LS3 oil cooler yes/no?

[chucknorris]

After a quick chat with the factory, I am not sure if I need to bother with an oil cooler or not.
The kit they supply is for an LS7 as it's needed but they say that in their experience i don't really need it for a standard 435bhp LS3.
They did suggest asking the question here to see what others have done as they can only supply the cooler matrix as they don't do a pipework kit to fit it to the engine.
Lastly I reckon I'll take the engine to a max of about 550bhp fairly soon after IVA and this may mean a cooler is recommended, in that case what have others fitted?
Cheers

Pete

[deadscoob]

Kyle has probably fitted more LS3s than anyone in the UK, would be worth a chat with him.

[356Speedster]

My LS3 is being fitted with a cooler, just as a belt and braces approach. It's being mapped soon before going in my Can Am, so should be around 460bhp+ with it's exhaust, race cats and intake from day 1. I plan to tweak it a little afterwards as there's something about 500bhp which sounds a little magical With that in mind, putting the cooler on now just felt like the right thing to do, saving work later on.

Mark

[chucknorris]

I was kind of thinking along the same lines Mark... Easier to fit now than later sort of thing.
Have you bought some kind of kit to fit it all, or did you just buy all the parts seperately?

[356Speedster]

Pete - all my kit is made by AutoBionics. As mentioned the factory don't make one, so I've had AB build me up a kit while they have my engine and are prep'ing it for dyno and delivery. Give them a shout I'm sure they'd be happy to speak with you about the kit.

[eliot]

I'm running an LS3 in my VXR8, not sure if it has one fitted or not - i believe it does. When you start driving the car hard, the oil temp gets up to 140+ which is suprisingly high - but others with the same car report the same temps.

[356Speedster]

I don't believe the stock 3 has a cooler. My motor is having the relevant take off points added, it's not a bolt in / off part. Crate GM motors have no provision for one

[chuntington101]

How about of the oil to water coolers? They seem to work pretty well! Also they help warm the oil up faster don't they?...

[Graham-P]

I just had a simple take off from the engine to the oil/water (Laminova) cooler. The cooler though is on the cool side of the radiator and only goes over 100c when pushed hard.







Graham

[chuntington101]

Graham-P said:

I just had a simple take off from the engine to the oil/water (Laminova) cooler. The cooler though is on the cool side of the radiator and only goes over 100c when pushed hard.

Graham

Graham, is it better to put the oil water cooling on the cold side (ie from the rad) or the hot side (going to the rad)? I have heard of both being done I think.....

[Paul.B]

If you use the same type of takeoff/sandwich plate as Graham_P make sure you use the same close coupled fittings too. The longer type of 90* takes you below chassis level. The other way is to use a side entry takeoff and straight connectors. Think Automotive do a nice billet one. It ain't cheap though.

[Graham-P]

chuntington101 said:

Graham, is it better to put the oil water cooling on the cold side (ie from the rad) or the hot side (going to the rad)? I have heard of both being done I think.....

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To be honest the oil doesn't go past 80c(ish) as it's kept in check by the water which stays at 84c most of the time, when pushed hard the oil will rise. If it were on the hot side the oil temp would I guess be higher but not sure how much room I would have for manoeuvre.

[chucknorris]

Thanks for all the replies, i think i've got the answers i needed...although it sounds like the higher temps are common with the LS3 and perfectly fine, there's a big difference between 140deg and 80deg so I think I'm going to go with the belt and braces approach and fit one. The oil to water looks like a simple enough way to go so I'm definitely going to have a closer look into that.
cheers
Pete

[UltimaCH]

I assume that you will also fit a thermostat in the circuit. You don't want to have the engine oil too cool.

[chucknorris]

Would you really need a thermostat? I could be wrong, but my guess is that the oil wouldn't be able to get that cool (depending on what temp you're talking about of course) because the water temperature wouldn't be able to cool the oil that much (from everything i've read regards the water temp, it's a struggle to keep it down in an Ultima).
If i'm wrong about that, i stand corrected because it's all guesswork until i get the car finished

[Steve_D]

If you use the oil/water cooler/heater then you will not need a thermostat.
If you use oil/air cooler then I would recommened an oil stat because it is possible to over cool the oil.

Steve

[Gulf LS3]

as Steve says

the LS runs quite nicely on the road without an oil cooler, if you plan to trackday it may be worth fitting a cooler but i would thermostat the cooler. All very expensive in -10/-12 hose and fittings

[spatz]

Steve_D said:

If you use the oil/water cooler/heater then you will not need a thermostat.
If you use oil/air cooler then I would recommened an oil stat because it is possible to over cool the oil.

Steve

I plan to use a laminova on my next build that I bought already, i wanted to put an oil thermostat but leaving it off
would have the advantage that on start up the water which is heating up quicker than the oil could actually bring the oil temp up.
So good news for this will save me some plumbing and expensive connectors.

[4packet]

The LS3 in the current Camaro has an oil to water cooler. It mounts on the left hand side of the sump. LS3 Corvette doesn't have a cooler however.

[MarkWebb]

I have oil cooler with thermostat. oil temp never goes above 65 in normal driving but hits 125 when on track.
Laminova seems like good idea to get oil warmer for normal driving.