BLOWNBLUEZ06

While my car was apart waiting on a clutch, I decided to get my oil temps under control. I did some homework on cooler sizes, flow, and mounting locations. I decided to mount mine to the frame, in front of the condenser on the driver side. I purchased the cooler at a significant discount. I got the block from Lingenfelter. It's a really nice piece. I wrapped the stainless braided line in heat wrap and then aluminum tape to protect it from the heat of the headers. I welded up a bracket from angle iron and flat steel. Lingenfelters' oil cooler system is roughly 1/5th the size of what I ended up with and was the same price. Before I put the oil cooler, a couple of spirited runs would create oil temps of over 260 degrees and it would take forever to recover. Now the temps go to 225 or so and recover within a few minutes. Here's some pics.

The oil cooler is made by Earls Performance

MotleyDrew

nice work sir

road pilot

Nice. How much for the cooler and your cost for installation?

peter pan

That is one huge cooler and nice install

Brandon619

Great job Blownblue, this is one of my next mods.

Chris.Shea

+1 How much more oil do you need to add?

BLOWNBLUEZ06

Thanks for the props guys!


The cooler, lines, connections, and cooler block cost me about 500.00. Installation was only my time involved. I'm one of those do-it-yourselfers aka: poor folk.

Thanks pan.

I changed the filter at the same time and I added about 2qts. I don't know if I was low on oil before though.

95vettski

Looks great! I have a few questions for you.

What weight oil are you using?
What were your oil temps under normal driving conditions pre cooler?
What kind of oil pressure did you have at idle?

Thanks

BLOWNBLUEZ06

What weight oil are you using?
10/30 Mobil 1

What were your oil temps under normal driving conditions pre cooler?
220-230 and 260+ after a good romp.

What kind of oil pressure did you have at idle?

I'll have to go look at my logs to confirm this one. I never had oil pressure issues due to the high volume oil pump I put in.

SteveDoten

cool pics, the cooler looks like a Fluidyne unit repackaged by Earls; you can call Kevin Kelly direct at Fd.

Shinobi'sZ

I did this last year for my TT setup.
I used the following:

Earl's Performance Oil Cooler 25 row...it's about 11"X13"
LPE Oil Cooler Circuit
-10 fittings and hose
Aluminum bracket

I routed it the same way as pictured above, except I mounted it in front of the front engine cradle like LPE does. I wanted to keep as much space in front of the Rad/AC Condensor and IC. I almost mounted it how it is pic'd above...just felt it was better not to block anything else up front...had to trust a little bit in the "E"ngineering in LPE.

As an alternate, I also like the way PADT mounted their oil cooler system.

With outside temps over 100* last summer, after a couple hours driving my oil temps were always between 212-215* from 236-240 while driving in stop and go in 100*+ weather from the previous summer.

The one thing to caution when using these is that you have to really let the car's oil temps come up before giving it a lot of revs. I have a Melling High Volume pump......my oil pressure @ 160* will still spike up to 70+ psi if I bring up the revs too quick. It was that way running Mobil 1 0w-40 and it is still the same running Rotella T 5w-40.

Great mod though....my engine coolant temps stay cooler too with the engine oil cooler....coolant used to get above 215-220* pretty quick without the oil cooler two summers ago....last summer it took a long time to just get to 200*.

Makes a big difference with both Turbos (heating oil) and Centri SC (accessory load on the motor) with cooling.

HotRod68Camaro

Has anybody thought about using a thermostat w/ the oil cooler?

Shinobi'sZ

Yes....I read that sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. It seems like the right thing to do with an Oil Cooler as it allows the oil temps to come up to the correct operating temperature..about 200-212* prior to opening...certainly could help with "spiking" during cooler weather...there is also the option of blocking the oil cooler so that it doesn't cool when the weather is cool.

I think what really did it for me was the fact that I live in a hot part of the state, I have TTs, and my oil temps will come up quicker then a stock car. Otherwise I may have tried the thermo controlled version.

BLOWNBLUEZ06

I wanted to see how long it took for the oil temps to come up before considering that. When I start my car, I begin driving immediately and just take it easy until the temps get above 150°. The temps come up within a few miles of driving.

robert miller

Bret, this may be my next set up on the car. Man looks great good job.

AlwaysInBoost

very nice write up. I've got all the part to do the same but I'm just waiting on a free weekend to install everything.

BLOWNBLUEZ06

Thanks guys! One other thing I did that I didn't mention, is cut some 3/4" I.D. hose and wrap it around the lines where they touch metal. You can see in the picture where the hose runs under the steering rack, touching the cradle where I have one piece.

95vettski

Is it possible that on a cooler night cruising on the highway with plenty of airflow that your oil might not see 200 degrees? I guess this would also depend on where your geographically located with northern states more at risk?

BLOWNBLUEZ06

Vettski, I thought I logged oil temp, but I only logged the pressure. After a good highway thrashing, my oil temps were probably around 220 and my oil pressure at 950rpm show on the log 40psi.

SteveDoten

1. air to oil
2. water to oil

which heat exchanger is better?

I just installed a Ron Davis/DRM setup in my friends car, haven't had a thorough thrashing yet w/ the system

Is one better suited to "track only" cars vs. "street/track" cars?