Anyone ever see this type of oil cooler before?

[yamarider]

I found this oil cooler for sale at auction on ebay.
It is called"trc oil cooler for 89-92 yamaha warrior"

Has anyone ever seen one, or know if these use a setup similar to a big bear adapter? Would it work on my 01 warrior? From what I can see the only thing that wouldn't fit would be the mounting bracket, but I can find a way to deal with that. Thanks for the help.

 

[DeathShadow]

Can’t really tell what’s in the bag so it’s hard to say. There doesn’t appear to be enough parts to go on like the Big Bear setup though.

 

[fmfwarrior21]

Actually it looks like you could mount that to the gas tank mounts and it seems to be the oil cooler that you need to tap into the clutch cover for.

 

[boxhead]

You could easily convert it to connect to the big bear cooler even if it is the clutch cover setup. All that matters is finding the right fittings to screw into the cap. I would find one that is aluminum, much more heat dissipation, looks like that one may be something else possibly.

 

[yamarider]

You guys are saying that it looks like the clutch cover tap setup, but when I get a close up view it looks like a custom oil filter cover to me. If I can find out for sure that the oil filters and covers are the same for all year warriors then i'm probably ordering this while I still can. Can anyone confirm that for me? Thanks for all the help guys

Here's a close up view of the bag, and it looks like a filter cover/cap/whatever it's called to me

 

[yamarider]

Ok the ebay seller sent me some pictures of the part, it is the filter cap. If it would work on an 89-92 it should work on any year warrior right?

 

[DeathShadow]

**** THAT that is one haggard big bear setup do not use that. The big bear cap has a special valve and channels in it to control the oil pressure and distribution.

 

[yamarider]

Damn I was really hoping this would work since it's cheap and I don't have the $150 for the full big bear setup. Dammit. dammit.

 

[yamarider]

Without the channels and valves, wouldn't this setup work similar to the clutch cover tap setup? Is the problem with this one that the oil runs back into the motor when it shuts off or something? Is there a risk of damaging my motor from oil starvation with this more than the big bear setup? I'm not doubting you Death, I know you know your ****, but I just don't want pass this up if it will work for me. Boxhead, you said something about tapping into the cover if this cooler wasn't a big bear setup. Would this kit be the same thing as tapping into the cover? If I had the money I would just get the full big bear setup and be done with it, but this kit I found costs about a third of the big bear setup.

 

[DeathShadow]

You would not get oil starvation even with it running back into the case from the filter area when using a bigbear setup. This is because ONLY extra oil in the warrior motor gets passed through the filter in the big bear setup. The reason for this is to prevent your motor from blowing up incase your filter were to ever get clogged so bad that it stopped the flow of oil. The other reason Yamaha designed this system how they did is because the weakest link associated with heat in the Warrior motor seems to be the bearings in relation to the crank. After the crank you have the transmission that can get excessively hot; the big bear cooler was designed to deliver the cool oil back to these locations first. The other design in the big bear cap is the Pressure valve. The bigbear cap has a spring and plug in the valve that keeps the oil pressure up where it should be. A cap like the one you have found does not have this and the pressure could become questionable since there isn’t too much pressure in the lines to begin with... Although the Bigbear parts are small Yamaha sure did design them to do multiple jobs and be pretty complex; I was impressed myself.

The draw back with the tapped clutch case design is possible oil starvation to the top end every time you start since you are removing oil directly from the galley. Also the tapped design does not deliver cool oil to the most heat vulnerable parts of the motor (crank bearings and tranny) but rather the top end... Along with those the tapped clutch case design also has no valve to keep the oil pressure up - I would question if you had enough or as much oil pressure with out that valve in the big bear system since those lines normally probably don’t see more then 30lbs of pressure to begin with... I mean all and all it is good just to see a drop in oil temperature no matter what the method used. BUT it is also best to deliver this oil to the most critical areas of the motor first and to maintain the correct oil pressure for efficient cooling.

Here is how the bigbear cap & adapter plate is designed:

As you can see these parts are machined just a tad more advanced then the one you found on ebay. In the middle of the adapter plate (item to the left in each picture) you see a small hole; although not shown in these images the plug, spring, and C-Clip go in this area to regulate the oil pressure (the valve) and back-flow. These parts also divide up the incoming cool oil and outgoing oil headed up to the cooler.

 

[yamarider]

Yeah I figured there was a lot more put into the design of the big bear system with the valves and everything, and that it would work better than the cheap setup I found on ebay, but what i'm trying to figure out is if it would be safe for me to use the kit I found, at least for a few months, until I can afford the big bear adapters. A lot of my trails are rough, have tight turns, are rocky, on steep inclines, pretty much all the conditions you need for a motor to overheat, and I really want to get an oil cooler on this thing as soon as I can.

 

[DeathShadow]

I honestly dont think its worth it because that cooler doesnt look as good as the one you could get and the parts arent as good. Will it work? Yea probably but how well? And is it really worth wasting the money? Why not use that money to save up for the better setup? I cant really comment on how well it will work or effective cause there really is no way to tell what your oil pressure will be at etc...

If I had a choice id just wait and save but hey bro that’s just my $0.02; I don't like to spend money twice on the same thing that's all - in the long run it will be more expensive! Even though when worked hard a stock warrior (or any bike) can over heat. I don’t really see the need to short change yourself on a cooler since the need isn’t imminent with your bikes current state.