Oil coolers? anyone use one?

[TurboII]

I was wondering if anyone has ever used/has one what do u think about them. I've been looking to run one for the hot summer days. Tell me whats a good one and what brand is good.


Joey

[overlordsshadow]

I am using the oil cooler from a mazda 626 for my turbo. It is an oil cooled only stock mitsu turbo. You can definitly tell the difference between the hot and cold side, not sure how much it does for the turbo though.


This being said, you might be talking about a trans cooler.

[rbryant]

I had an 2gen RX7 cooler on my GLHS for a while. It was ok but the routing of the lines was tricky and one ended up coming loose. Luckily I immediately shut the enging off when the oil pressure light came on and no damage was done.

At this point I would actually recommend jusing a sandwich cooler that uses engine coolant to cool the oil. It won't add any cooling capacity but it will preheat the oil and keep the engine more regulated. (The SRT4 has one of these stock).

If you are overheating there is a problem with either the engine/headgasket being clogged or the rad is clogged or too small.

[overlordsshadow]

I've also thought that since I have an auto rad in my car that I could use that to cool or regulate the oil temp.

[rbryant]

I've also thought that since I have an auto rad in my car that I could use that to cool or regulate the oil temp.

Be careful with using tranny coolers. The lines should be 3/8" and some people say that they need to be AN-10. The tranny cooler doesn't require that kind of flow and could clog up your whole system.

Putting the cooler in your turbo feed line would be much better but I still wouldn't do this however since it wouldn't be thermostatically controlled and could cool the oil too much and not lubricate the turbo. Additionally any existing debris in the cooler could kill your turbo.

If you get an oil cooler get the right thing for the job! It is a serious modification that must be done carefully!

-Rich

[TurboII]

At one point in time i did have over heating problems but i figured out what it was. The car is 100% fine now. The head had hair line cracks all over the firering on the head causing it to leak. But now that it works im trying to have more assurance.

My idea for an oil cooler i was talking about was the coolers that come off the 87+ starion/conquest and the germanys shelby daytona's which i saw on TM.com as one of the car's of the month. How they tap into the oil filter outlet that what i want.

Joey

[TurboII]

something like this is what i had in mind

http://www.glowshiftdirect.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=275

[88_pacifica]

86-87 GN's had the factory sandwich style inline between the oil filter and block. They were actually very helpful, but they must be the right size for the application. Don't get one that's too big or your PSI will suffer and viscosity will be off from overcooling...

[inmyshadow]

I use a Mustang Cobra water to oil cooler similar to the old Direct Connections Cooler.

I spliced into my heater lines. I did have it back off once. I made it a block before the oil light came on. Now, when changing the oil I make sure the adapter is tight.

later

[turbovanman²]

I think that unless your doing some serios road racing, thats its really not needed. I would install an oil temp guage and see what temps your getting and then decide if you need one or not.

[moparzrule]

Since the ford 5.0 oil filters work with our cars would this kit work also?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/PERFORMANCE-OIL-COOLER-Ford-Mustang-5-0L-Fox-Body-5-0_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118QQcategory Z46095QQihZ016QQitemZ260200391957QQrdZ1QQsspagenam eZWD1V

Most engines that I've seen last really long had an oil cooler on. Our engines get really freakin hot too, IMO not a bad idea.

[A.J.]

I've got one. Before I put one on, pulling 6% grades for a couple of miles, my temp got up to 240 and I had to shut my a/c off. After the oil cooler, pulling the same grades my temp was under 230 with the a/c on. Ambient temp was 100-110 in the summer in AZ. In town my temp was about 210, now it's between 190-200 You can see pics of my install in "fabrication" under the thread "bumper cover breathing '87-'90 van ."

A.J.

[moparzrule]

I think anything above 240 regular oil degrades extremely quick and stops lubricating. Not sure on synthetic, maybe like 270? I used to know the numbers.

[A.J.]

Ooops, forgot a parts list. The sandwich adapter cost me $40 at Carquest. I happen to have one laying around that I haven't used yet so you can see the contents. The adapter has a built in thermostat that opens at 180 degrees. The oil cooler is the middle size B&M oil cooler and it cost $75. The hose barbs on the adapter and oil cooler are 1/2".

