oil cooler baypass thermostat

[surfwagon]

just put a oil cooler with fan in my car do i need to run a fluid control thermostat?

[surfwagon]

Come on guys...

[sgernon]

I'm adding a cooler myself and searched the site to find a few threads about thermostats before I bought. I'm adding an Earl's thermostat oil filter adapter to my car/ Some good points were brought up about keeping oil at temp and even extreme cold causing freezing in the cooler itself. Do a forum search and you'll probably find what you need.

[surfwagon]

thanks i will search, but if thats the reason i live in cali and it hardly freezes here....

[another69]

Run a stat. The purpose is to get your oil up to temp quicker and keep it there. Running without a oil or coolant stat is usually a bad idea on the street. Fluid temps that are too cold are bad for a motor- even in cali

[Ron.in.SoCal]

Run a stat. The purpose is to get your oil up to temp quicker and keep it there. Running without a oil or coolant stat is usually a bad idea on the street. Fluid temps that are too cold are bad for a motor- even in cali

All that, plus you need to get your oil up to temp to evap condensation and keep your oil doing what it's supposed to do...

[Randy67]

I run a stat on my oil cooler, the Earls one. Even here in Georgia, it takes a bit to get the oil temp up. The highest the oil temp ever reached was about 190 degrees, which is about where the thermostat opens (Earls lists that is starts opening at 160, fully open at 180). I mostly autocrossed and drove on the street with the car. This was in the El Camino, engine is now in the Camaro with the cooler setup. Note, my oil cooler is probably a bit bigger than it needs to be, contributing to the lower oil temps.

[Flash68]

A few of us run the Mocal unit (Gitter Dun, sik68, and myself). Vegas69 runs the Earl's unit. I remember he researched and supposedly the Earl's unit controls 100% of the oil flow whereas the Mocal and Cantons allow 10-15% of oil to bypass at all times....

[SparkyRnD]

I personally would run a thermostat, otherwise as mentioned above you aren't getting the oil up to temp, which is harder on the engine.

[nicks67camaro]

I'm running the filter adapter style with a built in bypass when the oil hits 180F. Now i live in ct and have have cold spring and falls i planned on using some sheet aluminum to block the core to help control the cooling if needed. In the summer months under some heavy loads i was hitting 240F+. I just did a track day and with the outside temps of 60F my car saw oil temps of 200F - 210F it was totally happy. I'm running a setrab oil cooler and its really nicely built.

[Vegas69]

Even with my Earls T stat, my car will run to cool in the colder months. It's always run on the cool side but it's worse now. I haven't confirmed that the t stat is or isn't flowing before 185 degrees. I do know that it's designed to prevent thermal shock to the cooler when the t stat opens. That means the feed side to the cooler is open so the oil keeps some temperature in it. The return side is closed but my theory is there is some radiant cooling. I may end up building a shroud for the cold months. You really only want a cooler that is just big enough to do the job. Since I have a snarling big block that creates big heat, I put in a LARGE cooler purposely and wanted to error on the large side since my problem was on the road course.

[CarlC]

Big power = big heat = big problems = more heat management.

The Mocal thermostats do bypass some oil to the cooler at all times. Hence, on mine the oil temperatures are too cold for most street conditions. 180* on a hot day, 140-150* on colder days with the 202*F thermostat. That's too cold. The oil needs to be hot in order to burn off condensation and to have the additive packages work correctly.

What I'm likely to do is eliminate the thermostat and put in a three-way valve. For street drivng it will bypass the cooler, but for track days all oil will go through cooler. It will require manually operating the valve periodically to have fresh oil circulate through the cooler.

[surfwagon]

Thanks guys...where is your oil temp sensor located on your engine? my oil temp town driving is about 190 the fan comes on and keeps it at 185 also my cooler in mounted on the left side inner fender hump inside the engine just behind the head lights.

I really dont think i need the thermostat for my application

[Flash68]

I was on the fence of where to place my oil temp sensor -- and after researching the ideas were very mixed I found -- I decided to mount mine POST-cooler so I know how well the cooler is working. I used this Joe's Racing part.

http://www.joesracing.com/index.php?...product_id=752

Others said they wanted to know the hottest oil that was reaching the engine so mounted it pre-cooler, often on the port off the remote oil filter adapter.

[surfwagon]

so on the line i see....my filter is on the rad core and using a Canton i put my sensor there so its on the line coming from the engine then it goes to the cooler

[Vegas69]

You left a important piece of information out. ha ha If it's not hanging in the breeze, it's not nearly as important.

I do agree with Dave, post cooler is where many recommend as that's what most of your internals see. Mines in the pan and my opinion is that any oil temp gauge is better than none! I'm not sure why Dave has one as he thinks pegging it is part of the fun. ha ha

[Flash68]

haha yeah I got a little excited down there didn't I.... dammit.

[ehummelman]

Not to hijack at all, but I have a question. I have a new Setrab cooler and a remote filter mount ready to go in, and am going to get the bypass as well. My question is where should I put the bypass? Closest to the engine as it comes out of the filter adapter or up front near the cooler? I was thinking back by the engine to keep the pressure loss to a minimum when it's not going up to the cooler but I don't know that it matters much. Also, should it go from engine to filter to bypass to cooler and back to engine or what is the right order? Thanks a lot. I need to sketch it all out before I order the AN hoses and fittings.

[ehummelman]

Nevermind, I figured it out.

[sccacuda]

I use a marine billet thermostat. They come apart and are easy to clean.

http://www.hardin-marine.com/p-14580...12-degree.aspx