Adding a sandwich type oil warmer to the Mirage

[Daox]

Originally Posted by samwichse

I'll just point out that Honda actually dropped this device from the insight MY2003 and on and nobody seems to be able to detect a milage difference between these later cars and the MY2000-2002.

I would imagine the mileage difference is mainly during the warm up period. After that, I can actually see the now 'cooler' hurting things. If the oil can't get as warm as before, it will actually keep the oil slightly thicker. Great if you have short trips, maybe not as great if you typically have long trips?

[ThermionicScott]

Originally Posted by Daox

I would imagine the mileage difference is mainly during the warm up period. After that, I can actually see the now 'cooler' hurting things. If the oil can't get as warm as before, it will actually keep the oil slightly thicker. Great if you have short trips, maybe not as great if you typically have long trips?

Probably depends on how much of an effect the thing has on oil temps once everything is warmed up. Oil is not great at transferring heat, so things like oil coolers need to see a big temperature delta to be effective.

Google tells me that the ideal coolant temperature is 195-220°F. Oil is also pretty happy at that temperature range -- it's driving out any water and fuel dilution, but not hot enough for the additives to break down yet.

I think the concern in your post loops back around to the usefulness of checking the oil pressure. If the car spec'd 0W20 originally, but you find that there is plenty of oil pressure even on hot highway runs, you could experiment with 0W16.

[M_a_t_t]

I should be able to get some tubing turned down, you would still have to thread it though and probably buy the nut.

What wall thickness do you need/want? We have a lathe at my school I can use, I just have to find a rod/tube that can be used.

Fastenal sells nuts in that size, 2.54 or 3.15 a piece.
Fastenal hyperlink

[Gasoline Fumes]

Using Honda parts would make it a lot easier. Same thread size!

[Daox]

Thanks Matt! That is very generous. I will let you know if I need something made up. I am still trying to figure out if this thing will fit. It looks like it might be very tight, or I may need to remove this chute thing from the Mirage's engine block to get clearance to mount it. Here is a picture from the block heater installation instructions that shows what I'm talking about. A circular warmer would probably work fine, but a square one... I dunno.

[Taylor95]

Is this similar to what you are talking about?

https://www.sneedparts.com/oem-parts...SABEgKxBPD_BwE

Since I saw this post I have been looking for something that might fit my Jeep.

[Daox]

Yeah, that is the same thing. They are mostly called a cooler because once the oil does warm up, the engine coolant cools it down.

[Taylor95]

Ah ok. It was hard finding one that actually used coolant. I think it would work particularly well warming up oil with a higher temperature thermostat and a block heater.

[Daox]

Originally Posted by Gasoline Fumes

Using Honda parts would make it a lot easier. Same thread size!

Yes, it certainly would. However, I don't have a spare one kicking around.

[Daox]

One of the MirageForum members just eased my mind about the oil warmer also being a oil cooler. He does have the 1.0L, but I don't see that making a big difference. Here is his test data:

Since my 1.0L stripped-naked MT model has practically no instruments other than speedo and fuel level, I wanted to do a few measurements of water and oil temperature, purely out of curiosity.

The following readings were taken with two thermometers, one on the upper region of, and directly on the cylinder head, and the other one directly on the oilfilter. For sake of getting an accurate reading, the area around each sensor was additionally padded or wrapped with a rag, with each sensor directly touching the metal.

Conditions: Temperatures taken with a 3/4 grille block, after more than an hour's drive on the highway at normal speed and 24-26°C outside temperature, car has roughly 60 000km and 0W20 oil with ILSAC GF-5 classification. The measurements were verified by swapping and repositioning both sensors and rereading the temperature some time and some kilometers later.

I measured a cylinder head (water) temperature of 89°C (thermostat opens 87°C), and an oil temperature of only 78°C.
What surprised me most was the modest oil temperature, much lower than with similar sized cars and highway conditions. With that sort of oil temperature, we can expect the bearings and oil seals to last a long time.