I own a motorcycle with an “oil-cooled” engine. How does the engine remain cool using the hot oil during its operation?
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just a simpler way to handle heat. It uses the oil system as part of the cooling system to pull heat away from the block.
Pros: Simpler construction as there are no coolant passages, dont have to spend money on water pumps and thermostats, and you re-purpose an already present part.
Cons: Far less heat control, any kind of “coolant” leak has the potential to lite the engine on fire and starve it of oil, Oil pumps tend to be RPM dependent on pressure so low revving vehicles will struggle to remove heat.
Basically the same way as a car radiator. But instead of coolant, it just circulates the oil already used by the engine.
If you don’t know how a radiator works, the basic idea is to push hot liquid from the engine into a smaller line going through the “fins” of the radiator.
This moves it away from the heat of the engine and increases the surface area in contact with cooler surrounding air.
After the liquid is cooled off in the fins portion, it gets pushed back into the engine and absorbs more heat from the engine, making the liquid hotter again.
The oil is already pumped through the engine, so making a longer route and going through an area that is constantly cooled by air (heat exchanger) is easier to design than adding a whole separate cooling system. It also works better than just an air cooled engine, which many motorcycle engines are.
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