LagunaSecaZ06

I partially wrapped my oil cooler with thermo-Tec self adhesive wrap. I did double it up and have plenty left over. I also did the DEI oil cooler line pre-made wrap. I think it helps a little bit. It is cheap and easy to install, especially if you use ramps.

8850

Thanks for the pic. I do have a question. Is that aluminum bar necessary? Did not have that on my 2012 Z06. Looks like GM went down to the local machine shop and had them saw cut four pieces from rectangular bar and bolted up. All four corners have these. The front two are so long it appears that any load and they may buckle.

Poor-sha

I'm pretty sure GM didn't add them for looks. There is a GMPP part that replaces them with carbon fiber and removes one of the rear bolts.

spearfish25

LOL. They're also track only and void your warranty according to the site.

Mad Dog 24

Serious! The carbon ones will void the warranty, unbelievable. I bet in high G cornering those braces work well. Something similar is on about every track able sports car on the market.

LaguaSeca, I would not insulate the oil cooler and keep the heat in. Let that baby breath! Get rid of the heat source from your cats and exhaust with the DEI covers and titanium rap the exhaust. By far the hottest points in the car. The system works well we have been using it for a year and since become a dealer for them. We also designed and cnc'd fins for the oil cooler to radiate heat away.

BTW our car is a 2015 not 17, the pictures I posted earlier was Joel's 2017 Z06 oil cooler he sent me to make sure all are the same size for our fins.

Happy new year

Poor-sha

Tadge addressed this someplace. Basically he said that the CF braces hadn't been through the normal corrosion resistance testing so if you have some scenario where the components or what they mounted to corroded then it wouldn't be covered by the warranty.

I actually have a set on my car (total waste of money) and have had the car back for other warranty work without issue.

djnice

Since this is a plate style heat exchanger with oil and water flowing through it, does outside air temp really make much difference? The plates aren't cooling fins.

Mad Dog 24

That's a good question but if the plates were not to extract heat into the air then why wasn't it built perfectly smooth? Radiating heat has been around since Benjamin Franklin with the wood stoves. Our goal was to help the cooling issue without a big expense, added weight, change the aero or harm the warranty. GM and other manufactures purpose behind these coolers was to bring temps up quickly and hold them there so I've been told. We thought why not try to radiate as much heat as possible from the cooler for water and oil, cant hurt. No different than the heat sinks in a computer. We purposely have not done any other cooling mods to our Z other than the fins and fresh air to them. We've had great success so far with the set up.

Does it really make a difference you ask. From our testing at Watkins Glen I am comfortable saying it does by 5 to 8 degrees, oil and water. If that's enough to keep our car from going limp or overheating then great we accomplished the task! Here area few picks.



Stock cooler cut in half. I will guess they are very restrictive.



The cut outs are to get access to the mounting bolts.

SBC_and_a_stick

If you guys get more than 0.25* improvement with that oil-to-water cooler I'd be stunned. Think that cooling improvements in the range you state are similar to changing the entire block from iron to aluminum. We're talking about a small brick, not a 500 lb engine.

djnice

I see you also piped in cold air. That's cool.

Thanks for the photos of the heat exchanger. Great idea with the fins. I agree the fins and blocking heat should help, but I am not sure its enough to avoid limp mode. Its good to see you are testing it. It would be interesting to see more testing with and without the system and see that there aren't other variables affecting the results.

The heat exchanger design is typical. They stack plates and don't worry about adding a smooth perimeter. Water is on one side of the plate and oil on the other, and the plate design makes for lots of surface area for the heat transfer. There is a lot more heat transfer between water/oil than to the surrounding air. Also, this plate design makes it safer if warping or leaking between the plates were to occur. It gives the oil or water an escape path rather than cross connecting. I am not saying cross connection couldn't occur, but you have a better chance it would show up on the outside too.

What will be more effective is to make the water colder that is going into the exchanger. Is the water coming directly from an air cooled radiator or does it go through the block first? Does anyone have a cooling diagram showing the entire system schematically?

Bill Dearborn

The coolant for the oil cooler comes from the block, through the cooler and then back to the radiator. The GMPP Secondary Radiator is inserted in the path from the oil cooler back to the radiator and cools the coolant before it gets to the main radiator.

Bill

Mad Dog 24

I figured Bill would tell us the flow sequence, thanks. So the hottest oil and water are being dumped into the brick, good! A real test would be to change from a stock cooler to a fined at the track. The problem like most have and not just us is its simply not viable. Our biggest issue was finding an adhesive that would have a high transfer of heat. We did with a 3M product, not cheap but works. Only a loss of about 8 degrees on the transfer of the heat from cooler to fin. The applicator is not cheap either. In all for a little over 300 its not a lot to rely on the radiation theory to help the situation given us by GM. BTW, we did find these coolers are as thin as paper. It would not take more than a small stone at 100 plus to penetrate and cause a leak. Why most manufactures mount them out of harms way, not GM. Maybe the fins will protect it some?

We got the idea to fin the cooler from all the power steering and trans. cooling systems we work on. Many simply attach cooling fins to pipes, simple and assume it works. Radiation works well with the common air to water\oil cooler we all have and nothing so far is going to trump that. We've discussed with a Chrysler engineering friend about using the factory ac system to cool the water. That's some work and not sure if I want to or need to tackle that one soon! We've tracked in 90 plus temps with no problems and not even close to limp. If we do I will have the guys install the GM band aid cooler until then all is good with Mad Dog!

Happy New Year!

LagunaSecaZ06

The current generation Viper mounted the oil cooler up front. Chevy wasn't really thinking when they mounted it 2 inches from a 1400* catalytic converter.

Dan_the_C5_Man

Those are straight from the bin at Lowe's - at least if you damage one you can make your own.

8850

They probably had the handy man cut them at Lowe's too.

I believe they are for hard corning only. Probably don't need them if you don't track the car. And then maybe only used as an overkill. Bet you would get no difference without.

Bill Dearborn

They are under the car and not in your way unless you are removing certain items there. They could be stiffeners for cornering, body shake or part of the crash protection system that generates crumpling in a specific manner so the other safety systems work properly.

Bill

djnice

So would it be difficult to relocate the cooler?

LagunaSecaZ06

Dewitt makes a relocation kit with their air/oil cooler. In the huge GSpeed cooling thread, these modifications were of limited value with an A8 on a hot track running in auto mode.

I'm running the GMPP secondary radiator, Dewitt radiator and 174* thermostat in an LMR housing on M7 Z06. I had an aftermarket Intercooler tank and removed it because it was impossible to bleed properly. I'm leaving it this way until I have a problem. I just tracked the car at Laguna Seca (it was 59*) and after 10 hard laps it only got 212* water and 260* oil. The water temps would drop on the less stressful parts of the track. With an auto you will have to do the cooling mods and paddle shift while at the track. You should then be OK as long as the temp isn't above 95*.

This overheating problem really doesn't occur on the street, only on the track.

0D3PE

The exact reason why we developed our dedicated oil cooler system. Not only to lower oil temps but remove some of the strain on the engine cooling system as well.