1. The oil cooler kit for...
1. The oil cooler kit for the Softail models contains everything you need to install on your bike. This kit will not fit if your bike is equipped with the engine guard or the high output horn kit.
Have you heard the saying, "You have to give to get?" In this case, that saying is what we're up against. Summer is here in SoCal and the temperature is on the rise to the triple digits. Blazing along on the freeways every day to the office, we've found the temperature gauge on our Heritage's digital oil tank dipstick (62970-02B) gives a temperature reading of between 217-229 degrees Fahrenheit, as soon as we got off the freeway ramp. We have installed our triple gauge mount from our commuter Sportster project (December 2005 issue), but we're still waiting on some backordered parts to hook up the mini oil temp gauge on the Heritage. In the meantime we checked the dipstick. We decided to install an oil cooler on the '06 Heritage to see if we could lower the operating oil temperature.
We ran into a problem while we were still in the H-D P&A catalog. It seems the factory doesn't make an oil cooler kit to fit a Softail Heritage with the engine guard kit. We guess that no Softail owners would want the engine guard and an oil cooler mounted on the same bike. Once the oil cooler kit showed up, we had to remove the engine guard and set it aside.
The oil cooler kit bolted on without too much trouble. We kind of timed it so that we would install the oil cooler kit at the same time as an oil change. Therefore we wouldn't waste any oil. The installation took about an hour and a half.
The operating oil temperature dropped about 10-12 degrees on average since the oil cooler kit was installed three weeks ago, as monitored at the dipstick gauge.
 2. There is a slight amount...  2. There is a slight amount (1/4-1/2-quart) of oil loss if you're just installing the oil cooler. We used the H-D oil filter wrench and a 3/8-inch drive ratchet to remove the oil filter on our Heritage. |  3. With the filter removed,...  3. With the filter removed, we used some brake clean spray and wiped up the oil that had landed on the engine cases. We also wiped the oil filter-mounting surface. |  4. We removed the oil filter...  4. We removed the oil filter mount from the engine cases using a 1/2-inch drive socket and ratchet. |