Which is most common cooler or lines leak... Bandit 1200

[BikeJake]

This is odd, 

Low mileage bike... A nice one. Bought for my project. The oil cooler seems to leak lower left hand side.. I removed the rad cover typical chrome affair period accessory (I quite like it) and stone me if the rad isn't perfect. No bent fins no distortion... Its difficult to make out if the rad is leaking from the left junction and some has gone up a tiny bit does to air flow.... Or if the lines are leaking at the junction between steel and flexi.... Where most of the oil at least due to gravity had gathered... 

Question is.... Do oil rads just spring leaks or are the lines known for going at the junctions? 

I'm gonna degrease it and warm the engine tomorrow 

[wraith]

Maybe the o ring between the oil line and cooler where they bolt together has gone?

Like anything you don't know what's happened in the past and anything can brake 

[fatblokeonbandit]

I’ve had a couple that have cracked across from the bolt holes to the o ring groove….

[TonyGee]

2 minutes ago, fatblokeonbandit said:

I’ve had a couple that have cracked across from the bolt holes to the o ring groove….

yeah ive seen a few go their as well. 

[BikeJake]

19 hours ago, fatblokeonbandit said:

I’ve had a couple that have cracked across from the bolt holes to the o ring groove….

Thanks guys..... Did you manage a repair on this or did you have to replace? 

[BikeJake]

Just thought a pic might help... 

I can see that the oil has either been forced up the rad by air flow and the o ring in the junction has gone,  or the rad has a crack in the low left corner. 

[TonyGee]

they can get damaged by stones off the road, I'd clean up any trace of oil and run the engine till you see where its weeping from. 

[fatblokeonbandit]

1 hour ago, BikeJake said:

Thanks guys..... Did you manage a repair on this or did you have to replace? 

Binned them as you don’t want oil coming out

By the way did you know someone’s wrapped carpet round your exhaust 

[TonyGee]

6 minutes ago, fatblokeonbandit said:

By the way did you know someone’s wrapped carpet round your exhaust 

its to match his riding slippers  

[wraith]

It's the best thing to make the exhaust rot and you don't know till you leave it on the road one day 

[bluedog59]

That exhaust will be quietly rotting away under that stuff, no matter what it's made of.

[BikeJake]

16 minutes ago, fatblokeonbandit said:

Binned them as you don’t want oil coming out

By the way did you know someone’s wrapped carpet round your exhaust 

No no..... That's tutakarmons mummified fingers reaching up the front of the engine. 

Previous owner,  never my choice on this bike tbh 

[bluedog59]

Just now, wraith said:

It's the best thing to make the exhaust rot and you don't know till you leave it on the road one day 

Great minds etc etc.

[BikeJake]

18 minutes ago, bluedog59 said:

That exhaust will be quietly rotting away under that stuff, no matter what it's made of.

Well it won't cos its stainless.. But it's a shit thing and it's coming off. 

[bluedog59]

3 minutes ago, BikeJake said:

Well it won't cos its stainless.. But it's a shit thing and it's coming off. 

I've seen it make a mess of stainless.

[BikeJake]

Yeah don't worry guys 

Traditional long standing biker this end, no waxed moustaches or butchered 70s Beemers in my garage. 

Just bought the Bandit for an engine build project, just nice to hang here to get the gen on the dos and don'ts and what breaks and what doesn't with these oil cooled engines 

[Panos]

18 hours ago, fatblokeonbandit said:

Binned them as you don’t want oil coming out

By the way did you know someone’s wrapped carpet round your exhaust 

I was hoping i could save my cooler by cutting the cracked piece and welding an AN 8 fitting on it .

I don't see why it would leak if done properly , but i have never done this and i have no welding experience .

Should i start looking for an oil cooler then ?

 

[Dezza]

A cost effective solution would be to junk the leaking OEM cooler and the hoses, then fit a generic 19 row AN8 cooler and build a set of hoses using the stuff available from Torques. And it will look a lot better than the OEM cooler, thus aligning with the overall remit of OSS . A new Sino cooler isn't exactly going to break the bank and the ones I have had experience of have been of good quality too.

[Gixer1460]

Welding any oil contaminated metal, steel or aluminium is a total PITA! No matter how clean you think it is, with heat, oil will boil out and ruin the weld. Not saying it 'can't' be done, its just new will be more cost effective!

Edited August 30, 2022 by Gixer1460

[Panos]

1 minute ago, Dezza said:

A cost effective solution would be to junk the leaking OEM cooler and the hoses, then fit a generic 19 row AN8 cooler and build a set of hoses using the stuff available from Torques. And it will look a lot better than the OEM cooler, thus aligning with the overall remit of OSS . A new Sino cooler isn't exactly going to break the bank and the ones I have had experience of have been of good quality too.

I want to keep the curved oil cooler because its effective and add a gsxr 1000 v shaped cooler for the head( if i can fit it ) , looks will come second to me as i live in a rather warm country .

Seeing the cost of 1100 curved coolers online i think i will give it a shot , it's a shame to junk it if i can save it .

 

[Panos]

4 minutes ago, Gixer1460 said:

Welding any oil contaminated metal, steel or aluminium is a total PITA! No matter how clean you think it is, with heat oil will boil out and ruin the weld. Not saying it 'can't' be done, its just new will be more cost effective!

I was thinking of rinsing it with solvent , use heat to dry it and plug the hole with something when it is welding time .

I need to talk to my welder i guess .

[TonyGee]

I had a bandit cooler that was cracked in the same place as yours and it never leaked (replaced it eventually) but looking at your pic it looks like the crack has reached the O ring surface !!!!!!  

[BikeJake]

My cooler is fekked... Its leaking from the bottom gallery. 

 

Sprayed the whole thing down with break cleaner.... Completely blasted clean, the ran it up to temp at idle and sure enough those Lower fins in my pic started to fill. 

Balls. 

[jonny1bump]

Gone through quite few of them over the years, repairs never last longer then 5 minutes, the key is to make sure the oil pipes are not putting any strain on the cooler at all, the pipe vibration and strain wrecks them very quickly.

Earls do a curved cooler too. 

Edited August 29, 2022 by jonny1bump

[denisd]

4 hours ago, Panos said:

I was thinking of rinsing it with solvent , use heat to dry it and plug the hole with something when it is welding time .

I need to talk to my welder i guess .

Waste of time, gixer1460 is correct this time