Topic: The Breeze Man's oil cooler project

[mrbreeze]

I'm putting this in the project section because even though it seems like a relatively straight forward task.....it has totally turned into a project! I don't know how many of you are running one of Terry's spin on oil filter adaptors/cooler but I bought one in approx. 2006. I totaly like the setup but I took it off about a year ago because I was having trouble finding a readily available filter for it. So I bought a chrome spin on off the net from I think its called  cb750 supply. It came with it's own thread adaptor so I took off my Terry adaptor and put this one on from the chrome filter and ran without the cooler. I'v been on and off trying to find a filter that would fit with the cooler set up but it wasn't really a big deal cause I could still ride the way I was. Every since I got this cooler I've wanted to put braided hoses on it so a couple of weeks back I started to work on it. Terry supplied barbed fittings (3/8").....2 on the cooler and 2 on the adaptor. 3/8' hydraulic hose with regular worm style hose clamps. Besides not looking very bling-bling.....I didn't like the thought of one of those clamps letting go one day when I was jammin' down the highway. So I get on the net and start looking for hose & fittings. I already know I want an fittings.....non crimp style so I get on Summit Racing site and find what I'm looking for. I found them to be too pricey so I came across Amazon when I was looking for a better deal. I found Aeroquip fittings that would suit my needs but before (luckily....kinda!) I pulled the trigger on them I discovered something odd. Now I'm not a plumber....I'm an auto mechanic. I know enough about plumbing to know there is "National Pipe Thread" (NPT) which is tapered but I had no idea about "British Standard Pipe Thread" (BSPT). Being that Terry is on the other side of the planet from me he uses the BSPT which I wouldn't know if it bit me in the A$$!!!! All's I know is I couldn't thread 1/4" NPT into it so I got Terry on the PM and he tells me it's 1/4" BSPT. So I do some internet research to get a plan going.Came to find that it's kinda hard to find BSPT to 6an fittings but I finally did track some down but not before I wasted some money with another idea. I thought I would drill and tap the female 1/4" BSPT threads out. I figured the piece that bolts to the cooler didn't have enough meat on it to tap to the next size (3/8) and trying to just run a 1/4" NPT tap would just bugger up the threads as they are both around the same size. So I figured I had enough meat to tap out on the adaptor side to 3/8 so I ordered 3/8 male NPT to 6an fittings along with my hose and hose ends. Before this stuff even arrived I realized that drilling out for 3/8' pipe that it a 9/16 drill size! It would have fit but compromised the ports where the oil passages were in the plate. Anyways this is turning in to a novel so I will continue the story some more tomorrow. Here's some pics.

[mrbreeze]

After a quick polishing session. I only took it to 600 grit and Mothers polish with a Dremil. I likey!

[Terry in Australia]

Looks nice Fred, did you say you found some AN to BSPT fittings? I've got a feeling another member did the same thing with one of my coolers awhile back too. Cheers, Terry.

[mrbreeze]

Looks nice Fred, did you say you found some AN to BSPT fittings? I've got a feeling another member did the same thing with one of my coolers awhile back too. Cheers, Terry.

It polished up nice huh!!! I did find those fittings and I'll tell you more tomorrow when I put it all together and put up more pics.I finally got those fittings yesterday morning in the mail. I had to work on the girlfriends car so I didn't get to it yet but all I have to do is screw them into the cooler and cut my hoses to length and install the ends, Then I just screw the hoses on and hope for no leaks. I'm sure it will be fine though.

[Terry in Australia]

No worries mate, I thought about supplying braided hose with AN fittings when I was still making them, but the cost over here was astronomical, and most of my customers (present company excluded of course:) were tight arses! Cheers, Terry.

[mrbreeze]

Tell me about it!! I'm gonna tally up everything but it won't surprise me if it hits $100. You gave me  my moneys worth with just the adaptor and cooler so I'm cool with doing my own hoses. If you did them you would have to design a system or custom make it to customer specs, different colors etc. It would be time consuming. I now have my filter dilema sorted out also! Info tomorrow.

