Any one fitted an oil cooler ?

[raw-sewedge]

Have a feeling that the oils gets a bit hot and thin. Wonder if a cooler would help matter.

Any thoughts?

[markh]

Fitted on to my Chimaera and a oil temp guage, was surprised just how hot the oil got on trackdays 130+

Edited by markh on Thursday 14th September 09:15

[GreenV8S]

Unlikely to be necessary in normal use, the oil is in quite good thermal contact with the water in these engines. If it's worked particularly hard on the track you might find it gets a bit hot for comfort, but if you fit a cooler make sure you fit it with a stat.

[v8sag]

Give me a yell if you want to retro fit and need some install pics,all NZ new Griff and Chims had oil coolers fitted at the factory,guess they thought it was warmer down here,could of fooled me at the mo,or maybe they knew we drove them harder...

[tvr4ever]

raw-sewedge said:

Have a feeling that the oils gets a bit hot and thin. Wonder if a cooler would help matter.

Any thoughts?

Fitted a 19 row oilcooler with thermostat and temp gauge to the Griffith. Even with this setup the oil temps rises to 130+ celcius on hot trackdays.

I measure the oil temp with a VDO dipstick type tempsensor, it seems to be very accurate.

I know the oil i use (Castrol RS 10W60) can withstand a lot higher temps, but i prefer the oil to stay close to 100 celcius. It's amazing to see how fast the oiltemp rises when you floor it on the Autobahn, i reckon the oil is also an integral part of the cooling proces so having an oilcooler gives me piece of mind.

I have never measured the temps without the cooler, i reckon ( and i can only guess..) they must be a lot higher. I'm sure someone with a lot more knowledge about these engines wil come along and tell us all about it.

Fred

[raw-sewedge]

I'm using Valvoline Racing 20/50. I get 45+psi when cold and 30psi when hot over 2000revs. This to me seems about normal, however when the engine temp gets to the point where the fans cut in, I start to see the oil pressure fall to about 25psi over 2000revs and 20ish at idle. Once the engine temp has dropped back down for a while the pressure starts to recover.

The engine temp isn't rising much over 90 before the fans are kicking in and controlling it, so I don't think it's getting too hot.

Hence I thought an oil cooler may help.

Thing is it never used to do this. It was always rock solid at 30psi and I can't really see any reason why it's changed unless the pressure relief valve is sticking or something but then why the change with temp

The other alternative I considered was taking the pressure gauge and the temp gauge out. At least then I can concentrate on the bloody road

[GreenV8S]

raw-sewedge said:

The other alternative I considered was taking the pressure gauge and the temp gauge out. At least then I can concentrate on the bloody road

Masking tape?

[tvr4ever]

raw-sewedge said:

I'm using Valvoline Racing 20/50. I get 45+psi when cold and 30psi when hot over 2000revs.

pressure relief valve is sticking or something

The oilpressures that you get are about the same as mine. On hot trackdays the pressure does drop a little, i think it's because the oil get's thinner. You have to realise these engines have a pump that's designed to produce a lot of flow, not a high pressure. I can only guess, but i believe when the oil get's realy hot there's still a lot of flow, only the pressure drops a bit. (Peter ...?? HELP)

I have fitted the JE "tadpole type relief valve" so it can't stick.

Fred

[shpub]

When was the oil last changed?

[raw-sewedge]

Oil is only 3 weeks old now. I changed it to rule it out after the hot weather we've seen this year.

[GreenV8S]

tvr4ever said:

i believe when the oil get's realy hot there's still a lot of flow, only the pressure drops a bit.

When the oil gets hot, the flow goes up and the pressure goes down.

[Paul V]

My Griff has an oil cooler fitted as standard by the factory as it was an export car, the pipes run off a sandwich plate on the filter housing and down the side of the rad and it was mounted to the top of the rad using 45 degree brackets so sitting in the mouth part. Since fitting an alloy rad I have had to make up new mounts for it though.