How necessary is an oil cooler d'ya reckon?

[Turbo-Brown]

I'm considering taking mine off for the time being in an attempt to narrow down the causes of my leaking oil.

Anyone reckon this is a particularly bad idea?

It's not mounted at the front like standard, but behind the radiator fan so I wonder how much good it does anyway. Seemed like a good idea at the time though!

Cheers!

Alex

[Hyperion]

i still have my one installed, but i heard that with today's modern synthetic oils, oil cooler is not really needed.So i recon you can remove it and then upgrade to a good oil.

[edit] sorry dude , i just saw you are running a turbo setup, in that casue i wouldnt risk it, when you start turboing engines you man goal is to make sure everything is running cool, i have seen a lot of guys actually install an oil cooler on their turbo cars.

[Brianmoooore]

Only way to know for sure is to measure the peak oil temp.

[lentec]

Im not running one at present.
Plan on fitting one as soon as funds/otherhalf alow

[gcorky]

i would say on the stock car probably not over here,but and theres allways a but on your modified t/t setup i would rather want it to remain and knock some heat outta the oil.

my thoughts

[stuartgallafant]

if it was me trying to look for an oil leak, i would thoroughly clean the engine, so there was no built up goo on it, and then check it after every time i used the car...

use brake cleaner, or engine gunk, or even a steam clean to get all the oil off the block. then just keep looking...

also, when my car had an oil leak, i parked the car on a huge flattened out cardboard box, then everyday, checked the cardboard to try and distinguish where the oil was leaking from. try and park the car in the same place everytime, and when looking at the cardboard, try and relate where the stain is, to where each part of the engine is...

hope this helps...

[Turbo-Brown]

Gonna have a loot at the weekend.

Got this aftermarket Mocal oil cooler and remote oil filter with the barbed unions all over the place and they ALL seem to be weeping.

Wasn't too much of an issue to start with, but it's getting through quite a lot of oil now, most of which seems to have collected in the little tray under the front of the engine bay.

Don't really want something to suddenly fail

Cheers for the advice guys

Will do a temp check before and after and see what's what.

Cheers!

Alex

[fuzzy]

im turbod and not running an oil cooler,different engine i know,but principles are the same,doesnt do mine any harm.

[Turbo-Brown]

Yeah, just a bit concerned that the engine had one as standard and now has the potential to generate more heat.

That said, it runs cooler now than it ever did N/A.

Gonna strip down the external oil system tomorrow and rig it up to just supply the oil filter and strap a thermocouple to the takeoff plate.

Can't believe how much the unions leak though! It's not like you can assemble them wrong or anything, just push a tail into a pipe and clamp it up, then bolt the tail onto whatever!

Ho well, less unions should mean less leakage I hope!

[Globulator]

Can't believe how much the unions leak though!

Are you using new hoses? A gnarly old hose can be almost impossible
to seal, there is nothing quite like new rubber for a perfect seal.

You might like to check the pressure rating on the hoses too....

[Turbo-Brown]

Yeah, brand new hose and unions throughout, and all hose is rated for carrying oil at 10bar, the system sees 4bar max!

[Turbo-Brown]

Well, took it off last weekend and have just been out for a spin.

The oil seems to've stopped pissing out and the hot idle pressure's only a little bit lower than it used to be so fingers crossed that it's not going to cause any problems!