I have a 5" Windows tablet permenently connected to the ecu and run it in gauge mode. You can drag and drop the gauges as you want, deleting the ones you don't want. Anyway one of the gauges I use is the engine temperature and it's interesting that the engine runs consistently at around 220F (which is the low end of where oil should be run in order to burn off water from the fuel). The highest temperature I saw was hauling it in traffic up a long mountain pass where it hit about 270 - which is within the 160C a modern synth oil should take. Speed and load appear to make little difference (even hours of 80 mph plus) it only gets hot between 15 and about 30 mph where the cooling fan is off. In 18,000 miles the ecu log only show 6 hours between 250 and 300 (148C) - so personally I wouldn't bother either!
My 2012 does not have the cooling fans. I don't have an oil cooler, either. I live in Vermont where the weather is generally fine if not a little on the cool side. My town has one blinking yellow traffic light. Heavy traffic or long stops simply do not happen. I've asked my closest bike mechanic what were his thoughts on this and he said don't worry about it.
I may install an oil pressure gauge along with an oil temperature gauge. Just to know.
If I lived in a city or the American Southwest I wold be singing a different tune.
What's your mileage? Who cares. Is it practical? See #1. What happens when it rains? You get wet.
This is the dual Oil Pressure and Oil Temperature gauge that I fitted to my M3W about 2 years ago. I find it invaluble and I look at it more than any of the other gauges.
I use Motul 20W-60 Le Mans 300V full synthetic competition oil. I contacted Motul to enquire about the working range of this oil. They came back to me and said the oil was perfectly happy up to 160ÂșC, so I have binned the idea of an oil cooler, as being an expensive and unnecessary complication.
There is a Motul oil formulated for air cooled V-Twin engines, Motul 20W-50 7100 4T MA2 Special V-Twin, 100% synthetic. I do like the combined oil temperature and pressure indicator KBMOG, a very neat installation.
Do you still have any information on that gauge? Who made it and where you bought it? How it was wired? Difficulty?
That is the cleanest one I have seen and I really like it!
It's a Spa Design gauge and I've had a few of them in cars previously. They come in a dual-display design and you can choose various combinations of measurement - Temp/Temp, Temp/Pressure, Pressure/Pressure etc. Electronic senders are available for most measurements and are relatively easy to fit and then wire up as required. Earthing is critical, or the dreaded red flashing light of doom appears on the gauge (my previous earths were not good enough).
But when done properly they are good, modern looking gauges. They have an external button to show things like MAx Value and can be configured using this external button. Pricey (at least in the UK), but widely available;