What about junkyard oil coolers? I know it tends to not be the smartest idea, but for things like lemon races i've heard that diesel Mercedes have real high-quality ones that tend to be all most people need. Do y'all think somebody could snag one, flush it out (pressurized alcohol/acetone, then oil flush it?) and be able to use it well?
In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :
I would use a junk yard oil cooler only if I knew 100% that the engine attached to it was a good runner. Oil coolers are impossible to clean well enough after a bearing failure. I always replace it if the engine failed.
Thought about junkyard coolers after the F-150 comment but I wonder how easy it will be to mount an OEM cooler compared to the obvious mounting of eBay specials
emailed the two nearest tracks about vehicle failures, we'll see if I care to pursue HPDE things depending on their responses. Theres always drag, which is 10x cheaper and would be a new challenge for me
@knurled, on the cable brakes front all but one of my air cooled two stroke racers have had cable brakes (vintage motocross bikes)
@turbofocus why not try to fit the larger radiator then see where the oil temps are.
In reply to Tom1200 :
That's what that youtuber did with the same drivetrain as me. His temps still shot up like a rocket and probably got rod knock.
I used a Derale kit on the G35. It's pretty well made and wasn't extremely expensive.
In reply to TurboFocus :
Yep, except I got the kit with the fan and thermostat switch. Not a bad kit. The only thing I didn't like about the kit was the clamps they supplied were a little cheesy so I swapped them out for some SS marine clamps. I added their inline oil bypass thermostat to the system as well to make sure the oil came up to temp. It tucks up behind the front bumper quite nicely.
well, cars maiden voyage with an st170 motor, ended with a dead fuel pump
dang it!!!
got more to work out before I try to do oil cooler things.
I'll likely end up with a similar set up but mine will be in a wheel well with the fan always on
And now for a completely tongue in cheek answer!
Put one of these in the MIDDLE of your hood! You won't be able to see around it but just THINK of the cold, clean air the oil cooler will get!
The cheapo oil coolers can work but they have two big downsides, efficiency and the quality of the fittings. You could get the same temperature drop with less size/mass and less oil pressure drop from a higher-quality unit, and these things are often running pressurized engine oil through hose-clamped fittings (with bargain-bin hoses). I saw one such fitting blow off of a cheapo oil cooler on a truck in front of me in an offroad rally once.
I think taking an OEM oil cooler off a car in a junkyard, or piecing your own together with a good-quality heat exchanger and cheap-to-moderately-priced AN fittings would be a better value for money. I pieced together a kit for my AE92 using an Earl's exchanger, Aeroquip fittings, Aeroquip Starlite hoses and a Mocal sandwich plate, and even though those brands are all far from cheap, the whole setup cost much less than any preassembled oil cooler kit from any one of those brands would have. Summit now sells their own house-brand AN fittings and they seem to be decent, I added some to my system to get a convenient drain point.
ive used summit AN fittings, they're about the same as any other eBay AN fitting in my experience.
I'm a pretty big fan of AN fittings so anything I use will probably be AN based in one way or another, If not AN, then probably NPT. I like NPT as well.
Cheapo sandwich plate, although I'm tempted by the ones with thermostats built in, cheap steel braided AN and a cooler with a fan attached seems like the most likely route once I finish tuning the new set up. Having my own issues with that and I'll probably make a new thread here soon.
The last time I built an oil cooler solution.
I grabbed a used Setrab cooler from an ebay circle track guy, some used AN lines that were crimped on the fittings vs screwed together and were usuable lengths and had the 90s and 45s i needed, again from a circle guy on ebay. Then I bought a thermostatic oil sandwich plate from Mocal.
I think I had 200-250 bucks in it all and had top quality stuff. Hell even the cooler came with a stone gaurd screen.
malibuguy said:The last time I built an oil cooler solution.
I grabbed a used Setrab cooler from an ebay circle track guy, some used AN lines that were crimped on the fittings vs screwed together and were usuable lengths and had the 90s and 45s i needed, again from a circle guy on ebay. Then I bought a thermostatic oil sandwich plate from Mocal.
