Cooling the pig: Adding an oil cooler fan

Only if you're wearing a bullet proof plate in the back of your jacket.:huh

Interesting. What about the 1200?

Here is a picture of what I've got - SPAL fan - around 120cfm - lighted LED switch is by the speedo. This is bolted to the upper crash bar on a 1200GSA. The SPAL is waterproof etc. (got it on eBay ~$50) but I can only fit one in there. Since I've installed it I really haven't had to use it, so I can't say just how effective it is. I know it works though...

That's correct. BMW do a thermostat engine oil drain plug just for using with their RT fan.

I know of two 1150GS's that have the RT fan fitted after some modifications.

Both have mentioned that they wished they hadn't bothered

http://www.bmwmotorcycles.com/us/en/bike/enduro/2012/r1200gs/r1200gs_overview.html

:eek1:eek1:eek1

Why exactly do you need a fan ? These bikes were designed to run without them. Has there ever been reports of overheating and destroying the engine ? The GS is sold in desert states like Nevada and California and I'm pretty sure if there was a threat of overheating BMW would have put one in as standard. Ha ha ha just kidding , they can be pretty stupid sometimes. But I'd like to hear feedback of one person who suffered a failure from overheating.

My last trip to the blue angles air show I was stuck for an hour in stop and go here in fl. My temp gauge on my rt was topping out. I tried pushing but that got old. No where to ride the side of the road. Same thing happened at bike week in Daytona. My buddy fried his road king.

http://www.aliexpress.com/products/12v-waterproof-fan.html
towards the bottom.. 50mm (2in) fans come in groups of 10.

ive seen similar chinese "water proof" fans in 60mm (2.36in) and 70m (2.76in)
im gonna get some measurements and look into this..

i know on my r1100gs i have a verticle bar in the middle of my oil cooler so two fans hooked up to a switch would be great for rush hour traffic on those 80-95 degree days.

ebay this mynewfan guy seems on the ball too
http://www.ebay.com/itm/60mm-25mm-C...?pt=US_Computer_Case_Fans&hash=item2a1c9ae28c

hes running his "conformal coating" fans under water for days in the video.
but all these fans are in the 13.2 cfm range.. much lower than your..

work in progress.. lets keep this alive.. find a "cool" solution

It's only long on the Canadian side, getting back into the states.

Why not just use synthetic engine oil that will tolerate the higher temperature without reducing viscosity?

OK Steptoe, now you dunnit....saved a bunch of time and money for folks...

I can see it now....they're all gonna go out and fit some high-$ aftermarket exhaust system to make their boxer louder.

so things just got a little more interesting...

Yeahbaby graciously donated an RT-P fan shroud to the cause. I'll be test fitting this later this week. looks like it will take some trimming to work, but if it can be made to fit, will allow a larger fan to be utilized.

will that fan not block air when you are actually riding above 10mph though?

Which one? The RT-P setup is very similar to the cowlings used on pretty much any car or motorcycle radiator. The small fan covers the middle 1/2 of the cooler, leaving a 1/4 or so on each side open, plug air can still go through the fan housing when the fan is off.

but the fan does present an obstruction to air while moving, as compared to a non fan path.

it is only helpful when standing still or moving very slowly right?

The fan and housing does restrict some but nothing to worry about. In motion the fan rotates so air can flow. I don't think it will be an issue but the area under an RT is much more confined than a GS. The fan cools a RT-P at a stand still while idling pretty damm well.

the fan moving , while the bike is in motion, is still a detriment to the flow and cooling in my opinion

show me your temps and how the fan improves them and I will understand I guess.

Yeah, you are 100% correct. A fan with a cowling snuggled up to the downstream side of the rad has to reduce the airflow to some degree.

The question is how much airflow reduction can the system absorb without comprimising it? I think a hell of a lot. She'll still run half caked with mud ie. 50% blocked. BMW also installs the fan on the police models of the 1200 to cool the pig when there is no flow over the rad.

I think it's fair to say the system will handle the small airflow reduction that occurs while in motion quite easily. It's all about cooling the pig when there is no airflow.

Bingo.

I've idled through towns when it's 104*+ with no issues. Now that might not be hot for people outside of Oregon, but for me, that's quite hot. The only time I've had a temp issue on the bike is with the garage door down, bike running, and aligning the low beam to a mark on the door - the bikes temp gauge moved to the upper carrot - and in a rather short time. So I put on that SPAL fan.

Originally when I looked into this for my '11 GSA I didn't think a RTP version fan with cowling would fit in the oil cooler region. There just isn't enough room for all of it. Now removing that shroud and making a custom bracket it should work in my instance.

One thing I've read that is pertinent to this, is that a couple of people wired the fan from the battery (not a switched source) with a thermostat and the fan continued to run with the bike shut down. So I went with a lighted LED switch.

Bump to keep thread alive. I am very interested in this modification. I overheated my 1200 GSA last weekend and need a fix.

No worries. Haven't had much time to do anything with it yet. Hopefully this weekend. Got the switch in i'll be using this week.