[Terry in Australia]

No worries Fred, I did supply 3 kits with braided lines to some Japanese guys who were building some really cool CB350F's, but the hoses didn't have AN fittings, but fake anodized alloy "nuts" that covered the hose clamps. Cheers, Terry.

[mrbreeze]

If I would have used those I'd be right where I was to start with.....worm clamps only they would look nicer!!!
   So back to where I left off.....I'm now stuck with 2 fittings that I can't use. These are the 3/8NPT male to 6 AN male that I was gonna put into the adaptor to screw the hoses onto. $5.87 x 2. Anyways....I looked at it and thought and went to the computer to look at things then back to the bike, etc. I finally came up with a plan. I had my 4 ft. of 6 AN braided hose ($23.96 shipped). Most of the stuff I got was from Amazon...Aeroquip fittings but a couple of the adaptor fittings (the BSPT's) I had to search out on ebay.
   Starting at the filter adaptor.... I used 1/4" BSPT male to 1/4" NPT female straight fittings. $6.53 x 2. I screwed 1/4"NPT male to 6 AN male 45 degree fittings into it. These lil pups were $11.76 x 2.....ouch!! My 4 hose ends are black Aeroquip 6 AN's. I bought 2 on 5-17 for $7.67 x 2 and 2 more on 5-23 for $7.76 x 2. Inflation ya know!!! So the hardest thing to find was the fittings from the cooler to the hoses. I found them on ebay for $13.99 x 2.............Double ouch!!! This all adds up to $114.62!!! (what was I thinking?) This might not include some of the tax and shipping plus another $20 or so for chromed fasteners. I put the hoses together and mocked it all up today but still waiting on bolts for cooler fittings. I realize this would have been a bit cheaper if I had paid more attention when I bought it from Terry. I could have made sure what sizes he was tapping in and another thing is I didn't realize I was getting a metric threaded piece to screw the filter to. I was thinking back and remember something about Terry making up some of the adaptors to use the stock filter housing....hence the metric threads. The only filter I have been able to come up with is a Wix 51390 which fits an early 70's Honda Civic or some small tractor. I always had to order them and they were white. I thought about painting them but thats a pita. I don't know about you but I don't like different colored items all over my bike.Awhile back I noticed I had a silver throttle cable, yellow Accel plug wires, and a big ugly white oil filter out front. I swapped out my Accel wires for red MSD.....got a black throttle cable and now I think I can find a chrome filter because the fitting that came from the chrome filter from 750 supply has 20mm threads on one end of the nipple and 3/4 on the other so I can find a better selection. I only want black, red, polished aluminum, and a little bit of chrome on my bike. I'll try & get up some more pics when I get those bolts and finish putting it all together.

[Retro Rocket]

Thats quite a mission Fred....

[mrbreeze]

It sounded real easy on paper!!!

[70CB750]

I made an oil filter adapter two years ago. 

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=113992.msg1283123#msg1283123

specifically for Bosch filter 3323.  Before I made it I searched high and low for replacement of that chrome vintage750 spin on.  IMHO there is no over the counter spin on that would work with the nipple from vintage750, closest was some Napa Gold, but the filter would not clear the nipple on the engine.  Hope this makes some sense

Anyway, I made my own nipple, with M20x1.5 thread on both ends and I secure that nipple in the engine body with a nut.

[Retro Rocket]

It sounded real easy on paper!!!

 

[mrbreeze]

So what vehicles does the Bosch 3323 fit? Is it common (easy to find at the auto parts store)?? I like that it is black also. Matches  better than white. You might have machined your adaptor to take a smaller diameter filter. I don't know off the top of my head what mine is but I think it's like 3.5" diameter. Pretty fat and stubby. Yeah that chrome filter is wierd as in the threads are sunk way down from the gasket surface. I couldn't find hide or hair of a part # on it and who knows if it is any kind of a quality filter. The only thing that came out good with it was the adaptor has 3/4" threads so I can select from some other filters that will work and easy to come by.

