New Oil Cooler Kit - hose routing ?
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 4:41 pm
Ok, I've been after a good oil cooler kit for the J. It's a standard motor, but (back in the day) I fried the oil in my old one and did a lot of damage to the pistons/bores on numbers 2 & 3 during a spirited motorway ride. I appreciate that modern oil is loads better, and that I'm probably not going to get the same problem again, but just thought a good-looking oil cooler would be... cool !
So, I was at the NEC show last November and enquired at one of the trade stands who used to make a kit for the J, but stopped doing it a few years ago. They said they could still provide me with a kit, and so I took a punt (plus it was at the reduced Show price). After a bit of a delay, said parts turned up including the black radiator, black braided hoses and the beautiful new take-off block they'd designed. It seems that if this stuff all works as it should, then they will offer full kits again (so I'm a bit of guinea pig here!).
My dilemma then is how best to route the hoses. I know this has been discussed before, but I'd appreciate some well-founded opinions here. When I fitted a kit to my old J (after rebuilding it with a GPZ block) I fitted an aftermarket cooler with the hoses attached at the bottom of the radiator, routed around the side of the cylinder block to the oil take-off under the carbs. With this arrangement, there was a definite audible longer delay for the oil to get around the engine on cold start-up. This is presumably because of the oil draining out of the radiator and hoses when left a while?
The standard cooler (1000R or GPZ) has hoses attached to the bottom of the radiator, but routed over the top of the engine. I've also seen aftermarket kits with the hoses coming out of the top of the radiator and then routed in various ways (presumably to overcome the oil-draining issue). I'm minded to invert the radiator, take the hoses out of the top and over the engine, through the gap between the carbs inlets and on to the take-off, thereby preventing the oil completely draining out overnight.
All comments / thoughts welcome.
Am I just being over-cautious?
Would there be a syphon effect anyway?
So, I was at the NEC show last November and enquired at one of the trade stands who used to make a kit for the J, but stopped doing it a few years ago. They said they could still provide me with a kit, and so I took a punt (plus it was at the reduced Show price). After a bit of a delay, said parts turned up including the black radiator, black braided hoses and the beautiful new take-off block they'd designed. It seems that if this stuff all works as it should, then they will offer full kits again (so I'm a bit of guinea pig here!).
My dilemma then is how best to route the hoses. I know this has been discussed before, but I'd appreciate some well-founded opinions here. When I fitted a kit to my old J (after rebuilding it with a GPZ block) I fitted an aftermarket cooler with the hoses attached at the bottom of the radiator, routed around the side of the cylinder block to the oil take-off under the carbs. With this arrangement, there was a definite audible longer delay for the oil to get around the engine on cold start-up. This is presumably because of the oil draining out of the radiator and hoses when left a while?
The standard cooler (1000R or GPZ) has hoses attached to the bottom of the radiator, but routed over the top of the engine. I've also seen aftermarket kits with the hoses coming out of the top of the radiator and then routed in various ways (presumably to overcome the oil-draining issue). I'm minded to invert the radiator, take the hoses out of the top and over the engine, through the gap between the carbs inlets and on to the take-off, thereby preventing the oil completely draining out overnight.
All comments / thoughts welcome.
Am I just being over-cautious?
Would there be a syphon effect anyway?