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[bxbutch]

What thoughts do you have on running the engine oil thru front crash bar? Butch

[cold1]

  A friend of mine tried this on 96"SHOVEL HEAD Electra-Glide about 25 years ago. It worked to some degree, however ! consider how hot is oil, how hot will crash bar be if touched.  CHEERS   

[bigdave110]

WHY?

[CVODON]

HDDOC, a mbr here, has done a lot of testing/temp checks using the crashbar as a combination reservoir/cooler. Send him a message he can give you temps, pressure drops, amount of increased volume etc. from his 09 SERG.

[bxbutch]

considering doing it wondered if any have experience with it Butch

[GMR-PERFORMANCE]

It does help, but there are a few down sides, make sure you flush the bar and it is extremely clean other wise you will end up with who knows inside your engine. The other is , keep another hose set up to bypass the bar. If you drop the bike onto the bar many times it cracks and starts leaking oil. So if you have a hose kit to bypass the crash bar cooler you will be good to go.  If you wanted to get trick with it. You can use Hyd fittings that way if you unhook it the oil flow stops and you can hook the two together and bypass the bar without any hassle.

[HILLSIDECYCLE.COM]

considering doing it wondered if any have experience with it Butch

Works well.
Scott

[Fullsac Performance]

The only downside that kept me from doing this, is the fact that ABS melts around 200 degrees. Harley Lower fairings are made of ABS.
I cant live without my lowers.

SG

[HDDOCFL]

It works real good , but the engine gaurd gets real hot and a not knowing person can and will get burnt if they touch it. That and it will melt lower fairings.  Doc

[Ironhorse]

I ran one on my '01 Ultra for years with no problem and good cooling results.

The input side got so hot I could not touch it without gloves. The output side was touchable and felt like the handle of a hot cast iron skillet. I wrapped the bar with a layer of chamois where it contacts the lowers to keep the paint on the lowers from melting. I routed the input onto the left side (shifter side) of the bar. That's the side that gets real HOT and can burn a leg if someone brushes up against it. That's also the down or lower side when parked and thus less susceptible to accidentally bumping into by someone passing by. The right side, return side is cooler and that's the side that is up when parked.

Hope this helps.

[2010 FLHX]

Harley-Davidson likes to refer to these bars as "engine guards" . . . thereby eschewing the whole "crash" reference.

The external oil coolers which mount under the front of the frame run oil through a lot of baffles, to cool the oil across a lot of surface. The tubes on the engine guard don't have much surface area for cooling. And then, as noted, the damned surface is going to get hot.

If you want to cool the oil, run at a lower temps -- get rid of the cats in the exhaust system. Then mount an external oil cooler if you think you need one. I have a 96 in. TC, no cats -- and because it's not over-bore, over-cam, over-compress, over-stroke, it runs cool just the way it came from MoCo.