Oil Coolers Do They Work? Whats The Best...

Joey5.0

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Feb 13, 2006
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Im Having problems with my oil Temp getting to hot in 1 and second gear for long periods of time. Seems like the only solution is an Oil Cooler. Im wondering if they work, and who sells the best one and how much? Also i have a Canton Road Race 7Qt Oil Pan, Will an oil cooler still work with this Pan?
 
I also just put in the FRPP unit. I have a few pictures in a thread I made maybe back around January? I wanted the cooler to help extend the life of my oil. I noticed that my oil would really thin out and change colors when I took long trips in the country. So in went the cooler and so far so good. I haven't been able to take the car out on the backroads to comapre apples to apples yet.
 
Some general oil temp guidelines I found in Four Stroke Performance Tuning by A. Graham Bell. (No the name is not a joke:D )

Ideal 200-230F
Max 266F
Power Loss > 240F
Power Loss < 185F
Warmup is complete after ~160F
Watch your oil temps in the winter, as they will be lower.

I highly recommend this text.

I got the impression that these temps are for dino oils. Synthetics can go higher, but numbers were not provided.

What is your oil temp at?

jason
 
vristang said:
Some general oil temp guidelines I found in Four Stroke Performance Tuning by A. Graham Bell. (No the name is not a joke:D )

Ideal 200-230F
Max 266F
Power Loss > 240F
Power Loss < 185F
Warmup is complete after ~160F
Watch your oil temps in the winter, as they will be lower.

I highly recommend this text.

I got the impression that these temps are for dino oils. Synthetics can go higher, but numbers were not provided.

What is your oil temp at?

jason

When My oil temp is around 200-230 The car runs worse, and feels kind of heavier. Sounds like the FRPP Is the way to go....but will it work with the Canton Oil Pan?
 
I'd just be careful what size cooler you go with.. if you dissapate too much heat, you could end up with a situation where the oil isn't reaching the temp. required to flash the contaminates out.
 
Joey5.0 said:
When My oil temp is around 200-230 The car runs worse, and feels kind of heavier. Sounds like the FRPP Is the way to go....but will it work with the Canton Oil Pan?

I'm not saying that the oil temp is not a problem, it may be.
However I would suspect other things before oil temps.
Have you pulled codes?
What is the coolant temp in these situations?

I used an oil cooler years ago on the stock 302, and saw no performance increase.

sgarlic makes a good point as well.

jason
 
My car used to see temperatures approaching the 240 - 250 degree mark in traffic (coolant temps near 220.) I would have similar readings after a good romping of the car driving around the back roads of Michigan. But my car weight also plays a factor. The motor works harder to acomplish the same results as a hardtop car....

With my cooler tucked up behind the drivers fog light cavity, I see around 210 - 220 degrees in traffic. Of course these readings have been taken in the spring when the air temperature is much nicer than it will be once the summer heat reaches us. Once summer get's here I hope that the readings don't change too much.

My cooler doesn't have a fan on it nor does it have any type of air dam to help force air into the cavity at speed on the highway. If the summer heat becomes too much, those will be things that I add to the system to improve the performance of the cooler.

The main reason I wanted a cooler: I simply was unhappy with the temperature of the oil and also was looking to extend the life of the oil in my car. There should be no performance increase by adding an oil cooler.
 
The car wuns awesome around 180 or 190. But hotter than 210 and the car is a pig and is killing performance, the oil just plain and simple gets to hot in low gears and at the track. It needs to be cooled. Looks like im going with the FRPP.
 
Joey5.0 said:
The car wuns awesome around 180 or 190. But hotter than 210 and the car is a pig and is killing performance, the oil just plain and simple gets to hot in low gears and at the track. It needs to be cooled. Looks like im going with the FRPP.

What's up Snohomish!
I just realized we were neighbors.

I believe the FRPP cooler comes with an oil filter sandwich plate. You should have no issues with the Canton pan.

I am curious what kind of oil you are using though.
Can you let us know what brand and weight?

jason
 
FWIW, a quality synthetic like you appear to be using can very easily handle the temps you are seeing.

Does the car run SOTP crappier because the engine temps are up, or because the oil temps are up (since they are hand-in-hand, isolating which can be tough). I would speculate the engine temps have more to do with it than the oil temps.

That said, the oil cooler can help wick away some heat (that the cooling system might not have to bother with, depending upon the oil cooler location).

BTW, since this is a group hug, I grew up in Woodinville. :D

Good luck.
 
That is an interesting point brought up by the ex-washingtonian. :)

Joey5.0-
Where are the coolant temps when the oil gets up high?
I think my oil temps warmed up slower, but were usually about 10F higher than my coolant back when I had the oil cooler on my 302.

Do you still have the stock EGR pumping through the intake manifold?

I'm not really trying to talk you out of the oil cooler, just trying to understand things better.

jason
 
I have never seen my engine temps exceed 190. I have a Black Magic electric fan kit that i dialed in to turn on at 180. Now when my oil temp is above at or around 200-210, the car feels Havier and is a pig compared to lower OIL temps like 160-180.

Yes i still have Egr and smog, but i dont have Ac/ and my Heater Core is out.