Running Without An Oil Cooler

How do you know it is running "as normal" ?

 

Make sure that you are using fully synthetic oil then! Mineral oil can start breaking down at around 130c.

 

If the oil was overheating you would not notice in the running, it would feel completely normal till it self destructs due to lack of lubrication (worst case) or the sump is full of crap on the next oil change. Ducati fitted the cooler for a reason.

 

Well, my 851 has no oil cooler as standard yet the later models do? BUT even on our "good weather days" it's not really that warm over here,
So a monster running without a cooler in the UK should still be running cooler than a bike running in a warmer climate?

 

Late model 748E and S models have no oil cooler, the engines usually run cool except in town on warm days. I am not convinced they are necessary unless you are tracking it or constantly running it in a southern med climate. Run it on synthetic oil and change the oil regularly and don't worry about it

 

Ducati must know what they are doing and why they would fit one. Perhaps they reduce the sump capacity so need an oil cooler due to there being less oil. A generic oil cooler is a very cheap item these days. I would never buy a secondhand bike that was designed with an oil cooler but has had it removed.

 

My son runs a 748 with a race engine built by CJS, this bike had no oil cooler originally, unlike some of the other models. He was told that the oil cooler was not necessary as there was sufficient oil to run cool enough even under race conditions.

It's never given him a problem and i would trust that someone of the calibre of CJS would not offer this advice unless certain of their knowledge.

As for bikes outside the 748-9** range or not water cooled then this may, of course, be a different matter. But the general consensus seems to be that certainly the 748 models, at least, don't really require an oil cooler.

 

I have a spare oil rad from an 1198.

 

The Monster is air-cooled, in fact Ducati describe it as air/oil cooled as the oil is used to help disperse the heat from the cylinders. The 748/9**, 851, etc are water cooled so no comparison. The smaller 600 and 750 versions don't generate so much heat so get away without the cooler. The 900 under ordinary road conditions would probably be ok but I used to have a '95 900SS that I did a few track days with and the gauge would go over 120ºC, even with the cooler. So if it being used hard definitely fit a cooler and use a fully synthetic oil.

 

I have to agree with Derek in the long term fit a oil cooler and keep bike as designed for peace of mind,I assumed the bypass of the cooler was a temporary "keep on the road" solution until a suitable cooler was found!

 

There was some discussion recently on the UKMOC forum about the value of oil coolers.
After some pondering and a few rudimentary temperature measurements the view was expressed that the cooler is of marginal benefit and can in fact lead to undesirably extended warm-up times in the winter months.
My 750 monster has one but interestingly, the later 695 which seems to have a few budget items fitted, does not have one .. and the engines can't differ by much at all.
My own somewhat cynical view is that the coolers were originally fitted to allow their acceptance in superbike racing .. and they were continued into the road bikes because they helped sales by suggesting a "race heritage" but weren't actually necessary.
Its only a theory though.
Personally, I would fit a cooler (though I might look at a smaller one) just to be on the safe side, but I would be ok with running it with the cooler bypassed for a short while, particularly in the winter when it might even be of benefit.

One thing worth considering is fitting the lines from a Hypermotard cooler while you're at it.
These both pass to the left side of the bike, thus avoiding one of the lines overlapping the belt covers.
Not only is this neater but it makes belt changes far easier too.
When I did mine, I also fitted the Hypermotard cooler, which looks very similar but is in fact a little smaller than the original one fitted to my bike ( which was one of the squarer, shrouded ones).
See thread "tidying up the belt side of the motor".
The Hyper cooler has a temp sensor in it too, which may provide further info at some later stage.

 

A hard-charging, year-round riding, good friend of mine has run his 900 for years without an oil cooler. His engine's on about 80,000 miles, he's never had any issues. He's also a very gifted engineer, so would not ignore wear related clues or evidence of tortured metals.

Ducati sell their models in many countries, so may well have fitted an oil cooler to an entire model range for a couple of reasons 1) fashion, or 2) related to sales in hotter climates or both. It would be odd, probably a production line logistics headache too, if they did not fit coolers for some countries, but fitted them for others

 

That's very interesting .. and sounds like lots of sense.
I'll probably quote that on the UKMOC thread, if that's ok.

Tbh, I do remember riding in sweltering temperatures in Italy last year and thinking that the oil cooler suddenly didn't seem redundant at all.
But on an autumn day in England shortly afterwards, it felt like the cooler was just preventing adequate warming up.