Oil Cooler

[ScoobyStu]

Hello! Right, I was going to fit a Japspeed oil cooler to my car thinking it would help preserve the engine. Planning on doing a few track days this year but nothing major. Anyway was reading another forum and someone mentioned that for normal road driving with an oil cooler, it would struggle to get up to optimum running temps. Therefore if true, this would in the long run would be worse for my car would it not? Can anyone back up/verify if that's true please? Also worth mentioning its running approx 340/340 UK sti with the plan to go up to and above 400bhp this year, standard internals. Thanks in advance, Stu

[jura11]

Hi Stu

Speak to the Think Automotive,they're selling Mocal/Setrab oil coolers for reasonable price,I don't know,but I'm not trusting Japspeed Oil cooler

Yes you will struggle get engine up to higher temperature if you are doing lots of short journeys



Jura

[BIG"E"]

Stu out of interest have you got a baffled sump?

[Anger]

If it has a thermostat it should be fine, I never had one on my RA or the trooper tho and never had any probs unless it was freezing

[SpecB]

I've got a 25 row setrab from think automotive fitted with the mocal thermostatic plate. The only issue I have is that it appears to take slightly longer to get to temp as there will always be a little flow even when the thermostat is closed. I have to do othe odd trip to work and get to the 80 degree point after about 10-15mins of town driving, keeping under 3k. Not sure how long the oil takes to heat up without a cooler as I fitted the gaug at the same time.

Any body got gauges with out an oil cooler care to give a comparative time to warm up?

[C. J.]

Mine takes about 5 to 10 mins also with a 25 row and thermostat to get to 60 degrees then I see no higher than 85 on the road

[ScoobyStu]

Originally Posted by jura11

Hi Stu

Speak to the Think Automotive,they're selling Mocal/Setrab oil coolers for reasonable price,I don't know,but I'm not trusting Japspeed Oil cooler

Yes you will struggle get engine up to higher temperature if you are doing lots of short journey

Jura

Ok mate thank you. I do fairly short journeys,my main one being to work and back which is approx ten miles each way, anything from 25-45mins drive on average. Don't want to fit an oil cooler if it means I can't have a blast as the engine's too cold, defeats the purpose!

Originally Posted by BIG"E"

Stu out of interest have you got a baffled sump?

Hello E. No I don't mate, something else i've looked at but not sure i need. Looking at it though, it may be a better option. Thanks mate.

Originally Posted by Anger

If it has a thermostat it should be fine, I never had one on my RA or the trooper tho and never had any probs unless it was freezing

I've no idea if it does or not,haha. Cheers mate!

Originally Posted by BlueBugEye

I've got a 25 row setrab from think automotive fitted with the mocal thermostatic plate. The only issue I have is that it appears to take slightly longer to get to temp as there will always be a little flow even when the thermostat is closed. I have to do othe odd trip to work and get to the 80 degree point after about 10-15mins of town driving, keeping under 3k. Not sure how long the oil takes to heat up without a cooler as I fitted the gaug at the same time.

Any body got gauges with out an oil cooler care to give a comparative time to warm up?

I haven't got any gauges so there lies another potential problem. As i said above, I don't want to be blasting about in it if it's not at temp. Thanks for your reply mate.

Originally Posted by C. J.

Mine takes about 5 to 10 mins also with a 25 row and thermostat to get to 60 degrees then I see no higher than 85 on the road

Cheers CJ, obviously works well then.

Thanks for all your answers guys, given me plenty of food for thought.....

[asperformance]

IMO even on track i would be running with a proper "thermostatic" controlled take-off............

[ScoobyStu]

Originally Posted by asperformance

IMO even on track i would be running with a proper "thermostatic" controlled take-off............

Would mine have anything like that already? If not could you elaborate for me as to what it is please as I haven't a clue! :-/

[midlife2]

Hi Stu, have a oil temp gauge on my spec c and have a oil cooler. Can tell you how long it takes to get to certain temps. Maybe get together with midlife and make a day out of it.

[SpecB]

One thing to consider is even without the oil cooler the water temp is no indication of oil temp as to of the car is up to temp.

