Quote:
Originally Posted by me and my metro
Those are designed to slightly cool hot oil down to coolant temp. They are set up the same way on the Ford gas engines I work on. The GM coolers that use 1/2” tubing to connect to the radiator are only partial flow so even if they plug up the engine will still live. I know you are looking to warm the oil quicker for fuel economy. Thinner oil may give better results in my opinion. The problems I have seen here is cold oil in fire fighting equipment and engine failure. We have installed oil sump heaters in some of the gas engine trucks with good success. I had one on a VW bus back in the early 80s to aid cold starts and faster warmups on an air cooled engine.
|
Ok thanks, so I guess I am not totally missing something obvious. I don’t think that cooler will do what I need then (keep oil and coolant temps within 10 or so degrees the majority of the time) if a significant amount of the oil is going to be bypassing it.
To be clear, I am not expecting a measurable MPG or power gain from installing a heat exchanger, but I’m sure it won’t hurt. I am into getting the best fuel efficiency, but I am more of a high performance guy. The reason I want a heat exchanger is longer engine life and so I can safely run the engine hard sooner. In my opinion, it’s ridiculous to not be able to safely floor it getting onto the highway several miles from my house even though the coolant is up to temp because the oil is barely starting to heat up by then.
What oil temp would you say it’s okay to run the engine hard at? I used to think I should wait for the oil to get to around 170 degrees minimum before I floor it before I installed the gauge, but now that I installed the gauge I see that the oil sometimes won’t reach 170 in cool weather, I am starting to rethink that one. Thanks