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e301/thebest4/oilcoolercontents.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e301/thebest4/oilcoolerbox.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e301/thebest4/oilcooler2.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e301/thebest4/oilcooler1.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e301/thebest4/donenogrille.jpg

[turbovanman²]

Thats not heater hose is it?

[A.J.]

Nope. It's 400 p.s.i transmission cooler hose. I just happen to have a piece laying around.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e301/thebest4/oilcoolerhose.jpg

[turbovanman²]

Nope. It's 400 p.s.i transmission cooler hose. I just happen to have a piece laying around.



Excellent, :thumb:

[TurboII]

The reason i want an oil cooler is for the hot summer days that i drive in. My car is driven ever single day 24/7. Its my daily driver and sometimes in the hot summer day my car runs hot and the car feels like a civic with out the vtec. My goal this year or at least by spring is to install an aluminum radiator (their is nothing wrong with mine but i bought it used and the poor thing is 20 years old), bigger better intercooler and a oil cooler for those very hot summer days.


Joey

Also will that mustang oil cooler work? sh!t if it does i'll but it right now

[moparzrule]

I dunno nobody answered my post whether it will work. I don't see why it wouldn't, I've run a 5.0 oil filter on my car.

[t3rse]

i run a NEW tranny cooler in line to the turbo. it doesn't get cold enough here, at least when i'm going to drive to worry about the oil not making it to the turbo, and on long hard runs (sustained high boost for a lot more than a drag pass), it notably reduced engine temps and cool down period. I made sure to get one with AN fittings so I could keep all my oil lines stainless, cause that's how i roll.

[johnl]

Be careful with using tranny coolers. The lines should be 3/8" and some people say that they need to be AN-10. The tranny cooler doesn't require that kind of flow and could clog up your whole system.

Putting the cooler in your turbo feed line would be much better but I still wouldn't do this however since it wouldn't be thermostatically controlled and could cool the oil too much and not lubricate the turbo. Additionally any existing debris in the cooler could kill your turbo.

If you get an oil cooler get the right thing for the job! It is a serious modification that must be done carefully!

-Rich

Ditto that. I'd add - at a minimum, use AN or at least crimped compression fittings on high PSI oil tolerant hose. Heater hose and worm gear clamps are too risky.

In the summer, I see oil temps of 230*+ in traffic so the benefit of an oil cooler might offset its expense and risk.

If I did it, it would be a sandwich type with integral thermostat running to an oil radiator from one of the oil cooled Suzuki GSXR series of motorcycles.

[contraption22]

The reason i want an oil cooler is for the hot summer days that i drive in. My car is driven ever single day 24/7. Its my daily driver and sometimes in the hot summer day my car runs hot and the car feels like a civic with out the vtec. My goal this year or at least by spring is to install an aluminum radiator (their is nothing wrong with mine but i bought it used and the poor thing is 20 years old), bigger better intercooler and a oil cooler for those very hot summer days.


Joey

Also will that mustang oil cooler work? sh!t if it does i'll but it right now

Make sure if you use an air to air cooler it is thermostatic. There are just as many problems created from oil that is too cold as there is from the oil being too hot.

[TurboII]

I dunno nobody answered my post whether it will work. I don't see why it wouldn't, I've run a 5.0 oil filter on my car.

I would think so because if we can run a filter off them why cant we use a filter cooler. hahaha i should be a ashamed of my self ...PHORDDDDD!!!!

[Dusty_Duster]

Make sure if you use an air to air cooler it is thermostatic. There are just as many problems created from oil that is too cold as there is from the oil being too hot.

If you use a sandwich adapter (goes between the block and filter), it usually comes equipped with a thermostat in the adapter.

[TurboII]

Now let me ask this question. whats a good all year round temp for these cars somethings that not to hot nor to cold but just right sorta temp.

[moparzrule]

I would think using a thermostat controlled one thats ~180-200 degree's would be good.

[A.J.]

I'd say between 190 and 212. The computer turns the fan on at 212 and turns them off at 190.

A.J.

[moparzrule]

Are we talking oil or coolant now? I was talking oil.
For coolant, the stock fan schedules are 224 on and 216 off (below 36 MPH). A.J. the stock thermostat is 195 so the fan cannot come back off at 190!

