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TPW-JAN16

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44 nJanuary 2016n www.thunderpress.net Cool kid on the block Baker +1 Oil Pan Baker Drivetrain Cast aluminum/black or silver fi nish: $499 Billet aluminum/polished fi nish: $895 Billet aluminum/chrome fi nish: $995 Bakerdrivetrain.com Reviewed by Fred Mathews The cool kids have the best stuff: biggest motor, most chrome, fanciest paint and more on their hot bikes. The key word there is "hot." It is not cool to be hot. When we have a bike that we love and want to keep riding we need to look into keeping cool. From stock to hopped-up high-horsepower motors the one thing that can take them all down is heat. So if you want to be cool for the long haul you need to keep your motor cool. Oil and air are what keeps most of our Harley- Davidson engines cool. The more air and the more oil that can circulate, the cooler they will run. While add- ing more air might get you a speeding ticket, there are ways to keep the oil cool that won't get you into trouble. And the best oil-cooling method I've found so far is the Baker +1 Oil Pan. I ride a 2006 Harley-Davidson Street Glide that has a few engine mods to help me keep my workhorse cycle running with the pack while I'm doing event photography. I really notice the heat when my camera hangs off to my right side for easy access. I thought if I could reduce that heat it would also add some life to my cam- era gear as well as to my bike's motor. So I acquired the Baker +1 Oil Pan, which is available for H-D FLT-FLH models 1993 to present. The most obvious advantage of the +1 Oil Pan is that it holds one additional quart of oil. Baker man- aged to provide for more oil capacity by making the pan wider instead of deeper. With some careful planning it fi ts in the same place as the stock pan so no frame modifi cations are needed, unless you bent your frame brace like I did, then a simple bit of prying will get it back into the right place. The major functional difference between the stock pan and the Baker +1 is the oil fl ow in and out of the pan. On the stock H-D pan the oil inlet and outlet holes are only 2" apart. That doesn't give your oil much of a chance to circulate and cool. The Baker +1 was designed so the oil coming in goes all the way to the other end of the pan and has to make its way back the whole length of the pan before being pumped back through your motor. Add one more quart of oil for better cooling and in theory this should be a game changer. We were looking for ways to do some real-world testing. With some brainstorming between Eric Arneson from Gear Driven Performance in Mauston, Wisconsin, the staff at Baker, and myself, we decided that trying to duplicate conditions on the street would be nearly impossible. But, if we were to do some baseline temperature readings on a dyno with the stock pan in place, we could then swap it out for the Baker +1 and do the same tests afterward. The install went easily after bending my frame support back into place. While the crew at Gear Driven Performance did the install it is some- thing an average person should be able to do with some basic tools and a cycle lift. The back tire does have to come off. Once you have the stock pan off you will be able to really compare it to the Baker +1 and see why we are excited about the improvements. We put the same brand and weight of oils and fi lter back on the bike to make sure they were not a contributing fac- tor to the test. We ran the bike on the dyno again for fi ve minutes at 55 mph to get it back up to operating temperatures to simulate the same conditions from the fi rst round of temperature readings that were taken with the stock oil pan. After fi ve minutes it seemed like it was not heating up properly so we ran it another fi ve minutes. We came to realize that the Baker +1 was working correctly and that is why we were get- ting lower temperature readings. Here are the results of using the dyno and a wireless thermometer to take the readings: With the conditions replicated the tests show the Baker +1 does cool the oil more. After many rides I noticed a difference on how hot my camera got when hanging in the same spot on my side, or, I should say, how hot it didn't get. Add some actual air from riding—there is limited airfl ow on the dyno—and I'm sure these cooling results would be even better. With the extra quart of oil along with the added cooling from the bet- ter oil fl ow in the pan, I'm sure my bike engine will be around a lot lon- ger. Baker is an industry leader with innovation and results that have been proven on the track and now they have been proven off the track. I'm not a motorhead that knows every torque spec or ring end gap but I do know that I ride my motorcycle hard. There are times that I miss the recommended oil change mileage due to being on the road or having to take off on a trip without enough notice to get the oil changed before I leave. Knowing that I now have one extra quart of cooler oil helps me feel better about the life of my oil, and the life of my motor. 4 Checking the temperature at the heads A B A B Note that for the stock oil pan, the oil inlet (A) is located very near the oil outlet (B). The Baker +1 Oil Pan has the oil outlet (B) located near the rear of the pan, forcing the oil to travel farther from the oil inlet (A). STOCK PAN: Oil at dipstick-180° Front of pan-181° Rear of pan-150° BAKER +1 PAN: (After fi ve minutes) Oil at dipstick-132° Front of pan-141° Rear of pan-117° (After 10 minutes) Oil at dipstick-176° Front of pan-157° Rear of pan-135°

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