oil cooler

[Shane@DBPerformance]

A lot of kinds of cars don't run any kind of oil cooler and you can go overboard on the oil cooling. Having too cold of oil isn't a good thing. It depends on how the car is driven also and how much you change the oil. I have seen multiple motor ruined because the owners tried to increase their oil cooling, but none of them were DSM motors. I like to get rid of the horrid sandwich cooler on DSMs and goto a 1990 setup or a aftermarket core with the 1990 filter housing, just to get rid of the dangers of the 1 bolt that holds the sandwich cooler on backing off.

[JET]

Yes, an external oil cooler in the winter can be very risky. The oil gets thicker in the cooler and can become a restriction. Is that when you saw the problem Shane, or was it in a warmer month?

[Pushit2.0]

I guess I was lucky with my 90 oil cooler and 20w50 when it 10 below out then. Oil is picky, it does not want to be to hot, or to cold.

[iceminion]

I have heard of people who have an oil thermostat, has anyone tried that? i could imagine that it would benifit those of us with 300HP+ cars that drive in the winter....

Or would a piece of cardboard in front of the cooler do the trick?

[JET]

Cardboard would definitely help. I have seen a car with a bypass that they used during the winter. I am not sure how well that worked, it was in a build thread. A thermostat just like the coolant uses would be a great thing, but I have no idea how a t-stat would behave in oil. With an AEM you could probalby trigger a bypass valve by temperature, not sure if your DS thing will do that.

[SnoEclipse]

*yawn*

There are actually OIL THERMOSTATS that are, well, DESIGNED to be used in oil lines.

Something like this:

http://perma-cool.com/Catalog/Cat_page14.html

[4g63tcrazy]

So you guys are talking about the coolant lines that run to the oil filter housing right? Cause mine ended up coming loose and when the oil pressure gets high it'll push my oil into my coolant. So couldn't I just take the coolant lines off and be fine? (Other than the fact that my oil wouldn't get cooled as good obviously.) Sorry for thread jacking I have just been wondering about this for some time..

[JET]

No, we are talking about external oil coolers, like on the 90's. Your oil won't really cool at all if you loop the coolant lines.

[4g63tcrazy]

So would it be ok to just loop the coolant lines? I would just need to change the oil a little more often and watch my oil temp? I wouldn't be running it like that for long. Just til I got a new oil filter housing.

[SnoEclipse]

I hate 'integrated' oil coolers that are buried in the radiator. Those things are a wrecked engine waiting to happen.

On top of the obvious problem of possible cross contamination between fluids, you are subjecting whichever fluid is cooler to the heat of the other fluid.

Say your engine coolant runs at 275 or so and you want your engine oil at 200. Now run all that through an 'integrated' cooler that shares fins and mounting space.

Aftermarket oil coolers (engine and tranny) as well as uprated hoses, thermostatic valves in the lines, etc, etc are relatively cheap. Work up the prices yourself and compare that to the rebuild costs of an engine and or tranny damaged by contaminated fluids.

Builders (usually) go all out with new engine seals and gaskets. Why not apply the same logic and discipline to the cooling systems?