Oil cooler warping plastic shite

I met Gil (plantboy) in Nimbin last weekend and had a chance to have a look at his GRiSO. I made a number of observations which made me conclude that MG execised better quality control on the earlier GRiSOs. E.g. Better plastics and neater casting. Anyway, I was inspired to attempt to rectify the warpage. If you have a heat gun and 15 min worth of patients it's piss easy. I also removed the bottom locating tabs to reduce the pressure on the plastic.

I imagine that probably no one cares as there are a number of aftermarket options, but mine was pretty mangled so I had nothing to lose. After 5 days riding it remains perfect. Originally it took one day to warp.

Pictures when I get a chance.

Glad you are solving your plastic warpage problem Alan, and hope your group all made it back to Brissie safely.  It was a hot (37 C) ride home for me behind my new Dart flyscreen, dodging all the pot-hole repair loose gravel on the way.   Always good to meet up with another G12 rider.

Did they change the material of those grilles?

My 07 is still straight after 18K miles so was my 09 (36K miles).
My current Black Devil is also fine (8800 miles).
I live in a hot humid environment too...

Pascal, I presume that the plastic is different. Gil's seemed like it had a bit of flake through it rather than being just soft black plastic.

Gil, yes all made it safe except that bloke who crashed on the way to. It was stinking hot. Got burned to buggery and all that beer didn't help with hydration. See ya next time.

My 1100 suffered from the dreaded 'Grill Droop' my 1200 never has. No idea why.

Pete

LOL Alan.  But mate, you were looking so cool in your 'Gold Coast leathers'.

plantboy wrote:

LOL Alan.  But mate, you were looking so cool in your 'Gold Coast leathers'.

Ha ha. Luckily I didn't have to depend on them for abrasive protection.

Pete Roper wrote:

My 1100 suffered from the dreaded 'Grill Droop' my 1200 never has. No idea why.

Pete

Peculiar

The Saint wrote:

Pete Roper wrote:

My 1100 suffered from the dreaded 'Grill Droop' my 1200 never has. No idea why.

Pete

Peculiar

Nor, FWIW, mine, tho I was certifiably peculiar well before that.  

Bill

Mine has warped on my Tenni 11, so thanks to this thread going to have a go with a hairdryer!!! Looked around a bit at the aftermarket stuff but nothing has made me hit the buy button yet.

OK, so had a go at this today.

Grill off, into the house, got some bits of kindling firewood that was the right size and pushed it into the gaps so it all looked straight. Borrowed other halfs hairdryer and just gently heated moving all over the grill
for about 10 mins.

Went to the pub.

Got home some time later and removed the wood. All is now straight again. Will see how long it lasts on the bike.......cheers for the idea Saint!

No worries mate. I don't know if you noticed, those locating tabs put a bit of pressure on the grill, encouraging warping. I've cut off the bottom ones.

the Grill on my 1100 warped as well , i noticed that it was kinda cheap looking as well so i removed it and threw it in the old parts bin
so ....no grill at all and no problems to date..
it seems the cooler itself is not in any direct danger as its to the side and actually pretty robust. 
i like the look of the cooler with out the grill cover, imo it looks cleaner and more purposeful...and i haven't seen a aftermarket cover that i liked yet either..
my 2 cents

The Saint wrote:

No worries mate. I don't know if you noticed, those locating tabs put a bit of pressure on the grill, encouraging warping. I've cut off the bottom ones.

Good idea, will do that too. If it warps again I will buy something else, will see what happens.

keenerkeen07 wrote:

the Grill on my 1100 warped as well , i noticed that it was kinda cheap looking as well so i removed it and threw it in the old parts bin
so ....no grill at all and no problems to date..
it seems the cooler itself is not in any direct danger as its to the side and actually pretty robust. 
i like the look of the cooler with out the grill cover, imo it looks cleaner and more purposeful...and i haven't seen a aftermarket cover that i liked yet either..
my 2 cents

I walked around my Tenni with the grill off and scratched my chin a bit thinking the same as you. I just can't get over the fact that they put the grill there so I should have the original or aftermarket something there?

If we go warp factor again, it will be in the bin.

Bluesun9 wrote:

keenerkeen07 wrote:

the Grill on my 1100 warped as well , i noticed that it was kinda cheap looking as well so i removed it and threw it in the old parts bin
so ....no grill at all and no problems to date..
it seems the cooler itself is not in any direct danger as its to the side and actually pretty robust. 
i like the look of the cooler with out the grill cover, imo it looks cleaner and more purposeful...and i haven't seen a aftermarket cover that i liked yet either..
my 2 cents

I walked around my Tenni with the grill off and scratched my chin a bit thinking the same as you. I just can't get over the fact that they put the grill there so I should have the original or aftermarket something there?

If we go warp factor again, it will be in the bin.

yeah i had trouble with the fact that they put a grill there as well, was thinking that the cooler its self must need protection,
but ive  had coolers with other bikes sitting straight out in front like on my Bandit 1200,that oil cooler just had a light screen as a grill and it has survived nicely since 1998 .. just don't be hitting it with high pressure water to clean the bugs out you can bend the little fins flat    
The GRiSO cooler is made of stouter material and is to the side, also its reset in somewhat  , so no bugs an less chance of crap hitting it eh.  
I am thinking the GRiSO one may be an attempt at keeping us away from the cooler , re possible burns and liability but were smarter than that
When i removed the grill i put the nice button head fasteners back in the holes provided , it looks to me like nothing is missing from stock that way.
Cheers
Keener

Well thanks much for the tip.
 I found the hairdryer was not hot enough so I used a heat gun and did good....
 about 20 minutes.  looks great again.
  I was gonna buy one of the  nice metal replacements but didn't really see one I especially liked .
    And...I dont want the oilcooler to be a design cue or "feature".
  I feel that it is not easy to improve the styling or design of a car or bike over the factory engineers and trained designers.
 people who have spent a lot of time in education and training for their specific calling.

   I really like the styling of the GRiSO as is.  
 
   Also...as I went to reinstall the cover, I noticed upon close inspection that it is not symmetrical !

The horizontal vanes change shape  along the grille.   Probably for air flow extraction? Has anyone noticed it?    
 Instead of trying to analyze and discern the reason, I found a photo of the bike and was able to reinstall the same way without flipping end to end!!??  

And here is the before[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
pic showing the warpage

The subtle shape of those fins is what I like about it. Some thought went into it.
I doubt it effects airflow. Just a cosmetic detail.

I was worried about getting a rock in there on the Dempster so I made one from aluminium with a bunch of 1/4" holes drilled in it
the front opening was protected by wire mesh, I should have painted it flat black.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Last time I was back in Auckland Kiwi-Dave gave me one he took off so I incorporated that
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

re the hairdryer/heat gun fix.... won't they just warp back again?

Tried this today. Clamped a file to the cover and heated until it was too hot to touch. It's cooling off in the photo and is nice and straight.[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I always thought the fin shape was to help create a venturi effect while at speed - i put in one of those metal Stucchi ones that have asymmetric openings that are smaller in front than the rear, which reinforced my original assumption. That model also has an adjustable set of baffles you can slide open or closed for more cooling, I just leave them in the open position. I could be way wrong. Probably. Oh well it’s metal now so no warping.

how are the hairdryer/heat gun repairs holding up? I'm inclined to give it a go but worried that they'll just warp back once in service....