Installing an oil cooler?????????????
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 4,684
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From: Opelika Alabama
Installing an oil cooler?????????????
OK this is for you who have done it yourself or if any shop people see this or maybe spin doctor, 2006 mn6 LS2. I am installing a dewitts radiator with oil cooler. Do you have to prime or partially fill the oil cooler with oil to prevent oil starvation on start up? As I think I read somewhere that ALL the oil goes through the cooler befor coming back to the engine.
Tech Contributor
Joined: Oct 1999
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From: Charlotte, NC (formerly Endicott, NY)
I never did and I had a remote mount 1 quart oil filter sitting right next to the cooler. Just make sure you have enough of a change in level that all of the oil drains when you change oil. The remote filter helped with that. I would drain the pan, take off the filter and most of the oil in the cooler and lines drained out of the filter opening. Never prefilled the filter since it lay on its side and prefilling would have been of little use.
Remember there is enough of an oil film on the bearings and cylinder walls that the engine can idle for at least 20 seconds at 0 pressure without any damage.
As far as priming your DeWitts I think that would be almost impossible since the cooler sits vertically in the radiator and any oil you pour in the top will just drain into the return oil line and back to the engine. To get the cooler full you would have put too much oil in the system.
Bill
Remember there is enough of an oil film on the bearings and cylinder walls that the engine can idle for at least 20 seconds at 0 pressure without any damage.
As far as priming your DeWitts I think that would be almost impossible since the cooler sits vertically in the radiator and any oil you pour in the top will just drain into the return oil line and back to the engine. To get the cooler full you would have put too much oil in the system.
Bill
Last edited by Bill Dearborn; Dec 12, 2013 at 06:06 PM.
