Oil Coolers: Water or Air?
Discussion
TIPPER said:
I've done some research but still can't decide. Also I'm going to be fitting a PRT so an Air cooler has the attraction of probably being less of a fuss to fit.
Your views, reasoning and comments appreciated. TIA.
Air ones don't work unless the rad is somewhere sencible (ie NOT the side vent)Your views, reasoning and comments appreciated. TIA.
Water ones are much more fit and forget, are less fragile, more efficent, and (if fitted right) will actually speed up oil warm up times from cold (which is 90% of the time on a road car)
Tim, I would go with water / oil cooler for 2 reasons:
1) It's very compact, light and efficient
2) In cold weather it acts as an oil heater, getting the oil to temp much faster (around 5min faster in my car pre and post oil cooler).
The oil / air cooler will be great on track when you are giving it beans (though arguably no better than the oil/water one), but does less when the car is stationary and on cold winter days, your oil may never actually reach the optimal temp in your engine. This may have implications for engine wear if you give it beans when the oil viscosity is still very high as the oil temp remains low for much longer.
Anyway, those are the reasons behind why I have a huge laminova. That and the fact that randy told me I would be a fool not to.
Edited to say that Scuffers types faster.
1) It's very compact, light and efficient
2) In cold weather it acts as an oil heater, getting the oil to temp much faster (around 5min faster in my car pre and post oil cooler).
The oil / air cooler will be great on track when you are giving it beans (though arguably no better than the oil/water one), but does less when the car is stationary and on cold winter days, your oil may never actually reach the optimal temp in your engine. This may have implications for engine wear if you give it beans when the oil viscosity is still very high as the oil temp remains low for much longer.
Anyway, those are the reasons behind why I have a huge laminova. That and the fact that randy told me I would be a fool not to.
Edited to say that Scuffers types faster.
Edited by shangani on Monday 24th November 15:04
Water (used for cooling the engine) heats up much faster than oil - on a cold day my water temp reaches a steady 84C about 10 min before the oil. Hence for as long as the oil temp is lower than the water temp, an oil/water cooler acts as an oil heater.
Your radiator should keep water temp in a steady state when the car is moving - 84C in my car. Oil temps can hit 130C with my engine in the absence of oil cooling. Even 84C water will have a cooling effect on hot oil, but the opposite effect on cold oil.
Your radiator should keep water temp in a steady state when the car is moving - 84C in my car. Oil temps can hit 130C with my engine in the absence of oil cooling. Even 84C water will have a cooling effect on hot oil, but the opposite effect on cold oil.
NathanE said:
Can anyone explain how it acts as a oil heater as well as a cooler??
well, depends on how you plub the water side...the 'recommended' way with the Elise is to put it in the hot water outlet of the engine, so the water temp is ~84-88 (depends on stat), thus if the oil temp is less than this, it will be heated, if it's above this it will be cooled.
Cleary in absolute heat transfer capacity is will be somewhat limited compared to running it from the cold side (rad return) but the size of the cooler used makes up for a lot of this and the testing done on them seems to confirm that they are bigg enough to maintain sencible oil temps.
At the end of the day, stable oil temps are as important (if not more so) than the absolute temp itself (within reason!), this having the cooler plumbed into a relatively stable water temp means you end up with a relatively stable oil temp.
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