Cooler running bike = more power???

I'm sure someone will give you the full tech answer, but basically engines have an optimum running temperature - the aim is to convert as much of the combustion as possible into motion and not heat, so too cool = not good, and too hot = not good (for different reasons....)

Oil needs to be a certain temp to burn off contaminents. You don't wanna run it too cold. Your Jeep was likely running better due to cooler intake air temps, big difference between that and oil temps. Colder ambient or intake air temps, the air is denser and contains more oxygen which is where the extra power comes from. A properly running engine will maintain the same operating temp whether the weather is hot warm or cold. hth

for every 11 deg you drop your intake temperature, you increase power by 1.5 to 2%. But since heat rises, it might actually help more instrad of putting on a oil cooler to get some of those little side scoop thingys that direct air up under the tank. Anybody did sumpin like this before just to see ???

The efficiency of the engine will increase if you lower the temperature that is known as "TL". If your bike was the most efficient engine ever made, thus a Carnot Engine, and the top temperature reached was "TH", then the efficiency would be:
That's assuming everything went perfect. So by lowering the "TL" or keeping your engine's ambient temperature/surroundings cooler, your engine would theoretically make more power, or be more efficient.

Using the same logic, raising the combustion temperature one or another would increase the efficiency as well. Like increasing the compression or in a very small way, using hotter burning spark plugs (theoretically speaking).


Too bad the Duc isn't quite a Carnot.

Told you so........ [cheeky]

I thought I'd throw my knowledge of Thermodynamics around like I learned SOMETHING in engineering. I think I blacked out right after hitting post too.

ATO Memphis said:

I thought I'd throw my knowledge of Thermodynamics around like I learned SOMETHING in engineering. I think I blacked out right after hitting post too.

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Like Will Ferrell in Old School.


Yes, I still wear my Speaker City shirt too (too bad no one has a clue what it means).

Justin Sain said:

A properly running engine will maintain the same operating temp whether the weather is hot warm or cold. hth

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Umm, no, definately not an aircooled engine. The temperatures vary here from 120 to 30. I can tell you with absolute certainty that on cold days the engine warms up much more slowly than the warmer days and will get nowhere near the same teperature even after 30+ minutes of riding.

On cold days i stick a few pieces of Duct-tape on my oilcooler and that helps to get the engine to warmup

NAKID said:

Umm, no, definately not an aircooled engine. The temperatures vary here from 120 to 30. I can tell you with absolute certainty that on cold days the engine warms up much more slowly than the warmer days and will get nowhere near the same teperature even after 30+ minutes of riding.

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*slaps head*

He slaps his head because ambient temperature and engine temperature are quite different. The engine (oil temp) will take longer to reach operating temperature when it starts from a lower temperature (obviously, it has a "further distance" to travel along the thermometer, so to speak). The engine will reach operating temperature, and will remain within its operating temperature range providing you have nothing broken.

Actually I was slapping my head cause a jeep isn't air cooled and that's the context I was referring to when I said what I said.

In a nutshell, the OP isn't going to find any HP in his motor by adding an oilcooler UNLESS it was running hotter than it should due to a problem or it creating more heat than it was designed to handle because of a bigger motor, higher compression or someting like that.