Oil cooler design suggestions

[Eddymel1998]

I am working on putting together a plan for a transmission oil cooler but while I'm in there I thought it would be fun to also do an engine oil cooler, as long as it doesn't hurt the car. The mishimoto complete kit is a bit steep in price so I decided to piece together a system myself, my use case is a mostly stock l99 with auto trans, goals for future is a stage 2 vvt cam and keep it NA, so not too much load, I use car daily for 30-40 minutes driving each day with some spirited driving on weekends and longer trips few hundred miles long once a month or so (once a week or more if work is busy), ambient temps out here jump between high 20s in the mornings during winter and 90s in the summer on the hot days, car gets used through that whole range.


First decision is the plate location, I see improved racing sells a sandwich plate and an option that uses stock cooler holes, I'm leaning towards the cooler replacement because I don't know if the plate will cause any issues with belly pan and I get the excuse to upgrade the heater hoses, but not sure if it would cause issues with oil not getting up to temp on the colder days.


Second one is thermostat temp, I see they offer 180, 200, and 212 degree options, thermostat is a must because of those colder days and fact that daily driving is not that substantial, I don't want this to become a detriment to the car, I saw there is a lot of discussion on what the operating oil temps should be but I'm leaning towards the 200 degree one, my gauges are in metric (car came from Canada and I haven't gotten around to replacing them) and a little wonky, plus it's all calculated anyways so I don't know what my standard is (improved racing plates have thermostat hole options too in case I need to fill a hole on a gauge cluster down the line)



Final one I'm not sure about is the size of the cooler, mishimoto is having a decent sale on their universal coolers, options are plentiful but I'm partial to the 10 or the 19 row ones, as mentioned above I don't want to go too big but I also dont want it to not do very much could be persuaded into a 26 row one kind of like what comes in their complete kit but again don't want this to become a detriment since car is NA and daily driven.


Open to any suggestions or help deciding these, I want to have the cooler size question figured out by Friday to at least take advantage of that, otherwise I got time to learn, I've read a handful threads on here but search is not always best so feel free to point me to past threads as well.

[gtstorey]

Let me see, is this an SS not a ZL1? Yes, it looks like I can comment.

What I have read is that you probably want to go with the higher temp. Especially on a daily driver, the oil needs to get warm enough to evaporate any moisture that has accumulated. And if you are doing much driving where it doesn't get up to temp on short drives, it becomes even more important.

I'm not sure you won't to more harm than good if you aren't driving the car hard enough to need to add in the oil cooler. If your 30-40 minutes a day is actually more like 2x 15-20 minutes, your oil may spend a lot of time in that range that it won't get rid of the moisture. Especially in cold climates.

[Infidel67]

Originally Posted by gtstorey

Let me see, is this an SS not a ZL1? Yes, it looks like I can comment.

So Good

[gtstorey]

Originally Posted by Infidel67

So Good

After all, the LSA is a completely different design oiling system and has completely different temperature requirements. I mean it has piston squirters that require the oil to be either sub-zero or 300 plus. Totally different.

[Infidel67]

Originally Posted by gtstorey

After all, the LSA is a completely different design oiling system and has completely different temperature requirements. I mean it has piston squirters that require the oil to be either sub-zero or 300 plus. Totally different.

Killing me
Thing is though, I look for new Posts and reply if I think I can do some good or my Input would be worthy, but if I have to check beforehand what section it was posted under?? GTFOH

[Eddymel1998]

Gave me a spook too, had to check if I accidentally posted in wrong section or because I browse on the phone I fumble keys sometimes and write stuff wrong in the post. But I appreciate the feedback moisture is a big factor out here, it is about 2 trips 20 minutes each, because of highways and people's questionable driving skill I usually get the engine up to temp, not sure if I would with the cooler, I was thinking of putting together a bypass valve setup that can be flicked on in the winter to bypass the cooler, then if I end up on a track or doing a long trip in summer I can close it and run the cooler, but I'm not sure if that would help or make things worse.

[gtstorey]

And up to temp isn't really enough. I think it needs to be up to temp for 15-20 minutes to not be considered "harsh" or "city" service that owners manuals used to greatly reduce oil change intervals on. It takes some time for the moisture to evaporate off.

Some of this might be a little outdated so maybe others will weigh in.

[Leadsled]

I saw about a 20 degree drop on my car with the CSF radiator and 160 thermostat

[1JEWLDSSRS]

Originally Posted by gtstorey

Let me see, is this an SS not a ZL1? Yes, it looks like I can comment.

What I have read is that you probably want to go with the higher temp. Especially on a daily driver, the oil needs to get warm enough to evaporate any moisture that has accumulated. And if you are doing much driving where it doesn't get up to temp on short drives, it becomes even more important.

I'm not sure you won't to more harm than good if you aren't driving the car hard enough to need to add in the oil cooler. If your 30-40 minutes a day is actually more like 2x 15-20 minutes, your oil may spend a lot of time in that range that it won't get rid of the moisture. Especially in cold climates.

lol! You're too funny gt. Love it. Got me chuckling!! Watch out, he just might be lurking!! And waiting.

[SlowLS1]

Originally Posted by gtstorey

Let me see, is this an SS not a ZL1? Yes, it looks like I can comment.

[SlowLS1]

I do agree that in this case, additional cooling capacity wouldn’t necessarily help and could even have a negative effect.

[Eddymel1998]

I guess as an update, decided against it after the info you guys gave, was kinda expecting it but thought maybe I can find an excuse because piecing it together sounds like fun, but not worth hurting the engine.

I did however take advantage of the deals to buy a transmission cooler, but that's gonna be a project for sometime down the road because I need new fittings and hoses since I don't like the ones in the kit.


Also looks to me like mishinoto thinks my Camaro is a truck, lol.

[gtstorey]

Did you include a thermostatic bypass or are you running inline with the radiator.

[Eddymel1998]

Inline with radiator, specifically through radiator first then the cooler, I heard of people doing it other way around and seems each one has its pluses and minuses, radiator first just makes more sense to me.