ideal solution.
Just have to go back to Turkey next year to try it out

 

[Big Derek]

Mark I'm sure that yours would be no problem as quite small/fine grid on the guard, mine was the older TT type with thicker bars similar to pic on yellow bike. Changed to the Wunderlich type now, don't look as bad as I thought and is a couple of inches away from rad as well so hopefully even less restrictive. Did experiment with a removable grill that slotted between rad and beak from underneath. Worked quite well but couldn’t get a permanent way to secure it, just used gaffer tape. But that would have been the ideal solution.
Just have to go back to Turkey next year to try it out

did you spray that guard black as the ones i see are all silver ?

 

[Ted]

Yep was originaly silver. Masked and a bit of primer and satin black looks ok.
Herselfs bike is silver so just fitted and matches ok.