Talk to me about oil coolers

[MPoxon]

Afternoon all,

Looking to get an oil cooler fitted to the Griff to ensure the oil does not overheat on track.

As far as I can see my options are either air cooled or water cooled. I like the idea of water cooled as this will heat the oil on cold days as well as cooling when required. I note the Speed Six cars had a Laminova oil cooler... would this also be suitable for Rover V8, looks quite compact...


I see that mocal do a nice take off plate of the Rover V8 oil pump which avoids takeoff via a sandwich plate on the oil filter.



I assume if going for air cooled I would need an oil thermostat to ensure the oil is only cooled when it needs it similar to this setup on the Merlin Motorsport site:


Any wise words of wisdom from those who have been down this route?

[Alan461]

Got these spare for beer tokens if you're interested

[phazed]

Mine runs an air cooled oil cooler.

I use quite a large cooler as the small one didn't make much difference on track.

For instance, with a small cooler oil temperature was getting up to 115° on track, with my large cooler it's only rises to about 105, a huge difference.

I used a take off plate and a short Cosworth oil filter. The take off plate has a built-in thermostat and should only open once the engine gets hot.

I have fitted the cooler in front of the radiator and introduced vents in the front valance.

The cooler sitting in front of the radiator doesn't make any difference to the cooling of the engine.

In fact, the engine temperature rarely rises above 80° on the water temperature gauge.

There was no drop in all pressure when fitting the large cooler which I thought might happen.

The engine happily idles at 50 psi when warm, ( and about 35 when hot).

[phillpot]

This is a Modine oil cooler, came with a "new old stock" engine (Cologne V6) I bought.

[phazed]

That Mocal take off plate must be for pre serps.

[MPoxon]

Alan461 said:

Got these spare for beer tokens if you're interested

Very kind of you sir but looks like that is worth more than just beer tokens! I would stick those on PH parts classifieds or eBay if they are surplus to requirements.

Looking to add the oil cooler around March 2016 to tie in with the service so if I do decide to go air cooled and you haven't sold them by then I would be interested.

[MPoxon]

phazed said:

Mine runs an air cooled oil cooler.

Thanks for the advice Peter, I take it you are using a Mocal cooler. How many rows is it?

I think you are right on that oil pump cover being only for pre serp which is a shame. I wanted to avoid the sandwich plate so I can still run a standard filter.

[MPoxon]

phillpot said:

This is a Modine oil cooler, came with a "new old stock" engine (Cologne V6) I bought.

Is that a water cooled setup? I have looked on the Modine site to try and get a better understanding of how your setup works but I cannot find it.

[Pupp]

MPoxon said:

I wanted to avoid the sandwich plate so I can still run a standard filter.

Might take a bit of messing about to sort the right terminals but the Serp 'intermediate' timing cover on our engines has integral ports for the feed and return for the OEM LR cooler - the hoses are available and not expensive so might be possible to re-engineer to work with a third party cooler (the engine facing ends are a very specific form that is important to internal oil routing, not just a butted fitting). I use a Mocal sandwich plate and Cossie filter with no issues; a remote filter set up is also possible to retain the full height one if you can locate it in the plumbing.

I use a 19 row Mocal air/air cooler let into the flat panel in front of the radiator in a Chim (lets air from the nose through into the engine bay); has proved very effective

[jesfirth]

Hi matthew, I have a fairly standard air cooled system. Mine is about 1/4 of the size of the radiator and it works well. It just sits in the centre of the car in front of the water radiator. My oil never gets above 80 degrees on the track.

I avoided the thermostat solution because I was concerned that it would jam and fail. I use a cover on the cooler most of the time. I only ever take the cover off for really hot days or track use.

I also fitted an oil temperature guage so that I can see the temperature it runs at. I just removed the clock from the dash and put it in the hole that was left.

[phillpot]

MPoxon said:

Is that a water cooled setup?

Yep. Basically it's a small plate heat exchanger as I understand it?

[griffdude]

Matthew, there's a Laminova cooler for sale here-

http://www.uphillracers.com/showthread.php/laminov...