Oil change with oil cooler - draining cooler?
07-31-2009, 09:38 AM
#1
Safety Car
Thread Starter
Oil change with oil cooler - draining cooler?
Will be changing oil from Valv 20-50 dino to 15-50 synthetic this weekend. New motor has 6k mi and I will have access to lift so I thought I would go ahead and change oil. I have an oil cooler mounted in front of radiator. Is there oil in there to drain? I have no leaks right now and don't really want to disconnect, but I will if I have to.
07-31-2009, 09:47 AM
#2
Team Owner
Member Since: Sep 2003
Location: Raleigh / Rolesville NC
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yes. measure the amount of oil that comes out. and put that amount back in.
If not all the oil drains out, so be it.
with my oil cooler, accu-sump, plus lines and block that adds up to 10 1/2. qts. But I can never drain more then 9 qts out. So 9 qts goes back in
If not all the oil drains out, so be it.
with my oil cooler, accu-sump, plus lines and block that adds up to 10 1/2. qts. But I can never drain more then 9 qts out. So 9 qts goes back in
07-31-2009, 10:07 AM
#3
Racer
Member Since: Jun 2001
Location: Waterloo Ontario
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I mounted my cooler with both of the ports at the top specifically so that the oil does *not* drain out of it, otherwise upon sitting, all that oil can end up in the pan, and when you start it you might end up seeing the "low oil pressure" warning on the DIC as it has to re-fill the cooler (for the same reason, I always pre-fill the new filter with oil as well). With that, my assumption when changing the oil is that the cooler will be full, albeit with older oil, so just re-fill the car to the normal level. Start the car and run for a couple minutes, with eyes on the pressure gauge, and then turn it off and check the level again after giving it a couple minutes to run down from the top end of the motor.
AU N EGL, do you pre-add the full 9 quarts when you start up to re-fill your accusump? I usually only go about a quart and a half extra, start the car with the accusump valve closed until pressure builds up, and then I open the valve to fill it. Then I shut it again, and turn the motor off and add the extra. Since I added the accusump to the C5 Z06, I no longer overfill by the "recommended" quart when tracking the car, as that seemed to cause me to purge a lot more oil thru the PCV/valve cover breathers to the catch can (and out into the airbridge before I added the valve cover line to the catch can! That was a mess!!). I fill just to between the bottom dipstick mark and the middle of the two lines, after the accusump has been filled, and that seems to be the happy zone for it now.
AU N EGL, do you pre-add the full 9 quarts when you start up to re-fill your accusump? I usually only go about a quart and a half extra, start the car with the accusump valve closed until pressure builds up, and then I open the valve to fill it. Then I shut it again, and turn the motor off and add the extra. Since I added the accusump to the C5 Z06, I no longer overfill by the "recommended" quart when tracking the car, as that seemed to cause me to purge a lot more oil thru the PCV/valve cover breathers to the catch can (and out into the airbridge before I added the valve cover line to the catch can! That was a mess!!). I fill just to between the bottom dipstick mark and the middle of the two lines, after the accusump has been filled, and that seems to be the happy zone for it now.
Last edited by imp zog; 07-31-2009 at 10:09 AM.
07-31-2009, 04:01 PM
#5
Race Director
I would not "drain" the cooler. The only way I would consider doing it would be to "flush" it with fresh fluid, either by disconnection and flushing with a fluid pump, OR by draining all of the oil from the pan and refilling with fresh oil, then draining and refilling again (wasting a lot of oil in the process).
I don't know of anyone that drains their cooler. If you are swapping fluids regularly, the oil that's left behind isn't that dirty.
As for accusumps, I go ahead and put all of the oil in, although I leave my electric valve closed so that it will refill slowly, therefor stealing very little fluid from the engine during the refill process. Once I have pressure for several minutes, I'll open the valve, let it fully pressurize, close the valve, shut down, and check levels.
I don't know of anyone that drains their cooler. If you are swapping fluids regularly, the oil that's left behind isn't that dirty.
As for accusumps, I go ahead and put all of the oil in, although I leave my electric valve closed so that it will refill slowly, therefor stealing very little fluid from the engine during the refill process. Once I have pressure for several minutes, I'll open the valve, let it fully pressurize, close the valve, shut down, and check levels.
07-31-2009, 04:13 PM
#6
Melting Slicks
I would not "drain" the cooler. The only way I would consider doing it would be to "flush" it with fresh fluid, either by disconnection and flushing with a fluid pump, OR by draining all of the oil from the pan and refilling with fresh oil, then draining and refilling again (wasting a lot of oil in the process).
I don't know of anyone that drains their cooler. If you are swapping fluids regularly, the oil that's left behind isn't that dirty.
As for accusumps, I go ahead and put all of the oil in, although I leave my electric valve closed so that it will refill slowly, therefor stealing very little fluid from the engine during the refill process. Once I have pressure for several minutes, I'll open the valve, let it fully pressurize, close the valve, shut down, and check levels.
I don't know of anyone that drains their cooler. If you are swapping fluids regularly, the oil that's left behind isn't that dirty.
As for accusumps, I go ahead and put all of the oil in, although I leave my electric valve closed so that it will refill slowly, therefor stealing very little fluid from the engine during the refill process. Once I have pressure for several minutes, I'll open the valve, let it fully pressurize, close the valve, shut down, and check levels.
I Always do it that way too!