1986 vfr700 moving oil cooler

New to the forum, hello. https://imgur.com/IWkzOty not sure how pictures work.

My bike has been a basket case for multiple po's and between the lot of us it's road worthy again. Long list of fixes and replacements, but she rides better than I could have hoped. The plastics are missing or trashed so I'm hoping to turn it into a era stock naked like a hawk gt big brother. A hawk double-wide, if you will.

Anyway, I'm not sure how to move the oil cooler. A smart man told me these don't have high pressure through the cooler and the beefy high pressure stock tubes aren't necessary. The bike runs cool enough that it seems like the oil cooler isn't even necessary, but I want to ride a lot of miles on this. Haven't been able to find any relevant info.

Has anyone move or altered the oil cooler? What do?

 

not clear why you'd want to remove it ?

 

Oil cooler mounts to a massive front bracket which everything else (headlight, gauges, etc.) attaches to. Only thing I'm unsure about changing is the cooler.

 

oil cooler helps alot in hot weather, stop-and-go traffic to keep engine cooler.

 

I do not want to remove the cooler. I want to move it.

 

Move it where ever you want then.

 

Yes, that's the plan. My searches for moving the cooler, altering the feed lines, or a simple cooler delete are all coming up empty. I was hoping someone here had insight or experience in this department. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

 

I have had a Lockhart oil cooler since 1984, this is the only place I could mount it. It has healthy flexible braided lines, so I wouldn't scrimp on new oil lines. Have no idea how effective it is, but my 8th gen has one in the same location. Picture is my '83 during resoration. Color scheme is an '84 from used parts I bought.
Oil cooler under headlight, small radiator is for coolant.

 

Because nobody else has wanted to do it. Blaze the path. Find the fittings, make the lines, go sick.

 

I know the VF750/ 700 have the secondary oil cooler down low and the topic is on the VFR700 but my oil cooler on my VF1000F is mounted as in the pic.

Enginev4 by sixdog posted May 19, 2019 at 6:06 PM

 

The Lockhart used an adapter that between the oil filter and the engine. Braided lines were connected to fittings in the adapter.

 

just stop. there's no good reason to move it. VFR's with so many wires, bottles, cables, coils, tubes hanging out don't make tidy streetfighters, as we all know.

if you move it lower, it picks up heat from the exhaust pipes, not helpful.

 

My thoughts exactly. If you wait for universal consensus around here, you're wasting valuable time. Go forth and conquer.

 

Alright, sounds like it'll be an adventure. At least it's mechanical and no more electronic sorcery to combat.

Thanks for the kick in the pants all. I'll try to update as I encounter catastrophes and find solutions.

 

A few days ago I came across a thread on a street fighter forum discussing oil cooler relocation on 2nd gen vfr's while looking for something else. It led to other threads with pertinent info. I'm too lazy to look up the rules on linking to other forums so just reporting findings for now.

Several people reported just hacking the lines apart. It's common to just cut both metal tubing and braided hose to fit the new location. Flaring the metal tubing and clamping the cut braided hose over the flare is supposedly an adequate fitting. Apparently the pressure through the cooler is low enough that a proper fitting isn't necessary. It's popular to build a bracket to mount the cooler to the front valve cover bolt locations with longer bolts and washers to account for the spacing. Both of these ideas seem like quick hack jobs and I want some redneck precision.

The lower radiator mounts would be better mounting points, but that requires a dizzying bracket of two bends instead of just one. The radiator mounts already have rubber bushings like the cowl bracket, so bingo. Also, the radiator is designed to swing forward so another sheet metal bracket nestled in there shouldn't bother anything. Bango. It leaves more space between the cooler and exhaust pipes, but might be too far for the front wheel at compression. Nothing that a few iterations could fix, so I'll cut a couple different brackets when work is slow and see what fits. I'm hoping to find a semi-accurate way of cutting the lines and adding decent fittings at home, but haven't looked into it yet. I got a second set of cooler lines from the ebays in case I mutilate something in the process.

Should probably start a build thread, but hot damn this bike is so much better than I expected. Every time I ride she begs for more money to make her pretty, and I lovingly oblige. I managed to get some oem side covers for cheaper than expected while also starting a masochistic exercise of sanding hot tub blue paint off to reveal the rwb tank. Wings and a red stripe are visible, but damn the oem paint is tissue paper thin.

 

Well, a modicum of success was found this summer. My budget went to the local vet, so I did a hack job that let me ride with some hiccups.

