How to install air-to-oil engine oil cooler

[X25]

Originally Posted by wakespeak

I wonder if just pulling the dipstick and reading it with an infrared temp gauge would provide a fairly accurate reading?

Dipstick is a thin sheet of metal and will dissipate a significant amount of heat by the time you can have any reading from it. You'd also need to get out of track, which also takes time and engine cools down further in the meantime. I'm not trying to be a negative person, but you really need real time readings right when you're driving hard : )

[12-motorsports]

Check out this article might be useful for those who want additional answers.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=383352

[xc_SS/RS]

Originally Posted by 12-motorsports

Check out this article might be useful for those who want additional answers.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=383352

Interesting. Guess a cooler wouldn't be that good for daily drivers then? Or would you recommend it for helping to keep the engine more reliable?

[X25]

Originally Posted by xc_SS/RS

Interesting. Guess a cooler wouldn't be that good for daily drivers then? Or would you recommend it for helping to keep the engine more reliable?

As long as you have a thermostat, you should be fine daily driving your car, too. That said, when OEM cooler is removed, it will take a bit longer for the oil to come to good temps since the coolant is no longer warming it up. No worries, though, many cars come from factory like that, like Corvette Grand Sport.

[xc_SS/RS]

Originally Posted by X25

As long as you have a thermostat, you should be fine daily driving your car, too. That said, when OEM cooler is removed, it will take a bit longer for the oil to come to good temps since the coolant is no longer warming it up. No worries, though, many cars come from factory like that, like Corvette Grand Sport.

That is true. I'll have to think about it. Not sure if it'll be necessary but I know I will want it if I do any road courses, auto-x or drag racing. Gonna watch this thread.

[X25]

Originally Posted by xc_SS/RS

That is true. I'll have to think about it. Not sure if it'll be necessary but I know I will want it if I do any road courses, auto-x or drag racing. Gonna watch this thread.

You won't need it for drag racing in my opinion. The OEM cooler is more than capable of keeping temps in check between runs. I honestly would not worry about autoX, either.

[xc_SS/RS]

Originally Posted by X25

You won't need it for drag racing in my opinion. The OEM cooler is more than capable of keeping temps in check between runs. I honestly would not worry about autoX, either.

Oh. Well looks like I'll stay stock till I do any road racing.

[X25]

I finally finished installing the oil temp gauge. I'm getting readings from the output port that goes to the oil cooler before getting cooled, so it should measure same as the OEM sensor in the oil pan. As expected, the readings I got were quite divergent, especially when I let off gas during my tests. The readings from real gauge shows a quick drop in temps, while the oil temp reading from the factory display very slow drop, probably mimicking how the temps would drop if I had the stock radiator and the oil cooler. The temps it drops from are also not the same, either. I'll have more conclusive data at the track.

I'll be attending a track day tomorrow; looking forward to seeing how it performs!

[Bad@ssCamaro]

Awesome that you are doing this. I'll probably be doing this for a winter mod. I'm curious as to why you didn't set it up as pillar pods?

[X25]

Originally Posted by Bad@ssCamaro

Awesome that you are doing this. I'll probably be doing this for a winter mod. I'm curious as to why you didn't set it up as pillar pods?

Perhaps it wouldn't make any difference, but I didn't want to limit my view by any means. Since they're digital, they're very easy to read even from the center console.

[X25]

I tested it at the track. My observations are here (posts 136 and 137):
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showth...29#post8052429

Originally Posted by X25

Just uploaded the video from the today's track day.

A few remarks regarding this trip and the car setup:

• .....
• Oil temps still hit 290 degrees! It did not get to more than that, but it is pretty disappointing. You can see the oil temp gauge from the video when the shifter is at 2nd or 4th gears.
• The OEM oil temp gauge was off by a big margin most of the time EXCEPT in the range of 250-275 degrees F. At this range, it was perfectly following my aftermarket gauge; this cannot be a coincidence. So there you have it, you can trust your gauge when it shows around this range :P To read above 266, you will need to read it from OBD II (using a Bluetooth ELM327 OBDII reader looks to be the best solution).
• On my way back with the speed controlled by cruise control at 6th gear 99% of the time, the oil temp hovered in 150-175 degrees range. Considering thermostat is supposed to keep it at 215 degrees F, this is also disappointing :P Can 10% flow allowed by the thermostat (when it's supposedly off) really cool it down that much? Since my engine oil will see 280-290 degrees F every once in a while, it's not a big deal, but it's still unexpected.

[X25]

I worked on the car for a bit today, and I was able to install the oil cooler adapter upright!!

This means, thermostat will operate based on NOT the cooled oil coming from the cooler, but rather the hot oil coming out of engine. In my case, since I have an over-sized oil cooler, the difference can be huge.

Once I made sure nothing leaked, I went out for a test drive. I hopped onto highway, and set my speed on cruise control @65MPH @4300RPM @3rd gear @~30 degreed F ambient. The V8 quickly starts heating up at high RPMs, but this time, instead of keeping the climb, it has stabilized at 233 degrees, and never went above.

Of course, the real test will be at the track. Weather permitting, I will attend a track day on this Saturday. Michael @Improved Racing has also sent me a few parts to test if I need to (an oil cooler adapter with no thermostat, a 180 degrees F unit, different fittings, etc.), so if this is not the end of this saga, I will get to the bottom of it no matter what!



Note: I also updated the how-to post regarding upright install option.

[crc91]

I talked to improved racing and they referenced me to the thread. Unlike you guys I have a 14 1LS v6. I wonder if the install on the v6 will be more difficult? The cooling area of the aftermarket for the v6 is server my lacking. Anybody have any recommendations or ideas. Would this type of setup work with my LFX? I know it wouldn't be exactly the same but you guys seem to be the experts.

[X25]

Originally Posted by crc91

I talked to improved racing and they referenced me to the thread. Unlike you guys I have a 14 1LS v6. I wonder if the install on the v6 will be more difficult? The cooling area of the aftermarket for the v6 is server my lacking. Anybody have any recommendations or ideas. Would this type of setup work with my LFX? I know it wouldn't be exactly the same but you guys seem to be the experts.

The layout, location, etc. should be very similar for you, but obviously your cooler adapter will need to be different. After all, it's not an LS engine. Do you know where you can feed oil to your cooler? Does your car have an OEM oil cooler? If it's an air-to-oil cooler, you could hopefully just replace the core with a bigger one, etc. In the worst case, you can go the route of using an oil filter sandwich to get a line for your oil cooler. If the sandwich gets the oil filter too close to harms way, you might do the combination of sandwich + oil filter relocation kit: You first relocate the filter to somewhere safe, then add the sandwich for the coil cooler, and obviously the filter itself.