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BMW To Kill the Air Cooled Engine

I have the equivalent of a U.S. master's degree (a German Dipl.Ing earned at the TH Darmstadt) in mechanical engineering and majored in internal combustion engines (Verbrennungsmotoren). I work in the motor vehicle industry.
I'm always asking myself why companies pay money to employ engineers, if the only thing they would have to do is signing up on a handful of forums on the internet and they would get all the know-how and secrets they would need to design engines and vehicles.....:thumb
 
sounds good to me

Don't know if BM will do it but I think it would make a lot of sense. The fuel mileage I get on my '06 RT is quite temperature sensitive, since the engine control unit calls for richer mixture in the cold. I average about 55 mpg above 60 degrees and nearly 10 mpg less when its cold. Better fuel mileage is a good thing, no?
 
ima4nr said:
I have the equivalent of a U.S. master's degree (a German Dipl.Ing earned at the TH Darmstadt) in mechanical engineering and majored in internal combustion engines (Verbrennungsmotoren). I work in the motor vehicle industry.
I'm always asking myself why companies pay money to employ engineers, if the only thing they would have to do is signing up on a handful of forums on the internet and they would get all the know-how and secrets they would need to design engines and vehicles.....:thumb
Click to expand...

Hey, all you have to do is read a magazine article--or some advertising copy--and you're good to go.

Then, if you own a motorcyle, well ... .
 
To me, one of the nicer things about the boxer is the low heat that it sends to the rider in the summer. It seems to me that any watercooled bike I have ridden, the heat from the radiator is oppressive. When the fan kicks in, even worse.

Next are V twins, the back cylinder and pipe are not in a good place heat wise

Depending on how they position and duct the radiator, they can make hot weather even more miserable than it already is.

So I vote for continued air oil cooling

Rod
 
...depending on how they position and duct the radiator...ragtoplvr
Click to expand...

For me, that would be the main concern, with a liquid cooled boxer.

The vestigial fins on the cylinders are for show...as are the fins on the valve covers...deilenberger
Click to expand...

My understanding is that there is comparatively little heat generated in the "lower" parts of the cylinders. And the valve cover fins are a couple of millimetres deep, at best.

Yes, it's BMW Motorcycle Magazine that MCN is referring to...SandyC
Click to expand...

Nice scoop, Sandy! Good luck with the new position. :thumb
 
Last edited:
ragtoplvr said:
To me, one of the nicer things about the boxer is the low heat that it sends to the rider in the summer. It seems to me that any watercooled bike I have ridden, the heat from the radiator is oppressive. When the fan kicks in, even worse.
Click to expand...

Yeah...I really did love my K100RT...except on summer days in TexSux...

Depending on how they position and duct the radiator, they can make hot weather even more miserable than it already is.
Click to expand...

On the other hand, I was devising schemes for ducting the radiator-heat into my jacket for winter riding.
 
"Insiders at the Munich development centre let slip to a specialist German BMW magazine that a top-secret project is underway to replace the air-cooled engine that can trace its ancestry back to the first boxer BMW bikes nearly 90 years ago with a new liquid-cooled replacement."

Is it from insiders? Yes, but a slip? From an organization that is as tight lipped as BMW, can they let something like a "top secret" project slip, with the director of development giving an interview about it?

I understand the reason why BMW would be working on a water cooled boxer. Now days you either stay ahead of your opponent or get left behind. And I like the idea of BMW not being glued to yesterdayÔÇÖs technology at the expense of ride and performance.

But regardless of whether their sampling public opinion, or easing the shock they've at least got all of us talking which may be the real motivation.

And I'm glad Sandy got the scoop. You go girl............

Easy :german
 
ragtoplvr said:
To me, one of the nicer things about the boxer is the low heat that it sends to the rider in the summer. It seems to me that any watercooled bike I have ridden, the heat from the radiator is oppressive. When the fan kicks in, even worse.

Next are V twins, the back cylinder and pipe are not in a good place heat wise

Depending on how they position and duct the radiator, they can make hot weather even more miserable than it already is.

So I vote for continued air oil cooling

Rod
Click to expand...

Agree about the boxer engine. I feel some heat on my lower legs, but not enough to make summer riding miserable. This is one reason I keep an airhead. I have yet to ride any other bike in the summer and feel less engine heat than what I get from the boxer engine.

My K100 was a blast furnace in the summer. I could not wait to get off that thing. And as was stated, when that fan kicked in, I thought a blowtorch was under me.

With regard to engine heat reaching the rider, one of the best water cooled bikes I had was a Triumph Trophy 900. I felt little engine heat on a summer day. The fairing venting appeared to be pretty effective in dumping heat out and away from the rider.
 
I wouldn't buy a w/c boxer...

It just isn't what I desire. I am sure it will be better, faster, cleaner etc, etc, just as the Harley/Porsche w/c bike is 'better' than their air cooled ones. How well is it selling?

I am very excited about the lo-rider concept, and really hope we see something along those lines before they water cool the boxer.

If the do force water cooling on us I will simply buy another brand, like maybe the new Norton, when it comes time to add another bike to the stable.
 
I looked at the article again, and also the following interview with the chief of engine design. I didn't see anything anywhere in either of those articles that said that BMW was actually doing this. No quotes, no sources, not even a mention in a general way of where inside of BMW this was supposed to be coming from.

In fact, it looked to me like someone had time on their hands and decided to update the R1 photos, then wrote a story about it.

The chief of engine design specifically said that there is life left in the air/oil cooled boxer.

Speculation is always fun, but I wouldn't worry about not being able to get a "traditional" BMW boxer for a while yet.
 
I wonder if it is possible to use a non-conventional radiator location, say mount it low or under the engine with fans and ducting so the hot air exits low on either side of the rear tire behind the pillion foot peg. And incorporate good rock protection for the radiator(s). Maybe small radiator in front of each cylinder to keep the heat where it currently is. There are lots of possible configurations that do not involve cooking the riders

Rod
 
macfly said:
If the do force water cooling on us I will simply buy another brand
Click to expand...

and that's how some felt when they dared changed to oil cooling and their radiators:laugh:laugh:laugh

I wouldn't rule one out until I saw the production model...

They sure came a long way since the first K bikes came out as far as heat management and looks of the radiators on the current version, so maybe no worse than the Hex Roadsters radiator looks as far as where a radiator would sit.
And I got used to that one pretty quick as well.
 
henzilla said:
They sure came a long way since the first K bikes came out as far as heat management and looks of the radiators on the current version ...
Click to expand...
Amen to that! After roasting my chestnuts on a K75RT, I was a bit concerned about heat rejection when the K12LT came out -- it turned out to be a revelation: the air was so skillfully ducted away from the rider you rarely even knew there was a heat generator sitting under the tank. It will be vewy interesting to see what they can do with an RH2ORT. :thumb
 
ragtoplvr said:
To me, one of the nicer things about the boxer is the low heat that it sends to the rider in the summer.
Click to expand...

With respect to the earlier boxers, i.e. the Airheads, there is a LARGE difference between the nikasil and the iron engines as to heat radiated to the rider. The nikasil engines approach "inferno."
 
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