Project S2000 – Part 9 – Oil Cooling

,

There are a few other benefits to mounting the oil cooler behind the radiator.  One is that the oil lines are shorter resulting in less pressure drop.  Another is that the oil gets pre-heated by the warm air coming off the radiator.  Remember that one of the functions of the stock donut was to heat up the oil faster from a cold start.  The coolant comes up to temperature much quicker, so now the warm air coming off the radiator will warm up the oil in the oil cooler before the thermostat opens.  Once the thermostat does open, the oil will already be warmed up a bit as opposed to being cold.

The oil lines are routed under the chassis cross member to the Mocal adapter.

Being behind the radiator meant there was more space for the bigger oil cooler; the size I chose holds almost a quart of oil bringing the total oil capacity up to 6 quarts from 5 quarts.  I should note a bigger cooler is required because it’s getting warmed air off the radiator instead of fresh cool air from the front of the car.  As the passenger side fan is now attached directly to the oil cooler, it’s like a built-in cooling fan.  If the oil temps are warm when coming off the track, all I have to do is turn on the A/C (with the temp set to full hot) which will kick on the fan and pull air through the oil cooler.

There are two more advantages I can think of.  As the oil cooler is somewhat heavy (it is filled with a quart of oil), placing it closer to the center of the car reduces the overall polar moment of inertia as compared to placing the cooler at the front of the car.  Lastly, the oil cooler is protected from road debris and front end collisions.

So there you have it, my oil cooler install.  It’s a little unconventional, but I think it has a good number of advantages over a front mounted oil cooler setup.  So far, I’ve only had a chance to crank it up and check for leaks.  I do know it will cool the oil down.  The unknown is how much the oil will get cooled.  But like I said before, better to have the oil too hot instead of the coolant.  Oh yeah, the coolant should be cooler now because it no longer has to cool the oil.  Double win!  Stay tuned for performance numbers.

Sources

Earl’s Performance Plumbing