Oil cooler needed? Don't know? See some results inside
 

GEM (a.k.a) @Huehuecoyotl had the great idea of adding a poll. PLEASE vote once for each Track/ Spiritred Driving situation and read carefully WITH Oil Cooler and WITHOUT Oil Cooler Options. Once you vote you can't vote anymore so choose wisely. You can vote for more than one option if you have logged temps while spirited driving AND track driving. After voting, please post your experience in the thread.

Thanks to all!



BIG Disclaimer: This should not be taken as the end be all of information regarding Oil Cooler Need. This is just a SIMPLE test done by me trying to get where we stand regarding oil temperatures on different driving conditions. Much more test and numbers are needed to determine for real and definitive who does or doesn't need one. I will keep the OP updated as more numbers come in.

So I started today logging Oil temperatures in hopes of finally deciding if the Oil Cooler is REALLY NEEDED or not. (As a minor parenthesis, the coolant temperature stayed steady like a champ, between 190-206 F)

My car is in N/A form right now and will be Turbo in a couple of months, so today I started some testing in hopes of finding the truth. Ambient Temperature was 72 F for N/A test.


N/A results:

I simulated two different scenarios and here they are:

1) Flogging it on the street, pretty HARD, spirited type of driving. Starting hard from a stop and flooring it through fourth gear. Tried it several times, one after the other. I could NOT get the Oil Temperature to rise above 223 F . I tried it on a highway and on a three lane main street (only through second on the main street), and i just COULD NOT get it over 223 F. At this point I was getting pissed off thinking the Oil Temp PID had a cap of 223.8 F to be exact. So next up...


2) Simulating track condition, since I was going nowhere I went to the extreme. I put it in second and kept the Revs over 6K for about two minutes. Now that is what I was expecting to see. Temperature rose steadily until 252 F. I hit a traffic stop and did the same thing now in first. Temperature stayed in the 245-252 F range. I kept doing this for about 8 minutes and had the same result.


Later on: WITH TURBO

3) Flogging it on the street.

4) Simulating track conditions.



So as you can see, this is not perfect or the end of it, but its a good starting point. Even better would be doing a track day with temp. logging (most probably someone has already done it). I'm sure with more time at 6-7K RPMs you will get the temperature to rise above 252 F. As it stands, 252 F is not really a MAJOR concerns, just something to keep an eye for.

So IMHO (a.k.a take with a grain of salt), if you are staying N/A with bolt ons AND you don't plan on tracking the car more than 2-3 times a year, you DONT need an oil cooler.

If you plan on doing track days at 1+ a month, I suggest to get an oil cooler, BUT more actual track data is needed to make the final decision.


Turbo results and conclusions to come.




Edit: Actual track temperature information WITHOUT Oil Cooler

@robispec saw 290-295 F on the track, reading from the same location as the OBD2 sensor, 76 F ambient temp.

@nzer



Actual track temperature information WITH Oil Cooler

@Dave-ROR
@nzer:

I have the Perrin cooler in mine right now, and honestly can feel the difference. Normally after a bit of hooning, it feels as if the power is dropping off. Now.. it just keeps going. I plan on turboing this summer, and knew it was just a good idea to get an oil cooler for that. I love the research though, will be subbing this thread for sure.

Appreciate the feedback and want to make this clear:

This is NOT a thread on how good or bad is an oil cooler. Getting an oil cooler does NO wrong, its mostly positives aside from 1 or 2 minor drawbacks (introducing more potential points of leakage etc..).

This is a thread on how ABSOLUTELY necessary (or not) is an oil cooler for the different types of driving styles making the baseline a hot humid place.

@sportsguy83-What was the ambient air temp when you were doing these runs?

I'm really sorry, while I was writting the post I was going to add it but forgot. It was 72 F. Will update first post.

I wonder if your results would change much if it was in the high 80's/90's....

I honestly don't think much. When you are flogging it on the street, there is so much air going so fast at the engine. I expect at 90+ It might have gone up, but I would say 235 F max. 235 F is still acceptable. Of course, there are extreme situations of 110 F temperatures. At that point, all bets are off.

When Bob @Drift-Office dynoed my AVO'd BRZ, he said the oil temps remained surprisingly cool. As I approach the next stage, we'll monitor the oil temp to see if a cooler is needed. Paul @AVOturboworld said he had no issues with his oil temps on his drive to Sema.

Obviously, if I was to do serious tracking / longer track laps, an oil cooler would be needed.

That's very encouraging to know. I would love to see the turbo not change much these N/A results.

How were you logging these temps?

Via OBD2 with Torque

Thanks for posting this. I was trying to tell the local members that a oil cooler is not needed at all. :thumbup:

On the street at 90+ you'd probably see lower temps assuming you are cruising because of air flow. I normally drive around 80mph or so on the highway and it's cooler than when I'm cruising at 45mph. I need to get torque (main thing holding that up is the lack of an android device, although a friend has an old droid that might work) to read a value from the OEM location for good comparison.

Robi saw 290-295 on track (not 100% sure on where that was read from). I saw 230-235 on track in 87 degree weather reading it under the filter. On the street in the same location in regular driving I never see more than 175-180, if I beat on it I can get close to 200.

I Am goining to have to keep an eye on this. I was planning to do the same kind of testing in the future, but also comparing the temps i get from different locations (ie: sandwich plates, oil galley) to the stock sensor. Anyway, Thanks for doing this. Curious to see what your daily drivng temp was?