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With the current hot weather-105F in stop and go traffic with AC on my oil temp was hitting 250F, add in hard accel and it went up from there. Everything else is good, coolant/trans IAT temps with everything else I've done. So I decided to shoehorn in the largest oil cooler I could fit behind the radiator so as not to block airflow to the radiator. After studying the placement of the factory later power steering coolers I figured that area should work. After a few days of making brackets and busted knuckles it's done. Now I'll have to see how much difference in temps it makes-that's later, now's time for a cold beer but I'll post a F/U. In the pics it may look like it's too low, but it actually sits higher than the factory power steering cooler did
. I have dual Spal 11 inch fans behind the radiator and they blow a lot of air thru the upper half of the new cooler. It's a Derale 16 row 32K BTU with Derale thermostat sandwich adapter.
Thanks! It did take some cussing to get it done!
i have a sandwich adapter that goes between the oil filter and the engine that has a feed and return port, it has a 180 degree thermastat built into it.
Yup, however it's "modded" too. I wanted to make it like the bigmouth shape airdam so got out a heat gun and bolted up the sides. I thought about a scoop for the oil cooler but I'll wait to see how it works like it is first.
I had thought about that, however my goal was maximum air to the radiator-you'll notice my trans cooler is mounted at an angle behind where the front plate opening is and the AC condensor I changed to plate and fin and stripped out the fins from every 5th row. The plate and fin is more effecient than the old tube and fin so it still blows cold even with 134.I wish our cars had a big front grill opening thru the bumper-it would be so much easier to keep a modded engine running cooler! Hmmm, now that's another idea to work on!
Results-I'm happy with spending the time and busted knuckles. Stretch of Hwy that gets slow speed-35 or so in the afternoon with a good uphill grade to it. With 105F air temps AC on and before oil temp would hit 265+, now low 240s max. Also noticed the coolant temp dropped 5+degrees from before (down to 205F on the dash, so ECM is seeing 195F.) in those same conditions. Stopped at a long light and coolant temps to 220s. So I can run the AC full blast on these hot days and stay cool myself too.
After we spoke regarding you getting this project done I had started looking into an oil cooler but I just discovered yesterday that I already have one and it looks like a factory option, the KC4 oil cooler option for Z51 packages.
What size oil cooler did you install? I’m going to consider installing a larger one, possibly with a standalone fan on it to help keep oil temps south of 220.
After we spoke regarding you getting this project done I had started looking into an oil cooler but I just discovered yesterday that I already have one and it looks like a factory option, the KC4 oil cooler option for Z51 packages.
What size oil cooler did you install? I’m going to consider installing a larger one, possibly with a standalone fan on it to help keep oil temps south of 220.
Unless you are cramming the cooler with no direct frontal air flow, you don’t need a fan.
This is on a Procharged engine with the intercooler blocking the radiator. Also where I live there are a lot of stoplights everywhere. You are right i probably don’t need the fans with the oil cooler but it’s more of an extra support to keep oil temps low(if I install a different one)
Originally Posted by ChumpVette
Unless you are cramming the cooler with no direct frontal air flow, you don’t need a fan.
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Project done-Oil Cooler
