Custom Vehicle Discussions > Screamin' Eagle® Electra Glide®

Oil cooler protection

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porthole:
Have any of you SEEG owners ever done something to protect the oil cooler for road debris damage?
I'm guessing my cooler was damaged by something kicked up.

Twolanerider:

--- Quote from: porthole on August 10, 2022, 10:54:52 AM ---Have any of you SEEG owners ever done something to protect the oil cooler for road debris damage?
I'm guessing my cooler was damaged by something kicked up.

--- End quote ---


Duane, back when we were all much younger I fashioned a shield for the stock cooler on my 05.  Stainless steel mesh with a hand formed frame.  I went deep in the weeds.  Had hours with a mallet and a sandbag getting it just the way I wanted.  Never did find any aftermarket alternative that did anything more than the chrome cover Mother Harley offered.

Just looked and can't right now find a pic of the thing I made.  It worked wonderfully.  Flawlessly.  It was outstanding.  I'd had it powder coated a nice dark red to work with the bike.  I knew it was a perfect and wonderful long term solution.  The an 1.25" long 5/16 bolt went through it and the cooler after it had been on the bike about two weeks.  I'm still pretty sure that just adding the shield was the jinx that invited the bolt.

All this is to say that if enough mass comes flying its way down there anything that still lets air in to make the cooler effective will also allow debris.  Sometimes it's hard to say "don't sweat it" but, hey, it's been there that long so (maybe) just don't sweat it.

When I reworked the engine on the old Road Glide three (ish?) years ago I added just enough heat to the system I decided to add a cooler to it.  It had never had one.  The two more common aftermarket solutions were both pretty decent.  If I were to choose entirely one or the other between UltraCool and Jagg I'd probably choose the UltraCool.  Like their tank and line system better.  I wanted a thermostatically controlled adapter also though so wouldn't be running oil through the cooler at lower operating temps.  UltraCool didn't (at least then) have that as an option.

Me being me I ended up going with a hybrid approach.  I bought the tank/fan/line kit from UltraCool and the Jagg thermostatically controlled oil filter adapter.  Couple of AN fittings to screw in to the adapter to run the UltraCool kits lines to the JAGG adapter and, voila, I had precisely what I wanted out of the system.

The UltraCool kit is intended to have their fan on a thermostatically controlled switch.  Wouldn't have been any significant extra work to do while all else was being done but I didn't.  I just wired the cooler's fan to the Accessory switch on the dash.  I preferred it that way.  Other's mileage may vary but the whole system does exactly what I want in the way that my mind prefers it to work.  So if you're considering an aftermarket replacement there are decent options or you can mix and match to make Kool-Aid to your own particular tastes.

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