Oil coolers - standard fitment?
Discussion
shpub said:Having fitted an oil temp gauge I noticed the oil temp does creep up on motorway hauls though. A recent thread on the Cerb forum showed that Cerb owners who havefitted an oil temp gauge don't see that, in fact their oil temp drops on motorways.
It was a standard optional extra... or was it an optional standard extra....
Not fitted to UK or european cars as standard. A few people have retrofitted them but unless you hammer around a track all day, not convinced it is worth it.
Looking outside at the blizzard I'm not sure its a worthwhile mod either!
My oil cooler was destroyed recently, but I think rather than replace it I'm going to go for an oil/water heat exchanger. In theory it should give improved oil temperature during warmup, and more consistent oil temp control when it's being driven hard. I've got spare capacity on the water rad so there shouldn't be any problem from dumping extra heat into the coolant.
I modified the sump on my old 3000M to run a water pipe through it .. the thinking being that as the coolant heats up faster than the oil the hotter water pipe would bring teh oil up to temp sooner, but then cool teh oil when the oil temp rose dramatically under heavy load/high revs.
I don't think it worked though, probably not enough surface area .. a proper heat exchanger would be much more worthwhile .. they use that system of a water cooled oil cooler on the SP6 cars by the way
I don't think it worked though, probably not enough surface area .. a proper heat exchanger would be much more worthwhile .. they use that system of a water cooled oil cooler on the SP6 cars by the way
When doing set-speed testing up to Vmax around Nardo (not in a TVR) the bogey figure for engine oil was IIRC 150 C. This is obviously a max at extreme conditions but we regularly saw 130, which was fine. 90 C? - too COLD!
edited as I've just noticed who posted it - Victor, ask your nextdoor neighbor!
>> Edited by the dodger on Wednesday 30th November 00:26
edited as I've just noticed who posted it - Victor, ask your nextdoor neighbor!
>> Edited by the dodger on Wednesday 30th November 00:26
How can you say 90 deg is too cold when most mineral oils would be breaking down much above this figure?? a good semi synthetic starts to break down at around 105 if sustained over high loads! at 90 NO i wouldnt fit a cooler but if it creeps higher than this yes i would it is far easier to maintain a level around 100 than to let it get too high and try to bring it back down, i have seen more big ends run on rovers than i care to remember where the oil has just got too hot and lost its properties
the dodger said:Are you a Jag man as well then?
When doing set-speed testing up to Vmax around Nardo (not in a TVR) the bogey figure for engine oil was IIRC 150 C. This is obviously a max at extreme conditions but we regularly saw 130, which was fine. 90 C? - too COLD!
edited as I've just noticed who posted it - Victor, ask your nextdoor neighbor!
>> Edited by the dodger on Wednesday 30th November 00:26
GreenV8S said:Now that sounds like a sensible move, especially with the improved oil warmup. I have an alloy rad fitted, so plenty of cooling capacity going spare too.
My oil cooler was destroyed recently, but I think rather than replace it I'm going to go for an oil/water heat exchanger. In theory it should give improved oil temperature during warmup, and more consistent oil temp control when it's being driven hard. I've got spare capacity on the water rad so there shouldn't be any problem from dumping extra heat into the coolant.
Peter
You would obviously have options where you fit an oil/water exchanger. For quickest oil warmup it would need to be in the loop before the water thermostat. If it was primarily for that then you'd put it in the bypass pipe. But putting it on the cold side at all means increasing the inlet water temp to the engine. Put it on the hot side if the rad and it won't warm the oil at startup until the thermostat opens, but it will take more heat out of the system overall once up to temp.
I hope I'm making sense here!
Where would you put one to maximise oil warmup and most stable oil temperatures?
You would obviously have options where you fit an oil/water exchanger. For quickest oil warmup it would need to be in the loop before the water thermostat. If it was primarily for that then you'd put it in the bypass pipe. But putting it on the cold side at all means increasing the inlet water temp to the engine. Put it on the hot side if the rad and it won't warm the oil at startup until the thermostat opens, but it will take more heat out of the system overall once up to temp.
I hope I'm making sense here!
Where would you put one to maximise oil warmup and most stable oil temperatures?
I haven't worked that out yet! It depends how much water flow I can afford to put through the oil cooler. If the oil cooler is big enough I can just put it in the top hose (I have an entry stat so the top hose see full engine flow all the time), otherwise I will have to find somewhere else to plumb it in. None of the alternatives look ideal, but as long as I can get the return upstream of the stat then the stat will take care of the net temperature back into the engine for me. I also need to ensure that the geometry is right so that it self-degasses if any local boiling occurs within the oil heat exchanger. Not trivial to do, but all doable I think.
>> Edited by GreenV8S on Wednesday 30th November 16:08
>> Edited by GreenV8S on Wednesday 30th November 16:08
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