Oil Lines

Braided lines were cut with a hacksaw, tubing with a tube cutter and "flared slightly". The new fittings are sealed with 10 cent hose-clamps. Quality Hazard Fraught tools used in all operations, and all dimensions inspected with eyecrometers.

Cut and flared

https://i.imgur.com/Hn9qrhu.jpg
Gauging braided length

https://i.imgur.com/0FLpitw.jpg
Routed

https://i.imgur.com/Vqy1DBw.jpg

I was worried about cutting the braided line, but it cut fine. Wrapped it with masking tape, marked the location, and sliced right through. Surprisingly no signs of oil leaking, but the braided ends are scraggly.

Brackets

First iteration was as simple as possible with no bends. Straight shot from the lower radiator mount down. It was a bit too thin/flimsy and buzzed at 4-5k rpm, but nicely fit in with the brickish freight train front end.
Rev A did not fit, Rev B shown
https://i.imgur.com/4WPPnMA.jpg
Out Functioning
https://i.imgur.com/DKgGdVN.jpg

Then disaster. Hit a bump and heard a chunk. Seemed ok, but started home to check it out. On the way I hit the brakes hard, and it got a lot less good.
Rev B Failure
https://i.imgur.com/fQhu3s7.jpg

So I cut a new bracket, same offsets and slightly beefier, and pushed it tight against the head. Got another fender off of ebay, and surprise it happened again.
Rev C Failure
https://i.imgur.com/h6ycf7u.jpg

On to a new longer bracket. I never quite found the bolt spacing on the lower radiator mount. It's somewhere between 300mm and 305mm, but also not 12.000".
Rev D - flat
https://i.imgur.com/krhVNGp.jpg

Two bends be damned we can do this with one. Bent at 45°, then the hoses pushed it out a bit. Tubing shortened again for the new location.
Rev D - bent
https://i.imgur.com/An5DCV9.jpg

...and it seems to be working! Besides a bunk ignition coil and stator connector fire, she's done another couple hundred miles without issue. We've gone over the problem bumps that broke her before, and she rides out triumphant. Although the front springs need some more gusto. Now that the cooler is out of the way, the fender smacks into the front brake manifold.

https://i.imgur.com/J8JkUhn.jpg

All the brackets were made with .090" 3003 Aluminum which is pretty whimpy. It kept most of the steel parts from getting hurt when things went wrong. I'm keeping my eye out for something more rigid now that the location is proven. There's still a little buzzing to work out.

Anyway thanks for the kick in the pants you codgy geezers, I needed it. Hopefully I can throw more money at this next year and get something nice put together.

Edited 22.6.2023 with imgur links to images

 

Old thread I know but has been "recently" edited..
Ive got 2 cafe racer projects and both still have the stock oil cooler lines. On my long to do list this winter shorten them both..
What did you use to flare the pipes? I was planning to get the cheapest brake pipe flare tool that I can find. Looking at your "slightly flared" image, seems that those pipes are hard and dont really want to flare?
Few pics.. And yeah, both still projects, not finished but usable. VFR750 86 and 91 cafe racer

 

Ya the hard lines are quite hard, so they don't like to flare much. I used the cheapo flare tool from harbor freight. It's sized for inch piping so the metric oil lines don't fit well. Even so, that little bump shown in the pic has stayed sealed for several years now.

Also while I'm here, there have so far been two negatives to this mod:

1st is extra heat due to the cooler being close to the headers. The temp comes up quickly if you're riding like an asshole, but the cooling system manages it well. I would worry about heat soak if you're going to do any track riding.

2nd is cooler damage. I put the cooler right in the path of debris from the front tire. It's taken some big hits and has not broken yet, but fixing the smashed fins has gotten to be annoying.

I have a spare cooler and lines and have been meaning to re-re-locate to in front of the radiator, or cut some expanded metal to make a shield, but instead I just ride the old gal and don't worry about it.

 

Atleast Im on the metric side of the world, so I think our HF equivalents cheapo flare tool will do the job just fine.

I didnt really even try other spots for the RC24 cooler. But if I remember correctly, on the RC36 the oil cooler could have been mounted vertically in front of radiator, either side. Ive bigger radiator and oil cooler on it so not a change anymore. The stock oil coolers 45 deg angle line fittings make it really hard to fit anywhere.
Would be so much easier to get a new slimmer universal cooler with better fitting positions, like on sixdogs pic.