[BIG"E"]

I am certainly no expert,

but Id have thought a baffled sump was more important than an oil cooler as a first step ??

[Anger]

No as even in a straight line at high speeds the oil will get hot, even with a oil cooler after 6 laps of Brands I have to come off as my temps are 110+

[ScoobyStu]

Originally Posted by midlife2

Hi Stu, have a oil temp gauge on my spec c and have a oil cooler. Can tell you how long it takes to get to certain temps. Maybe get together with midlife and make a day out of it.

Yes mate sounds good, will speak to him and see if we can get that sorted out

Originally Posted by BlueBugEye

One thing to consider is even without the oil cooler the water temp is no indication of oil temp as to of the car is up to temp.

Yes mate, i tend to leave it 10-15 mins or so before getting on the turbo. Usually only one quick squirt even then!

Originally Posted by BIG"E"

I am certainly no expert,

but Id have thought a baffled sump was more important than an oil cooler as a first step ??

Looking like both would be ideal mate......and a set of Defi's lol

Originally Posted by Anger

No as even in a straight line at high speeds the oil will get hot, even with a oil cooler after 6 laps of Brands I have to come off as my temps are 110+

Fair to say that's pretty warm mate! Was it close to the red on your gauge, assuming you had one that read like that?

[Anger]

Can't remember Stu, it was on my Defi's and I had the the alarm set to go off at that temp

[SpecB]

Personally I'd go for oil cooler first then sump second. Mines done the ring, brands and Goodwood on oil cooler and std sump.

I'd thoroughly reccomend the setrab setup from think automotive.

[C. J.]

I had mine where nick has posted his and suffered at spa . Moved it to the inner wing on the passangers side and removed the fog cover . The differents was night & day .

[SpecB]

Agreed the inner wing does appear to be more effective, particularly if you give the air both an inlet and outlet path, it's something I plan to do to mine when I have a big engine bay tidy up as my FMIC pipes are in the way of the inner wing mounting idea.

[C. J.]

Yep have a vent for air coming out

[ScoobyStu]

Originally Posted by Anger

Can't remember Stu, it was on my Defi's and I had the the alarm set to go off at that temp

Ah I see, so it hit your red line if you like. Think 110 is definitely hot enough though. Thanks mate.

Originally Posted by BlueBugEye

Agreed the inner wing does appear to be more effective, particularly if you give the air both an inlet and outlet path, it's something I plan to do to mine when I have a big engine bay tidy up as my FMIC pipes are in the way of the inner wing mounting idea.

Originally Posted by C. J.

Yep have a vent for air coming out

So from what i've read and understood, i think an oil cooler controlled by a thermostat is the way forward. I want to sit my oil cooler behind the induction trumpet on my passenger side which you can see in my profile pic. That was the reason I had it done for that purpose. Hopefully it works out. Thanks for all your help chaps, some really good useful info in here

[Moley_WRX]

When i did Brands in my Classic i had the alarm on the Defi's set at 115 degrees.

Like Anger, i hit 110 pretty quickly, but after that it didn't really get any hotter.

If you shift 500 revs lower than normally (when giving it the beans) it'll keep the temperature 5 degrees lower (apparently)

[ScoobyStu]

Originally Posted by Moley_WRX

When i did Brands in my Classic i had the alarm on the Defi's set at 115 degrees.

Like Anger, i hit 110 pretty quickly, but after that it didn't really get any hotter.

If you shift 500 revs lower than normally (when giving it the beans) it'll keep the temperature 5 degrees lower (apparently)

That's interesting, I think I know what route I'm going down with it now but an oil temp gauge is a must whatever I feel. Cheers mate.

[SpecB]

If you do mount it behind the intake on the inner wing you need to open up a path for the air to exit so you get a good flow, either add a vent to the bumper or you can vent into the inner wing through the liner

[C. J.]

Wouldnt do the inner liner as your likely to get a stone go through the cooler

[SpecB]

Originally Posted by C. J.

Wouldnt do the inner liner as your likely to get a stone go through the cooler

Good point unless you find a way to mesh the outlet

[ScoobyStu]

Good points there chaps. Something else I'll have to think about.....haha.