I'm looking to install an oil cooler on my built FT500 motor. Can anyone help me out with suggestions or a parts source? I know that White Bros made on back in the day. Thanks, Kurt
I'd think you'd be able to make one pretty easy. Get a small auto transmission radiator, couple of fittings and hoses and voila'. Right?
Well, I guess I'm thinking about the inlet and the outlet to the motor? It's all new to me. Can you believe someone as clueless as I am is gonna race a built thumper? I'm gonna need LOTS of paddock buddies this season :up: . Kurt
Fittings for the feed and return lines need to be installed (one be tapped, the other must be welded) in the right sidecover. The cooler can be mounted high on the front downtube. Welding tabs on the downtube is the cleanest way to do it, but I've seen people use muffler clamps. I used a cooler and custom lines from Earls on mine back in the day. The old White Bros. and Lockhart kits haven't been available in at least a decade, and they use plain rubber hose with hose clamps, which in my opinion are not secure enough for race use. Jay at Bare Bones can do the sidecover mods for you (www.barebones.net). The rest is just surfing through the Earls catalog.
I was hoping you would make an appearance, Mr. Hatten! I will contact barebones. I have a spare motor, so I can have them do the work on that cover. I have an LP radiator that came with the bike, which I guess I could make good use of. The motor is in an '89 TZ250 chassis. And while I have people's attention: If I were going to improve my spare motor, should I stay with the 591 set up? I've been thinking about maybe going with a 540 and a hotter cam to see if I could improve rpm and, therefore, top end. Anything I could/should read on air-cooled single performance? Thanks again! Kurt
Here's a link to a page on my website from when I was selling my TZ/FT: http://www.woundedduc.net/BBM500Main.html You can see where I mounted the Earl's cooler. I made a couple of "L" brackets out of aluminum, and mounted them using a couple of rubber bushings with bolts on each side (I'm sure those little pieces have some sort of a proper name, but I can't think what it is). I mostly ran a 500 motor with the Megacycle 144-20 cam. That cam gave up a bit up top compared to the 144-21, but was much stronger everywhere else. I ran a 591 occassionally with WERA or AMA (yep, I raced the beast in Pro Thunder a couple of times). The 144-21 cam seems to work pretty well with the 591 kit -- the extra displacement seems to fill in the mid-range lost with the hotter cam. Also, my head was ported by Edco and fitted with oversize valves. Without that, the hotter cam probably won't work well. My motor was built around the 500 piston. I think if you were to build the motor around the 591 piston (crank balanced to that piston, combustion chamber modified for that piston, etc., your results would be better than mine. I don't see where the 540 kit gets you anything other than 50cc less displacement.
Thanks to all of you for your help. I've hooked up with Jay at barebones to do the cover modification. Now I have to obtain the parts, so the suggestions to use jaggs and earls are coming in handy! Kurt
