To cool, or not to cool?? Help please!!
Turbo Mini Forums

Hi all, spent a few hours last nite reading old threads on oil coolers, a small amount of confusion from what I have read, people with varying opinions (which is fine) Am I right in thinking that it is ok not to run a cooler for fast road use as long as the oil temp stays around the 100dec (monitored by a temp gauge) and where does the 100dec temp come from, who says thats the temp it should be? just for my own curioity?? The other thing im curious of, is if you dont use a cooler, do you plumb in the what I asume to be heater (correct me if its not one??) that is part of the oil filter housing? Any help with this Im gratefull for, sorry to go over old topics.
Thanks
Shane.

i't personal preference really,

Fit an oil temp gauge and see where you stand first, if you find the oil getting to 120 C fit a cooler.

there's 2 type of cooler, the radiator type, and the oil to water heat exchanger from the metro, the rad type is easy to fit and the mask off untill it cools the right amount, the heate exchanger will require the subframe to be modded to clear it.

I personly find it hard to get the oil anywhere near hot, even though i have the heat exchanger fitted which should warm the oil up when its cold, the most i've seen is around 90 c on a hot summers day ( on a 1380 NA motor).

one thIng I would recomend is use an oil cooler pipe from the block to the filter housing instead of the std steel pipe and banjo bolt, it's much less restrictive.

ive heard that the optimum oil temperature should be around 95 degrees, and that most a series applications dont warrant one.

if you get one, then its advised to fit an oil stat, which only cools the oil when its over the oil stats specified temp.

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

I think optimum is about 95degC, you obvisouly don't want to let it get to 140degC as that's when it starts to degrade right?

I have an oil cooler on my golf, it's awesome and I was concerned without it on motorways. On town dirinvg, oil temp has dropped by about 8degs, and motorway driving has dropped by about 20, making me feel nice and happy.

You don't need one, but it you choose to, bear in mind you don't need a massive one, mine's fairly small but makes the prefect amount of difference.

http://no-rice.com/nicky/cooler2.jpg

That's a pic of mine to demonstrate how a small cooler will still make a difference.

Is recommended to have one if you have a sump guard as it restricts the flow of air to the cooling fins on the sump.

Manchester Minis

Thanks peeps, thats most appreciated, only been a member a few weeks, and cant believe how helpfull everyone is its top banana! Another thing with regards to cooling, when using a t2 off a R5 GTT the water cooled core that is on the t2 fitted to the phase two GT's is it needed if the oil temp is never too exessive? The R5 turbo never had much of a cooler, all that it had was a few passes through the rad, For cooling or heating (like the metro oil filter housing) im not sure? I find it a little odd that some car manifacturers fit them when unnecessray? My old Bmw 325i SE had one but the oil never got hot enough to warrant one? Whats the reasoning behind it all?
Thanks

oil coolers cant do any harm tho can they? surely the least they can do is able the engine to hold more oil than usual?