living in the desert, and with summer coming, i'm thinking i should add an auxillary oil cooler to my mini. i wonder why i don't hear much talk about them here. does anyone run one on their street car? it won't act as a heat sink when i'm sitting in traffic and there's no air moving across it, will it? will my original oil pump handle the extra load and volume?

 

Hello rrdusek,

The reason could be because of the type and location of our oil filter.

On other types of car, with conventional oil cartridge oil filters, it is very easy to sandwich an adapter for the cooler. from that adapter you have two lines going to the cooler.

In the case of our minis,we need to make some modifications.

But I completety agree with uou, living in Arizona, I really could use a good oil cooler on my car.

Maybe I need to work on it

Victor

 

What about the MINI Madness cooler?
http://www.mini-madness.com/index.as...ROD&ProdID=219

I'm not 100% sure how it attachs. The pic looks like it attachs next to the oil canister.

 

I began a thread about oil coolers with zero responses.

I spoke with Onasled yesterday regarding oil temps and coolers. He believes a water to air oil cooler is a better way to go; oil temps come up faster from cold and cooling does not depend on a moving car so much. I am looking into this type of oil cooler now.

I wouldn't consider an oil cooler without a thermostat, however - I live in the Northeast.

 

Doesn't the MCS already employ this type of oil cooler?

"The stock oil cooler cools the engine oil via a small heat exchanger (pictured in blue) that circulates hot antifreeze, reaching 225F and higher during racing use, hot climates and heavy traffic"

 

Yes. And, it's really a matter of taste. some believe the additional heat added to the engine is a bad thing and some feel an air to air works when the car is moving and takes longer to heat up.

Either way, if peak oil temps drop a 30 deg. F it's a good thing. The difference may lay with how and where one drives.

...I may be wrong about a thermostat with an water to air oil cooler...perhaps this is redundant??? I do know that the temps must be high enough to boil off water and other such stuff from the oil, as well as to act like oil should at temperature.

In reality, don't pay too much attention to me with regard to engine stuff; I know how all the parts work in theory, but I have very litte real world practical experience - I'm on a very steep learning curve.

 

I am not sure an oil cooler would matter much.
With full syn oil there should be no problem.
However, I am old enough to "want" a cooler just because that is what I have always done in the past.

 

I do too would like an "old fashioned" oil cooler on the front of the car,

The madness adapter looks nice, but if I was installing one, I would make sure I would also install a thermostat so the oil does not run thru the cooler when the temps are low.

Victor

 

I have wanted one for awhile, and knowing that we run it on our race car (E46 330i) without a fan at all and it does fine I am sure that since we have the electrical fan you would be able to tap in somewhere to the temp sensor and the fan would kick on at a certain temp. But I owuld like to know more about this concept as I am thinking of making my adapter plate and putting everything together for under $100. Let me know guys whta you think.
Thanks

 

A different oil cooler seems like a nice idea, and I had been thinking about a unit (e.g., Mini Madness or Moss) but only if it could be fitted with a thermostat. However, I've begun to question whether a different oil cooler is even needed.

During aggressive (frequent pushes to redline of 7000 rpm) city and highway driving in Southern California, I've never seen the oil temperature rise above 220 F on my Defi gauge. The usual temp during 1-2 hours of city driving on a rather warm day (> 80 F) is about 200 F. On the track for a 20-25 minute session the top temp was 260 F. The synthetic oil we use in our cars can easily handle temps in the range I have observed .

 

thanks to everyone for all all this information. that's why i ask, i don't know and i need to learn. so with this aux cooler, i guess i should expect a small drop in pressure, but nothing to be concerned about?

 

I've run oil coolers in a couple vehicles and don't remember any pressure loss. I did run high volume pumps though.
Wouldn't expect any negative impact.

 

I would assume that the addition plumbing requires more oil. Then, I would expect very little loss in oil pressure...perhaps only due to plumbing length and not 'new volume'.

 

ok, so i've pretty much made my decision on which cooler to add. i've already got my gauges ready to install, but have one last concern. what is the problem connecting autometer sending units on the madness adaptor? is it simply room?

 

All,

Two years ago I went the route of an oil cooler for my 'track prepared' dual purpose MINI. Glad that I have. Am using synthetic motor oil and the oil temperature at the track barely reaches 225 degrees. The oil cooler combined with the synthetic oil and a baffled oil pan gives me increased confidence that my engine will better handle any track abuse. Here is what I did:

Used a Madness oil take off adapter. Very solid and rugged. Recommend sealing all the fittings with Loctite 545 thread sealer (not normal Loctite) because the engine vibration will otherwise loosen the fittings resulting in leaks. (ask me how I know) Converted the stock MINI automatic transmission fluid cooler to AN fittings and use it in the stock location as an air to oil heat exchanger. Used AN-8 fittings and appropriate hose. Had the hoses made up at the local D8 Caterpillar industrial speed shop. ha ha.

The oil pressure seems fine. My "thermostat" is a piece of cardboard box cut to cover the oil cooler during cold weather. On those cold days with the cardboard in place, the oil temp hovers above 190 degrees, close to 200 degrees after a short drive. For the track, just leave the cardboard home. Am attaching a photo of the oil cooler showing 2 years worth of bugs and dirt.

Regards,
John Petrich in Seattle

 

Good stuff as always John.
How did you run the oil lines?
I see the drivers side disappear instead of running over the top of the cooler and running as a pair back to the adaptor.
Are you running temp and pressure?

 

Obehave a.k.a. Sid,

Yes on the lines. The hoses are 3000 psi industrial "high flex" (ha) and the fittings are swedged on in a special press. Went this route for maximum durability, but pretty rigid and a bit of a pain to install. Ran each hose thru a hole in the plastic radiator surround, down behind the radiator on the front side of the engine and then along the passenger side subframe rail to the Madness oil take off unit.

A couple of hints: 1) Put the initial 45 degree fitting on one end of an 8' length of hose. Ran the hoses from the oil take off plate to the oil radiator, measured and marked the orientation of the end fitting. Disassembled the whole thing again for the final fitting installation at the shop and reinstalled the completed hoses. 2) Used two 45 degree fittings in series in a couple of places. The extra swivel from two 45 degree fittings sure makes the mating of the male and female fittings much, much easier. 3) Ended up arching one of the oil hoses up over the crank pulley to make clearance for my front brake air duct hoses. Just cannot fit all those hoses in the same spot. Makes a belt change challenging 4) Wasn't careful, and my top fittings didn't clear the under hood sheet metal. Had to dremel some clearance in the underhood sheet metal for the fittings to clear.

Hope this information helps,

John Petrich in Seattle

 

Sounds good and tthanks.

obehave a.k.a Terry