[A.J.]

I'd better turn in my $3500.00 scan tool back to Snap-on for a recalibration then.

A.J.

[moparzrule]

LOL, ok then. So with the stock thermostat the fan never comes off then huh? I have the stock calibration specs in front of me on D-cal and it's set to 224 on and 216 off. If yours really is 212 on and 190 off than you don't have a stock calibration.
Think about it for a second please, stock thermostat is 195 and if that fan is set to come off at 190 than it would never go off.

[A.J.]

Who knows. Maybe the fan shuts off then the water hits the coolant temp sensor and then it reads 190. Water is always flowing through the bypass/heater core. I don't care how closed your t-stat is. But whatever, I'm not going to get into a pissing contest with you over this. Your right.

Oh, and somebody let Gary Donavan that he's wrong too.
Under Port Fuel Injection Explained:

"2) Most cooling fans come on at 210 degrees, shut off at 200. At speeds over 45 mph, 220 on, 210 off."

A.J.

[moparzrule]

I've found many things wrong on gary's site. He's not a god, and I get sick of people acting like TDG is the bible.
BTW, it's speeds over 44 MPH too haha. I told you, I have the stock cal loaded into D-cal right in front of me on my computer screen, when you pull a stock cal right from the chip it cannot lie. The temperatures I said is what the cal is meant to turn the fans on and off at. Every car is different, voltages are different and fan relays are getting pretty old. Heck, my relay threw a fit the other week and turned the fan on and off every 3 seconds like 10 times. I just let it go, and then it stopped.
You are right about things still flowing after the fans turn off and even with a 195 T-stat is could very well get down to 190 no problem. But, simple fact is chrysler would have never set the fan schedule to turn off at a lower temp than the T-stat. Doesn't even come close to making any sense.

[A.J.]

Wow, this is like being in a chat room and the spelling police criticizes you because you didn't get your "i" before "e" correct. Christ. It said "most" not "all" and he was off 1 mph. And who says what car manufacturers do makes sense. GM makes plastic distributors (everyone cracks at least one when changing the cap), Ford runs coolant through a plastic intake to rupture on the mid '90's 4.6, and book time is 10 hours to do the right front motor mount on a late '90 neon because they wedge it between the motor and frame. And don't even get me going on the P.T. Cruiser.

By the way we are talking about '80's and early '90's FWD turbo Chryslers right? Not srt neons or calibers. Some newer cars the fans do come on later I've noticed.

Plus with the frequency of head gaskets going on these cars (do to lack of coolant flushes in my opinion) 212-190 (210-200) makes a lot more sense that 224-216.

I think we hijacked this thread. We should move this discussion somewhere else.

A.J.

[moparzrule]

Plus with the frequency of head gaskets going on these cars (do to lack of coolant flushes in my opinion) 212-190 (210-200) makes a lot more sense that 224-216.



Why would that make more sense? And the reason IMO that we blow headgaskets (aside from coolant changes, I agree there) is exactly that because of the bad fan schedules letting the coolant go up to 220+ sitting in traffic and then you get going and it goes back down the 195ish in a matter of seconds. Thermal shock, going from that hot to that cold the aluminum cylinder head contracts at different speeds than the iron block causing the blowout. A car thats in a lot of stop and go traffic is way harder on the gasket, with the stock cal and fan schedules that is.

BTW, your scan tool is only as accurate as the sensor it's reading off of.

[TurboII]

anyways you guys back to subject. so ima say normal operating temperature is what these cars like anything below that or above that they run a bit weird.

[A.J.]

I would say coolant should be 200 degrees F, plus or minus 10 degrees. Engine oil temp, I don't know. Like I said, my oil cooler has a built in t-stat that opens at 180 degree F.

A.J.

[moparzrule]

Back to what I said already, oil cooler T-stat anywhere in the 180-200 range is fine. I was never talking coolant until A.J. came in. This thread was never about coolant until then, so I dunno why he even posted about that.

[A.J.]

If you have an oil cooler it's going to bring down your over all temp. I don't have a oil temp gauge, but my mechanical coolant temp gauge reads lower after I installed the oil cooler. That's why I posted that.