[Terry in Australia]

If I would have used those I'd be right where I was to start with.....worm clamps only they would look nicer!!!

G'Day Fred, something to keep in mind as you worry about those hoses is that hose that I used to supply was high quality auto transmission/oil cooler hose, not just any rubber hose, and I've been using it on my bikes for the last 30 years or so, without failure. Sadly some of the oil cooler manufacturers of the era used cheap hoses and fittings to keep their prices competetive, and that's where you'll see old coolers with leaking hoses and fittings.

The only advantage that I can see with braided hose (apart from aesthetics) is that the hose has a metallic sock surrounding it, which would stop it from expanding under heat and pressure, which is a good thing, because most of the braided oil hose that I've seen is quite thin rubber, (unlike the stuff I used to supply) which without the braided sock would fail early in it's working life.

As far as worm clamps go, as long as the hose is of high quality and a tight fit on the barbed fittings, and the clamps themselves are quality items, you won't have a problem, the auto industry has been using them for as long as they've been around for connecting auto trannies to oil coolers, power steering, etc etc, and usually they last the life of the car. (the original hoses on my Dad's 30 year old Ford are still intact, although to be fair, it's only done a tad over 60,000 miles)

I know that braided hoses and AN fittings look nicer, and probably ease the minds of those guys using them, but surprisingly I've seen many fail on military vehicle and power generation applications (what they were designed for in the first place) so I don't necessarily think they're the "Ducks Nuts", either.      

[mrbreeze]

Finally getting around to posting pics. The only problem I had was the fittings going into the adaptor leaked but not bad. I haven't messed with it since last week but the fitting adaptors that screw into the adaptor weren't tight enough. Whe I turn them to tighten them up...the 45 degree fittings turn also but they don't have room to turn all the way because they hit the engine. I will take them back off and make adjustments and also use permatex instead of liquid teflon. I'm pleased with them even though I went over budget. Everything but the hose is reusable so thats cool too. I haven't been out to look at other filter options yet so I'll run the white Napa filter for now and then switch over to a filter that is more common with 3/4" threads next oil change.

[Terry in Australia]

That looks lovely Fred, well done!

[mrbreeze]

Thanks Terry. Even though I went over budget, I'm happy with the result. If I had to do it all over I would have had you do it with an NPT tap but neither one of us knew. Besides the added expense of adaptors, I spent a bit on chrome bolts to mount to frame and to hold the pieces to the cooler. I still have the brackets you sent with the kit holding the cooler to the frame. I'm on the lookout for some nice chrome ones. Yours are up to the job but they are golden color. I'm trying to weed out all of the different colored parts. I even wanna go to the earlier side badges to eliminate the white paint on the 75 badges. Next thing I want to do is look into getting the outer oil line fitting to the engine butted to a 10an fitting. I want to try just the outer (straight) hose with braided stainless because you really don't see much of the inner (squiggley) hose.

[mrbreeze]

Almost forgot.....wanted to say I like that one your putting together right now. It that the one that got the 836 kit that I had here? That bike is lookin' sawwweeet!!!

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Fred, I imagine you could get stainless clips, those gold zinc ones were the only ones I could find in that size, but you have a lot more in the way of engineering supply stores on your side of the pond, so I doubt if you'll have a problem.

Thanks for the compliments re: the bike I'm building for Mike, I'd love to keep it, but I can't keep all of them, I guess? But nope, the 836cc kit you sent me is waiting patiently in my garage for my K2 resto, yes I know it won't be original, but no-one but you and I will know why my minty K2 is faster than all the other minty K2's........... (I'm gonna port the head too, and install a mild cam..........)