Discussion
My S1 vixen before It Morphed, ran an oil cooler in front of the radiator between the main chassis rails. The cooler ran on an ally bracket which spanned the front chassis rails in between the bonnet moints and allowed the cooler to be mounted on top. It ran via a take off plate on the filter housing through a mocal stat.
I am pretty sure I have it all in a box somewhere now surplus to requirements.
N.
I am pretty sure I have it all in a box somewhere now surplus to requirements.
N.
An oil cooler IS a radiator so Adrians reply is both right and wrong. Wherever you position it you are putting a one in front of another. The optimum position for an oil cooler is where it has a direct flow of uninterrupted cold air but before you put it on the roof why do you want one?
There are a LOT of considerations to take into account before fitting a cooler, the first being the temperature the oil is running at, do you REALLY need to cool it? Oil needs to be between certain operating temperatures to be "in grade", cooling it too much is massively detrimental to its efficacy, thats why we all warm up our engines before giving them hard use. Have you measured the temperature,do you use it on road, long fast journeys, track days etc? The next question if you need one at all is how big? Assuming you run with an oilstat what temperature do you want to maintain the oil at, the bigger the rad the colder returning oil will be to the engine. By fitting an oil cooler you automatically increase oil capacity and therefore increase oil cooling and the longer the pipe runs the bigger the capacity increase and the more the oil coolng....... If you do fit one a word of advice on oil pipes, do NOT use oil lines with jubillee clips, The pipe will eventually soften and the pipe will slip off = disaster, always use swaged fittings.! Another common failing and more common with more increase in size is radiator failure for one of 2 reasons. Firstly the base plates vibrate loose and cause leaks but more commonly the oil exiting the rad is much colder and therefore thicker and can lead to pressure build up and rad bursting = disaster. Add to that many more places for potential oil leaks and the added risk of stone puncture.
Just a few more considerations probably more important in my opinion than where you mount it.
There are a LOT of considerations to take into account before fitting a cooler, the first being the temperature the oil is running at, do you REALLY need to cool it? Oil needs to be between certain operating temperatures to be "in grade", cooling it too much is massively detrimental to its efficacy, thats why we all warm up our engines before giving them hard use. Have you measured the temperature,do you use it on road, long fast journeys, track days etc? The next question if you need one at all is how big? Assuming you run with an oilstat what temperature do you want to maintain the oil at, the bigger the rad the colder returning oil will be to the engine. By fitting an oil cooler you automatically increase oil capacity and therefore increase oil cooling and the longer the pipe runs the bigger the capacity increase and the more the oil coolng....... If you do fit one a word of advice on oil pipes, do NOT use oil lines with jubillee clips, The pipe will eventually soften and the pipe will slip off = disaster, always use swaged fittings.! Another common failing and more common with more increase in size is radiator failure for one of 2 reasons. Firstly the base plates vibrate loose and cause leaks but more commonly the oil exiting the rad is much colder and therefore thicker and can lead to pressure build up and rad bursting = disaster. Add to that many more places for potential oil leaks and the added risk of stone puncture.
Just a few more considerations probably more important in my opinion than where you mount it.
Agree with Steve
On my Taimar, with one of Adrian's big radiators it always ran pretty cool, so I never used an oil cooler, I did however remote mount the filter so changing it was easier.
Personally I think that you need to be giving the engine sustained abuse to require a cooler, and almost certainly not required in road conditions.
On my Taimar, with one of Adrian's big radiators it always ran pretty cool, so I never used an oil cooler, I did however remote mount the filter so changing it was easier.
Personally I think that you need to be giving the engine sustained abuse to require a cooler, and almost certainly not required in road conditions.
I think that the best position for the radiators is Front:Water Radiator, Middle:Fan, Rear Oil.
Why? For a few reasons, these are my opinions.
Oil cooler right out the front does maximise cooling but that's for racing when you want to fit the smallest, lightest rad that you can get away with because the conditions are more predictable. If a stone went through the oil radiator then it could be that the first thing you know is when the gauge dies or the dreaded orange light comes on - by then it could be too late. If there is a water radiator hole then you are much more likely to notice steam and a gradual warming up.
If you position the fan between the rads then the air it moves does two jobs of cooling. The air coming off the water rad is considerably less than 100C and as the oil temperature should be hotter than the water then that air will cool the oil as well. Plus - in traffic when there is no natural air running through the oil rad - this can cause problems.
Always fit an oil thermostat, my 390SE came standard with an oil radiator but no stat. On a long straight motorway at medium speed the oil would over-cool and this led to premature failure of the oil-pump/distributor drive on my first trip to Zolder.
ETA - Adrian and the Gamekeeper have practical experience of many many more cars than I do - so their opinions have greater weight, but I can still have my opinions.
Why? For a few reasons, these are my opinions.
Oil cooler right out the front does maximise cooling but that's for racing when you want to fit the smallest, lightest rad that you can get away with because the conditions are more predictable. If a stone went through the oil radiator then it could be that the first thing you know is when the gauge dies or the dreaded orange light comes on - by then it could be too late. If there is a water radiator hole then you are much more likely to notice steam and a gradual warming up.
If you position the fan between the rads then the air it moves does two jobs of cooling. The air coming off the water rad is considerably less than 100C and as the oil temperature should be hotter than the water then that air will cool the oil as well. Plus - in traffic when there is no natural air running through the oil rad - this can cause problems.
Always fit an oil thermostat, my 390SE came standard with an oil radiator but no stat. On a long straight motorway at medium speed the oil would over-cool and this led to premature failure of the oil-pump/distributor drive on my first trip to Zolder.
ETA - Adrian and the Gamekeeper have practical experience of many many more cars than I do - so their opinions have greater weight, but I can still have my opinions.
Edited by E Ponym on Saturday 30th July 14:43
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