Air to Oil Cooler or Radiator with Integrated Oil Cooler?

[George Rosebush]

Essentially the title, the only thing I'm worried about is overcooling the oil for daily driving. Isn't the thermostat in a standalone oil cooler enough to mitigate that? Pros/cons of each?

[Icecreamtruk]

I have daily driven my car with an air to oil cooler in canadian winters for 3 winters (before it became a trailered racecar). The engine is on its 7th year of racing and still going strong. The thermostat is enough to do the job for me, take this information however you want, its just 1 anecdotically data point, worth as much as you want it to be.

[Chuckable]

Hopefully those with more experience and expertise will chime in, but I’ll throw my 2 cents in. A good separate oil cooler will have enough capacity for whatever forced induction you want to run in the future whereas a unit integrated with the radiator will have less headroom. The integrated unit will likely heat the oil up a bit more quickly than a separate unit. But, with a thermostat on the separate oil cooler, the differences are relatively little.


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[treedodger]

Originally Posted by George Rosebush

Essentially the title, the only thing I'm worried about is overcooling the oil for daily driving. Isn't the thermostat in a standalone oil cooler enough to mitigate that? Pros/cons of each?

Forrester style water/oil coolers don't have enough capacity for most track driving.
https://www.pointmeby.com/2016/09/18...z-frs-gt86-86/
Jackson Racing radiator with integrated oil cooler is a clean solution for a track/daily (no exposed air/oil cooler to get damaged by rocks or bumps).
An air/oil w/ a thermostat works well for me in CA for track / daily driving.

[Chuckable]

If you want to talk to someone who sells the parts and races the cars, try @CounterSpace Garage. I have no affiliation with them, but have found them to be knowledgeable and willing to answer questions.


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[George Rosebush]

Originally Posted by treedodger

Forrester style water/oil coolers don't have enough capacity for most track driving.
https://www.pointmeby.com/2016/09/18...z-frs-gt86-86/
Jackson Racing radiator with integrated oil cooler is a clean solution for a track/daily (no exposed air/oil cooler to get damaged by rocks or bumps).
An air/oil w/ a thermostat works well for me in CA for track / daily driving.

Thanks for that link, although I'm not sure what the conclusion is?

[EndlessAzure]

Originally Posted by George Rosebush

Thanks for that link, although I'm not sure what the conclusion is?

265F is the danger zone as far as oil temp to oil pressure relationship on the FA20. After that, oil pressure drops quickly. The rest of the article seems to talk about the effectiveness of having more efficient radiators and where you pull the coolant from for an OEM style oil-to-water cooler


I have a Blitz Oil Cooler /w Thermostatic Plate. Most thermostats are set around 170F. Car doesn't have any problems coming up to temperature even during winter here where it can get into the mid 20 F's. Every time I've looked at the sensor, the Oil sits at between 180F to 190F post-cooler when the car is fully warmed up (which usually happens within 10 minutes of easy street driving). On the track on a 100F ambient day, post-cooler temperatures never went over 220F (don't have a pre-cooler sensor installed yet to get a reference). Before installing the oil cooler, I would consistently see 265F during the middle-of-winter (~50-60F highs ambient) on the track.


If you're ever worried about overcooling, you can just block-off the air-oil radiator (think something as simple as a sheet of cardboard). If you want to get fancy with plumbing, you can probably rig together a bypass with AN hardware. However, I don't think any of that is necessary if the set-up you buy has a thermostat

[CSG Mike]

I personally prefer to keep my oil temps as low as possible under hard driving.

One thing commonly forgotten, is that oil temps are read in this engine *post* oil cooler.

You can verify this on any car with an oil-air cooler, by parking a hot car for 15-20 minutes, and then starting the car while watching oil temps. You'll watch the oil temp drop dramatically as the oil that cooled in the cooler goes past the sensor, then the rest of the oil that stayed in the engine and didn't cool goes past the sensor.

If I see an equilibriated 165F post-cooler, I know the oil in the engine is closer to 195F.

As long as you have a thermostatic plate, don't worry about overcooling oil.