I think I had 200-250 bucks in it all and had top quality stuff. Hell even the cooler came with a stone gaurd screen.
I did similar with an Earls core on an Integra. I think I was into it for under 300 total with a coupon from Jegs and that included buying a fancy dampened mounting kit.
OP: Do you have a gauge so you can see what your oil temps are doing right now? I mean they're probably high since it's a turbo car but so you have a sense of how high? Could be all kinds of reasons why those other guys spun a rod.
I'm a little confused by the premise here. An oil cooler is probably not going to prevent a blown engine on the first lap.
If your oil is getting that hot on within 2 minutes of driving aggressively, something else is going on.
What's too hot? What temps are you seeing now?
I would think some baffling of the oil pan and better control over oil pressure are much more important than dropping the oil temps a bit.
I have seen 285 f oil temps in my racecar and not had any issues. Not ideal....
Fitz said:malibuguy said:The last time I built an oil cooler solution.
I grabbed a used Setrab cooler from an ebay circle track guy, some used AN lines that were crimped on the fittings vs screwed together and were usuable lengths and had the 90s and 45s i needed, again from a circle guy on ebay. Then I bought a thermostatic oil sandwich plate from Mocal.
I think I had 200-250 bucks in it all and had top quality stuff. Hell even the cooler came with a stone gaurd screen.
I did similar with an Earls core on an Integra. I think I was into it for under 300 total with a coupon from Jegs and that included buying a fancy dampened mounting kit.
OP: Do you have a gauge so you can see what your oil temps are doing right now? I mean they're probably high since it's a turbo car but so you have a sense of how high? Could be all kinds of reasons why those other guys spun a rod.
no gauge, although now that you bring it up it might be better to just get a sandwich plate for data. Id rather be safe than sorry since I do care about this motor.
wvumtnbkr said:I'm a little confused by the premise here. An oil cooler is probably not going to prevent a blown engine on the first lap.
If your oil is getting that hot on within 2 minutes of driving aggressively, something else is going on.
What's too hot? What temps are you seeing now?
I would think some baffling of the oil pan and better control over oil pressure are much more important than dropping the oil temps a bit.
I have seen 285 f oil temps in my racecar and not had any issues. Not ideal....
I havent taken the car out on track when boosted yet but on track when it was NA it would hit 230-240*F coolant temp.
No oil pressure or temp guages yet.
https://youtu.be/Bm11uv1uIiU?t=695 - this is the video im talking about and i have it starting at the point he was talking about. maybe it will provide more context?
I’ve been running a cheap oil cooler setup on my Lemons car for about 5 races now. The cooler and lines are fine but the block adapter sucks. There are 2 fittings with o-rings and no matter how careful I am the o-rings will get damaged since the mounting surface isn’t completely round. It's hard to explain but the edges of the mounting surface tapper off causing the o-rings to bunch up and rip when tightening it down. I’ve replaced them with some copper washers which only slightly leak. Also, the adapter doesn’t have a thermostat which means when I go to start the car it has to pump oil through the lines and cooler before it builds pressure. If I had a thermostat then it wouldn’t run oil thought the cooler till the car was up to temp and would avoid dry starts.
In reply to PseudoSport :
get quality lines and fittings at minimum. I'm currently ordering push lock fittings to do my vacuum setup for the turbo and I could have ordered eBay fittings but I went with Utah Pneumatic and added the clip locks most overlook.
End of the day I do not want a catastrophic failure due to a cheap fitting or the fitting vibrating loose off my wastegate and the same goes for oil coolers. For less essential things like a catch can you can use cheaper lines/fittings imo
In reply to TurboFocus :
I have a bit of eBay nylon braid and fittings coming in for a catch can setup and if you want close up pics of the hose or fittings I can help there. I have Earl's fittings for my regulator setup and I can dig out some extras possibly to compare
Rx7s come with huge stock oil cooler. They are fairly cheap to get and very high quality. They have a built in thermostat. They make fittings to adapt to almost any AN size you want.
Cheap and reliable.
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