How does one know when they are necessary, or would be beneficial. I have a 65 mustang with a 351w with flat tops and not nuch else. I have a four speed and 3.55 gears so its turning a decent amount of rpms at road speed. Also my driving style is.....spirited. The engine has a stock style oil pan that holds about 6quarts. So, should I be running an oil cooler?
In reply to gearheadmb:
If you're going to be stressing your engine by hooning or towing, absolutely, run an oil cooler.
I don't think you need one for light hooning, but If you take the car on the track or otherwise run it flat-out for more than a couple minutes at a time, definitely.
What are your oil temps?
In reply to ross2004:
I have no idea. I dont have an oil temp gauge. I guess this was kind of a dumb thread to start without knowing that, huh?
Yep. Unless you know how hot your oil is, you have no idea if you need a cooler or not. Oil that is too cold doesn't work properly. Coolant temps affect oil temps as well.
You don't need to worry about overcooling if you have an oil thermostat. If your car's boosted or you're driving on the track and you don't have an oil cooler, you can be pretty sure your oil's getting hotter than it ideally should be.
Which leads me to ask - how many people here know just how hot your engine oil should be before thrashing the crap out of your engine?
I've always been told 280 and higher you need an oil cooler.
For your driving as you described. NO.
Much information here:
http://carcastblog.adamcarolla.com/synthetic-oil-with-lake-speed-jr-audi-r8/
before I put an oil cooler in the CRX I had put in gauges (mechanical) and the oil temp was pegged at 250° .. how much higher … who knows
after the cooler install, mid summer ambient temps in the 90's had my gauge reading ~ 230°
Dusterbd13 wrote: I've always been told 280 and higher you need an oil cooler.
when I ran engine dyno's for Cummins we wouldnt let the oil get much past 250-260*F before shutting the engine down. Thats where I would probably draw the line
For what it is worth. I ran my ZX2SR at track days with ambient temps above 90F using Amsoil Signature Series 5W-30 usually for 20 minute sessions and never had an oil problem. I didn't change it very often either.
Full synthetic oils can run up near 300 degrees or more before breaking down. Some race teams are reportedly pushing 350 degrees. For normal "crude" engine oil, I've always been told to run oil temps 20 degrees hotter than coolant temps.
Our WRL endurance race car runs 240-260 oil temps for 7 to 8 hours in 95 degree weather. We use 5w40 Millers oil, no oil cooler other than the OEM water/oil heat exchanger.
Ford has used an OEM oil cooler that you could fit to your engine. IT goes between the oil filter and the engine block. You then route engine coolant to it via either the lower radiator hose or a heater hose. Ford did use a number of different types. Then best ones came on 5.0L V8 Exploders but the Turbo 2.3L engine is also a good source.
The advantage of using this type is the oil never gets cooler then the coolant temp so no worries about over cooling the oil.
With dino (non-synthetic) oil, star worrying around 250 F. although it can start degrading around 230 IIRC/ The degradation wouldn't be an issue on a race car where you changed it every race, but a street car running over that all the time might get into trouble.
Redline oils suggest that while the synthetics will still perform well at high temps, you should start looking at cooling if you are exceeding 240-250 regularly.
before I put in the cooler on my CRX I was running 250°+
don't know how much over (that was the peg on the meter)
I was running Amsoil Signature series … it finally let me down (it's a street oil) … though it was my fault … trying to get one too many track weekends out of a change …
I've switched to Mobil 1 full synthetic … the Amsoil, I had to bring with me … the Mobil 1 I can get anywhere, anytime … makes life lots easier
Shoot the pan with a laser thermometer after beating on it for a while. If you see more than 250f, one of the suggested OE oil-water coolers would probably be a good idea.
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