Oil cooler
Turbo Mini Forums

Just been looking throught the old poasts about oil coolers and i noticed there seems to be a disagreement on if you need one or not.

Just wondering wat you chaos would recomend as i dont want to run the oil too cold.
I'l be doing a 10 mile trip each morning and afternoon on the motorway everyday, aswell as the odd trackday now and again.

Obviously i'l be using an oil temp gauge ut would you chaos say i should use an oil cooler or do i not need it??

fit the temp gauge. then see! you can always slow down to cool it down during the test stage

Calibrate the gauge first in boiling water

cheers.
Im sure this sounds reall thick, but do i need an electrical temp gauge or mechanical? Please excuse my stupidness as im new to all of this turbo malarky!

whatever you fancy. They do the same job.

Im pondering the same as you roadkilla...

Im not sure if this would work, but if youve got an oil cooler on, and the its making the oil too cool, and you cant be arsed going down the thermostat route, could you not just cover up part of the oil cooler to limit its effectivness?

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

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

rsroadkilla, oil cooler or not.??

i have a temp gauge to the oil in the gearbox, sump & have a 13 row oil cooler fitted with NO stat.

i personally find with using 13 rows the oil temp is around
30deg C "Too Cool" after taping all but 6 rows up

the oil temp goes up between 40 45 deg C still too cool.
the best mean oil temp in the sump for power is 100 deg C

I run around 12 psi of boost but you cant use that power all the time on road conditions.

so in my opinion for road use an oil cooler is out of the question

unless you want to incorporate a stat in there
which i would recommend.

just incase the oil temp blips over.

even on a track car all out racer i would recommend a stat be fitted.

Chilling the oil with a cooler is fine as long as its chilled to the correct temp

if its too cool! it causes excessive wear in the bearings department & possibly the crank!

these are my findings.

anyone else find similar?

HI,
I've not got mine running yet, but I've got a stat to go on. I've read on here that the standard Mocal stat runs too cold and you need to contact them for a hotter opening one. Do a search, the post I'm talking about should turn up.
Cheers,
Gavin. :)
Cheers,

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so i should just use a stat then?

Do i need one in all 3 places or would just the one be okay?

Sorry for souding stupid!

Your help is much appreciated guys!

when you buy the stat you cut the two pipes to the cooler and fit in the stat inline when the oil is cool the stat bypass the cooler when the oil is hot it will flow throw the cooler :cool:

1293 Turbo mini

Ive been giving this a bit of thought recently, had a few smooths, so bare with me and hear me out

Say I fit an oil cooler with a 95 dgree thermostat.

I start the engine, get it hot, everything goes fine untill i hit the 95 degree mark, then the stat opens and a load of (potentially) icy cold oil thats been sat in the cooler for the last 20 mins or whatever gets forced through the engine...

could this be damaging in anyway?

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

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

is it as going to have worse implications than oil thats too hot?

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

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

oil too hot is fatal for all engine internals.

especially in the crank department, with localised hot spots etc..

but with modern oils synthetics usuall it not a problem.

this is a deep subject and its only my oppinion

the best oil temp for power & reliability is 100C

i fitted a cooler to mine last summer. i dont have an oil temp gauge at the minute but i'd noticed on motorway runs that my oil pressure was dropping dangerously low. fitted an oil cooler and its been fine ever since, but i'm still going to fit a temp gauge just so i can monitor it properly.

I supect that the stat wouldn'd suddenly open allowing all the 'cold' oil straight into the engine, rather it would be a slow dribble mixing with the warm oil.

Wil

Fastest 998 mini in the world? 13.05 1/4 mile 106mph

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

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

well im not going to bother, im just going to run a temp gauge and see what happens!

If it stays around the 100*c mark it will be fine yeah?

ive not got a temp guage so dont know temp. suppose i should fit one while me engines in bits ummmm.

i get the feeling with the stat that i have is that a little oil flows through the cooler all the time then when its hot all the oil flows through it.

i dont think itd take 20 mins for the cold oil in thecooler to warm up itd take a minute or two i rekon, youve got say 4 liters of hot oil and prob 1 liter of cool oil.

no longer a series, but still 1.3 turbo.

i`ve run a oil stat and the stat opens slow so the hot oil goes in the cooler at said 95 if the oil cools down the stat closes back up so the stat is like a switch it will reg on temp of the oil in the engine

Edited by jimmy on 27th Feb, 2006.

1293 Turbo mini

Couple of things

better thermostats do bypass a small quantity of oil for just this purpose. It is not uncommon.

How come nobody seems too concerned about shocking the system with all that icy cold coolant every single time the car is run..... That little 1/8" hole is not warming up that whole radiator.

Both are not an issue as the thermostats in both cases open slowly.

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

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

the innards of my stat...click for bigger shots.







i know the stat will be temperature sensitive, but will mucking about with the big spring make any difference??

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

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

I'm with Benross on this one. I've run without an oil cooler for the past two years. I found under normal driving and even "spirited" road use that the oil never got hot enough to need an oil cooler.
The only time i've seen temps where an oil cooler may be of benefit was on long motorway journeys, where the oil has time to build up a high temp. I suspect those of you using your cars for track days may find a cooler useful.
Either fit a thermostat or cover the oil cooler and uncover it when going on long journeys or visiting a track.

Phil.

WWW.TURBO-MINI.COM

think im just going to fit one, but make a removable cover so i can cover it up as necessary. :)

Nice one guys!