Factory Oil Cooler - Crap??

[lukevl]

Just wondering if the factory water-oil cooler that sits between the filter and block is any good? I understand they are not the best but do they have a tendancy to deteriorate and fail in any way? I can get one for next to nothing but just wanted to know if anyone has had issues with them. Thanks.

[lukevl]

Does anyone know anything about these?

[Beer Baron]

doesn't your car have one? the work like this.

when oil is cool, the water flowing through it will help bring oil up to temp

when oil is hot, the water flowing through it well *try* to bring oil temp down. This has a negative effect on the water temp.

I certainly wouldn't put one on a car as an 'upgrade'. if you want an oil cooler the best choice is an air cooled core.

[lukevl]

No I have an RB30. I do not want to use an air-oil cooler on a wet sumped motor as if a puncture or leakage occurs oil will piss out due to it being under pressure. It will be an upgrade due to the fact that the RB30s have no cooler standard and something is better than nothing in this case. Unless of course they deteriorate or fail in some way which is what I'm trying to find out. ANYONE??

[RB30-POWER]

Hi Luke,

I've never heard/read anything about them failing.

Alot of line owners here would probally be lucky to even know they have a water based oil cooler on their engines.

So i don't think you will get the answer you require.

But im sure if they were prone to leaking, it would be questioned on here, which i have never read about on here, which must mean they are relatively trouble free.

I do think the biggest advantage over the little/moderate cooling it will do, is bringing the oil up to temp quickly to help protect the motor. Only really relevant on a road car, where it can take a little while to warm up.

Not an issue on a track car etc.

I wouldn't expect one of these coolers to really cool the oil, mainly stabilize the oil temps at moderate power/load.

[lukevl]

Thanks a lot for the answer. I understand what you mean. I do think it will help cooling a bit but. I have a bit of a test mule RB30 and when you get high oil temp its almost impossible to get it to go away! I swear if you leave it overnight after a good flogging its still got hot oil! But seriously I just like to have something there to cool the oil as opposed to the Rb30s which are just a sealed system. Hey maybe i could fin the sump. lol.

[StockyMcStock]

don't laugh luke - i am seriously considering putting cooling fins on the sump! what's your objection to using an oil/air cooler say mounted in the spare area in front of the right front wheel? don't say the option of leaking because if you use proper fittings and lines like speedflow jobs and high-pressure braided line it won't be an issue. more oil flow resistance could be a problem, what oil pump are you using?

[Sydneykid]

No I have an RB30. I do not want to use an air-oil cooler on a wet sumped motor as if a puncture or leakage occurs oil will piss out due to it being under pressure. It will be an upgrade due to the fact that the RB30s have no cooler standard and something is better than nothing in this case. Unless of course they deteriorate or fail in some way which is what I'm trying to find out. ANYONE??

Hi luke, I have been running wet sumps with oil coolers of all kinds for many, many years and never had a hose fail. I use good quality hoses and fittings of course. Mazda rotories have had standard oil coolers for 35 years with engine oil pressure running through the hoses. They don't have problems either, so I don't see why you should.

This is a diagram of a Peterson 5 Stage Dry Sump system, you will notice that the feed to the cooler (from the pump) is under engine oil pressure;

So even going dry sump will not save you from having engine oil pressure in your oil cooler and its lines.

[lukevl]

Why would they set it up like that? On the BDAs and other cosworth stuff they run the cooler between the scavenge outlet and the tank which makes sense because then if a rock or some debris hits the cooler and splits it (I wasn't actually talking about hose failures as I generally only use speedflow stuff) then it will leak out slowly and will last a little while as opposed to wet sump in which case you have very little time to shut down the motor to save your big ends.

Niel- I'm using a GTS-t pump which is similar in size to a VLT pump but bigger. I don't really want the little thing to be pushing through a cooler and lines as well.

[StockyMcStock]

which is similar in size to a VLT pump but bigger

mah grammar ist goot today. haha just taking the piss. yeah i was going to get a 25T pump as well, just waiting for one to show up for cheap. plus i don't need mine to feed a turbo, just twin cams. was going to use an oil cooler front-mounted somewhere too.

[Bobjones]

The standard RB25 oil cooler, near the filter is prone to leaking only under extreme conditions from what I have heard, and this is a slow leak under a normal wet oil system