Hot Oil

[V8 Vum]

Ok hears one....For normal (normal?) road use and the odd track day...

...is a fan necessary or desirable on the oil cooler if that cooler is placed in the usual place?

Seems that most say not?

..although presumably a scoop woudl help?

..what about getting stuck in traffic?

cheers

Keith

[GTWayne]

I would say no, you will not need one. If you have a gauge and see more than 130c then yes, fit one, but I would be surprised if you see much more than 100c on the road and you would need to be going fast round a track for a considerable time to exceed 130c
Be honest Keith, we would all like ( or at least THINK we would like ) to go on track but in reality, it rarely happens, so keep it real old chum

[ezakimak]

so do you need the oil cooler full stop.........................
and if so when?

[Thevet]

GTWayne said:

Be honest Keith, we would all like ( or at least THINK we would like ) to go on track but in reality, it rarely happens, so keep it real old chum

Speak for yourself old boy, some of us spend alot of time circulating fast on one way roads!
But I haven't seen the temperature go very high on the oil, with an oil cooler but no fan.

Edited by Thevet on Wednesday 24th September 13:55

[V8 Vum]

GTWayne said:

I would say no, you will not need one. If you have a gauge and see more than 130c then yes, fit one, but I would be surprised if you see much more than 100c on the road and you would need to be going fast round a track for a considerable time to exceed 130c
Be honest Keith, we would all like ( or at least THINK we would like ) to go on track but in reality, it rarely happens, so keep it real old chum

ahhh well! ....me ol' mucka... I have a secret! Yers I do!

Ma Da' bless him almost lived at Silverstone and Prescott-hill climb during the 50's & 60's & 70's

He owned a garage in Cheltenham and raced regularly, winning his class 1967 at Siverstone on Cooper S. We also ran Jowett Javelins and Coopers in various races but trashed most! Ouch.
We also owned Jim Clarks Lotus Climax F1 for a number of years but sadly didn't get to race it. Silly old sod sold it for a song a few years later... (bummer)

.... So since I live only 2 miles from Prescott Hill, you can bet thats where I will be heading as soon as the thing is on the road!

Edited by V8 Vum on Wednesday 24th September 14:42

[Paul.B]

ezakimak said:

so do you need the oil cooler full stop.........................
and if so when?

I know others have fitted a thermostat stopping oil flow to the cooler in order to help bring the oil up to temp. It will also help maintain the temp in cold weather. I 'm fitting one to mine as I did occassionally see low temps on very cold days. Cold oil is not good!


Paul.B

[Graham-P]

Or get a Laminova oil to water cooler, I also have a thermostat sandwich plate.

[V8 Vum]

Graham-P said:

Or get a Laminova oil to water cooler, I also have a thermostat sandwich plate.

Well theres a thought!

Presumably you don't need that oil cooler with one of those fitted?

What experience have other had with these Units? is it a worthwhile mod?

if so, and idea which is the best model for the LS7?

cheers

Edited by V8 Vum on Wednesday 24th September 15:40

[Graham-P]

This is where mine was before I decided to move it to the drivers side bulkhead. I have the 395mm unit that's equivalent to a 25 row rad, not too sure where you would mount it for an LS7 application.

[martinlaw]

I have always had high oil temp problems on both my Sport and GTR when on track days - even when I keep the revs below 5000rpm (limit is 6500 on the GTR).

After around 6 laps at Oulton Park my oil temp is around 130 - 140 too hot even for VR1 oil in my opinion. This is even with a Pacet fan bolted to the cooler.

I have just fitted a air scoop to the intake, hopefully this will help.

Water temp never goes above 90 even on the track.

Martin.

[V8 Vum]

Graham-P said:

This is where mine was before I decided to move it to the drivers side bulkhead. I have the 395mm unit that's equivalent to a 25 row rad, not too sure where you would mount it for an LS7 application.

You happy with it Graham?

cheers

keith

[Graham-P]

I'm happy with it, the water temp is around mid 80's, oil temp a bit low at around mid 90's but when driven hard water goes to low 90's and oil between 100-110. the oil warms up quicker and I have a thermostat in the sandwich plate.
Kyle runs one as well, but his is mounted to the bulkhead (GTR)
The other good thing about these is that if (God forbid) an engine lets go these can be striped down, flushed out and put back together, no need to replace.

[ultimaCZ]

V8 Vum said:

Graham-P said:

Or get a Laminova oil to water cooler, I also have a thermostat sandwich plate.

Well theres a thought!

Presumably you don't need that oil cooler with one of those fitted?

What experience have other had with these Units? is it a worthwhile mod?

if so, and idea which is the best model for the LS7?

cheers

Edited by V8 Vum on Wednesday 24th September 15:40

On my LS7 I would not need an oil cooler at all. I have a standard Ultima one installed with a thermostat, though, but the temps rarily exceed 80. At cruising it reads between 60 and 70. On track the highest I have seen was around 100.
On my SBCs temps would shoot up to between 110 and 130 on track, and that very quickly. The LS7 is a completely different animal...

Edited by ultimaCZ on Friday 26th September 16:02

Edited by ultimaCZ on Friday 26th September 16:07

[V8 Vum]

Hi Peter,

Howdy doin' ?

keith

[V8 Vum]

So....

Using an LS7 are we saying that there may be no need for an oil cooler in reality?

Keith

[ROWDYRENAULT]

I think that the chances of being able to use enough pedal on the street to cause oil temps high enough for concern are minimal. The track might be a different story. The events that I will run with my LS powered GTR typicaly allow 20 minute run groups. I have data logging with the Motec and intend on seeing a trend towards a problem before I fix it. Willow Springs sees air temps of 115f if I do not see a problem there it probably isn't a problem in most places. Oil coolers add weight have more fittings to leak and block air from perhaps cooling something else that needs it and most important have to have a thermostat, period. running on cold oil will screw up an engine ecspecially with todays synthetics just as fast as running the oil a few degrees hot. I will report back on what the data logging says about the oil temps. Lee

[Steve_D]

The dry sump and its catch tank will in themselves provide a level of cooling along with the increased quantity of oil the system is running.

Steve

[V8 Vum]

Would it be fair to say then, that actually a traditional oil cooler might even be counterproductive. The oil will be cooled only when there is sufficient air flowing through the cooler ie when driven at speed, so normal road use with all its traffic jams, slow moving traffic etc it would be nigh useless.

OK lots of track racing maybe a different story, but also this would depend on the length of each session anyway I guess...

Sounds like...no cooler, or one of those water/oil exchanger thingys might be preferable?

cheers

Keith

[UltimaCH]

Make sure that you have a thermostat in the oil circuit and the cool/hot oil question problem will not become one