A.J.

[moparzrule]

:cool:

[firebaron90]

When I installed my oil cooler, I immediately noticed that the temp guage does not bounce as much, no does the fan have to stay on as long. IMO, it works great.

As for the trans cooler hose, I thought long about whether or not to use it, or go stainless AN. I went AN because the lines were just too close to the alternator, and I could just see my luck having a belt snap! I used -6 lines for and it was relatively inexpensive to do.

Joe

[1985ShlbyChrger]

I used a thermostatically controlled sandwich adapter, with I think -6 AN braided line into a Conquest oil cooler. Works great ziptied to the grille in my Reliant. Definitely made a difference in oil pressure, went up about 3-4 psi.

[mcsvt]

I have one sitting in my room to be used some day... It's a sandwich type.

[Dusty_Duster]

I used a thermostatically controlled sandwich adapter, with I think -6 AN braided line into a Conquest oil cooler. Works great ziptied to the grille in my Reliant. Definitely made a difference in oil pressure, went up about 3-4 psi.

The oil pressure went up? :confused: I thought an oil cooler would lower the pressure.

[moparzrule]

Colder oil=more pressure.

When you start the engine up cold there's always a lot more pressure at cold idle than hot idle.

[88C/S]

The oil pressure went up? :confused: I thought an oil cooler would lower the pressure.

Yeah I noticed that too after the engine was at temp. I suspect the increased distance the oil now travels, lines and the pathway through the cooler.

[cordes]

Yeah I noticed that too after the engine was at temp. I suspect the increased distance the oil now travels, lines and the pathway through the cooler.

If the oil is significantly cooler it'll be thicker too. That'll raise the pressure.

[BadFastGTC]

I have been running an oil cooler on my GTC for years. Once I installed the Mack truck intercooler, the car ran hot. The radiator core was upgraded, but still ran hot. I added an oil cooler and it solved my issue. The adapter has a thermo shut off that keeps oil out off the cooler flowpath until up to temp. No impact on cold oil pressure, but picked up pressure at operating temp. I chose a different cooler over the Conquest cooler, which looked to me to be restricted on volume.

[turbovanman²]

I thought I posted in here, shortly after this thread, I installed one, had to, kept running too hot and didn't want to spring for a custom rad, not it runs too cold, lol. They work.

[thedon809]

So what kind are you guys running? Most new chrysler engines use the type that run coolant through it. I like the idea of getting the oil up to temp as quickly as possible.

[turbovanman²]

So what kind are you guys running? Most new chrysler engines use the type that run coolant through it. I like the idea of getting the oil up to temp as quickly as possible.

I don't like the one's that use coolant to cool the oil as our cooling systems are already taxed and using that style simply overload its, thus negating the effects. We use the air to air ones to take the load off the cooling system.

[chilort]

I don't like the one's that use coolant to cool the oil as our cooling systems are already taxed and using that style simply overload its, thus negating the effects. We use the air to air ones to take the load off the cooling system.

No doubt that air to air ones work based upon experiences here. But the idea that coolant ones won't work well in an overtaxed system makes the assumption that the cooling passages in the engine itself are designed such that they are doing a good job of extracting heat from the oil. If that is marginal then helping to do a better job of that with a coolant style oil cooler can work. Heat failures are often self-reinforcing (cascading) failures which is why moving where the cooling occurs can work (i.e. the block and head are getting too hot absorbing and storing too much heat for the cooling system to work).

I'm still debating on whether or not I'm going to use the coolant driven oil cooler I pulled off a 3.8L mini or something else instead.

BadFastGTC: If you had PNs available that would be helpful to me.

[turbovanman²]

Interesting.

I used PN 1313 from TransDapt, built in thermostat.

[chilort]

Interesting.

I used PN 1313 from TransDapt, built in thermostat.

Thanks!

What kind of heat exchanger did you use?

[turbovanman²]

Thanks!

What kind of heat exchanger did you use?

Just a small Long cooler and used AN fittings with Aeroquips socketless hose. I used proper oil hose the first time with hose clamps but one got a tad loose and seeped, didn't like hose clamps so switched to the Aero hose.