i was wondering as summer approaches and i live in sunny(hot)south florida is an oil cooler an appropriate mod. on some days the outside temp gets up to 97F and stays there throughout an afternoon. and i do have to drive in some traffic.. i do have some questions
1. Does it work??
2. Does it effect radiator temp. do to the location??
3. does anyone have this install? afternoon job or allday install
there is some mods to the car no as the sig says

 

Do you realize that the MCS comes stock with an oil cooler? You should be fine for street driving or autocrossing.

Scott
90SM

 

I agree. I haven't had any issues with high oil temps on the street. On 100 degree days, you'll see it peak around 230 degrees when cruising on the highway. Sitting in traffic, it'll be lower than that.

 

ahem; i love my oil cooler . especially on hot summer days . cooler oil means lower piston temps ;; means lower chamber temps . the factory unit is an oil warmer .

 

I use Castrol magnatec in summer

 

I have a Setrab oil cooler. I custom mounted it using the plate from my old Cobalt oil cooler. Here is my old thread. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ght=oil+cooler

I plan to get the Aeroquip fitting tool and go back to properly fit the hoses. It still is not leaking, but I want it to look nicer. Im also going to get the Madness oil cooler plate so I can mount my oil pressure and temp gauge senders in a better spot.

 

I'd buy an oil temp gauge first to get an idea of your oil temps. Unless you are seeing high oil temps, its just a waste of money and a potential failure point.

 

That may be true, but I could swear my car runs faster when the oil is at a well maintained temp. Plus it is really cool to say I have an oil cooler, and I like things that add efficiency, no matter how minute.

 

If you are seeing temps above 120 C then an oil cooler is a good idea. If not, the temps are where the oil wants to be.

I never saw temps above 120 on my track days and only rarely above that when in heavy traffic.

 

Warmer....?.......maybe during start up. But the coolant is running cooler than the oil so it is in fact cooling the oil.

 

yeah true . all i know is when my oil hits 200 f during city driving hard!! it feels less than . as soon as the oil drops to 180 its good to go again . just seems better all around . it is a potential problem but gauges fixed that .

 

180 is low for oil. That's not even hot enough to boil water. Race cars will see 250-265 during a race and that's with a 5 gal sump!

 

It's true. All things considered equal, engines run more efficient when they're hot because the oil is thinner. Thinner oil means less power goes to moving it around. There's a reason race teams run oil as hot as possible and pull 20+ inches of vacuum in their dry sump systems.

 

have not installed a gauge due to the fact that is kinda a pain in the
a%$ i would think that when the temp is 95 and sitting in traffic i mean heavy traffic (creaping along at 5 to 10 mph ) on the expressway also i was thinking of doing autocross with the car most of the races are in the summer i guess i will start with a gauge and work from there any advise on a gauge.. also pressue or temp???

 

I have a set of these:

http://store.summitracing.com/........


http://store.summitracing.com/...


I like the old school electronics feel to them. They remind me of something from Back to the Future.

 

You can also get an OEM temp gauge installed.

 

get the cooler kit from mini madness ; comes with ports for temp and pressure . i notice no difference in performance past 180 f it does feel sluggish (cold) below 160 but above 160 - 180 f it performs the same . so i'll stick with the lower cyl. temps . lots of race cars run coolers for some odd reason .

 

You are right......race cars do use a cooler cause if they didn't the temps would go thru the roof (>290F)

Our cars have a coolant thermostat set at 190, this is the temp range that BMW needs for the engine. You shouldn't try and run oil cooler than that.

 

I would suggest the temp gauge. You already have an oil pressure idiot light in the dash.

 

you are of course entitled to your opinion thx .
.

 

Not trying to be argumentative, but the facts are as I stated. You can choose to run your engine at less than optimal temps as you see fit.

 

You really want to get your oil pan temp above 212F (100C) to boil off the water that is present from condensation. On the other hand, you also want to keep it well below 300F as the TBN really drops fast at temperatures in that 290F+ range.

If you cooling system is working correctly your oil temps should be fine under MOST conditions for street and autocross use. I've found that in the colder weeks here in central Indiana (down below 15F ambient) that I need to block off part of the radiator with cardboard to drive the temps higher and get the oil pan temp to crack 212F.

Driving in the summer in the high 90's F, and autocrossing in those conditions, I've never seen my oil temps get over 120C on the OEM gauge, and they are normally below 110C. Those temps are easy for the oil and engine to deal with.

If you road race or do long trackday sessions on hot summer days, then you MAY need an oil cooler to keep the temps in check due to the sustained high engine loads. However, the higher vehicle speeds that you have during those conditions help the cooling system work better and allows more airflow across the bottom of the oil pan, which both help in controlling oil temperatures.

Monitoring with an oil temp gauge, ideally in the oil pan so you're measuring bulk oil temp, is a good idea. If your duty cycle is keeping your oil too cold or too hot for it to do its job correctly, then take appropriate action.

For what it's worth, we never apply full load to an engine at work until the oil pan temp is at least 200F unless we are deliberately trying to abuse the engine and accelerate wear. Even then it is rare, because heavily loading a cold engine is one of the worst possible things you can do to it, and can result in dramatically reduced component life or significant (mission disabling, as in parts where they don't belong) failures.

Scott
90SM

 

Any day above 40ºF degrees outside and my oil is above 190º, more around 220º. In high temperatures my oil gets up to +260º. This winter with temps at 5ºF or so my oil hit its peak temp of 170º and a low of 70 when the gauge started to register the temp. I think my oil cooler's thermostat does a good job of keeping oil temps in a good range. I wait till my oil is at about 110º before I load the engine too much.

 

i've never had a condensation issue . many cars ,motorcycles , planes ., whatever , use coolers with no adverse affects . those are the facts . i do notice lag below 160 . above that nothing . some thermostat companies even print the lack of need for a thermostat even though they sell them . i do run one though , so im not sitting in the driveway for an hour waiting for the oil to come up . running a cooler will not hurt your engine .

 

What do you mean by "lag"?

All of the examples you posted of vehicles having oil coolers are there to keep the temp from rising too high....not to keep them cool.