Oil Cooler Upgrade

[eracers999]

Bought a Earls Performance oil cooler, mesuring 12x18x2. It's big, uses a 12 a/n fitting. Mounted it in the middle behind the grill, had to clearance the back side of the grill to fit. Had to MFG the brackets. I used weatherhead single strand 1/2 id hose. Completly removed the old system, dinky in comparison. It holds 2 extra qt's of oil. The install took me a while.
Results, very impressed. I gained a solid 10 lbs of oil psi hot, pulling hot, 99 deg day hot. Where i had 40 to 41 hot, i now have 52 to 53 hot on a mechanical 2 5/8 autometer guage.
Somthing else that has surprised me is that my cold oil psi is higher right off the start too. It's a solid 3 to 4 lbs higher at idle, about 66, this is on a warm summer nite. Let it warm up a few and drive it easy and it's well into the 70's.
I did this project because i felt that i was really getting the oil hot, too hot for me. This mod thrilled me as much as the intercooler and JK's Big E Prom. Cost me right around 240$. I now feel very confident that this engine combo can get in there, and stay in there. Wont be able to post pics for a while till i get this new laptop up to speed.

BE SAFE / Kent

[GMC Hauler]

I just finished my oil cooler upgrade and stainless steel line mod. I have also noticed the increase in pressure and greater pressure stability. You can see all the pictures my clicking on my link in my signature line.

Man, that's a bigger cooler than I used. I'd call that a BHOC (big honkin oil cooler)! :D

No more leaky lines for me. tongue.gif

[JoeyD]

Kent, Where did you buy the cooler?

[eracers999]

Joey D: You can get the cooler straight from earls, i got mine from ebay brand new, been on the shelf a while for 125.00 .

GMC Hauler: Nice job on the pics. It was too big to mount where you put yours.

Kent

[JoeyD]

Kent, Any pics of the install yet? I am about to start surgery and a pic is always nice to look at 1st.

[MJEasly]

Is your cooler the same as this?
http://www.bulkpart.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000002/Eg2.jpg

This one from Tru-Cool is 11x11x1.5 and carries a 29,200 BTU rating. They sound similar except for the dimaensions.

[JohnC]

One possible explanation fpor the higher cold pressure is the way I understand the oil cooler circuit works. Much to my surprise, apparently there is no thermostatic bypass for the cooler. So, when the oil is cold and can't flow easily through the cooler, it has to flow through the cooler pressure bypass valve. I suspect this causes the downstream pressure to be higher, but may have it all wrong.

Regardless, I'd look into installing a thermostatic bypass for a cooler that big as the additional cooling in cold weather may be undesireable.

[LanduytG]

The way I remember it the t-stat for the cooler is in the block but its been a couple of years now so I am not for sure on this.

Greg

[JohnC]

Originally posted by LanduytG:
The way I remember it the t-stat for the cooler is in the block ... That's what I thought, too, but someone recently posted a statement from the service manual that implied it is only a pressure bypass, not temperature.

[rjschoolcraft]

Here is what I did:

http://www.schoolcraftpowertrain.com/Pictures_&_Data/IM001299.JPG

The new oil cooler is the DSG kit that Kennedy (and others) sells. I adapted the old engine oil cooler to take the place of the dinky transmission oil cooler that came as factory equipment.

Do any of you monitor engine oil temperature? If you did, you would see that "too cold" is not a concern; especially on an engine with the piston oil spray nozzles.

Last summer, running solo at 75 mph with the factory oil cooler, I saw sump oil temperatures approaching 240F on a 95F day. Towing short distances under similar conditions saw over 260F. Towing on 20F days has seen temperatures over 220F.

I just installed the gage during my engine project. I ran 224,000+ miles without one. I found significant sludge in the old engine when I tore it down. I'm sure that I've run oil temperatures approaching 300F in the past.

Even now, running solo around 30F, I see 170F - 180F (much lower than before) sump temperature.

Towing back from the Rendezvous in 2004, my transmission temperature ran near 260F as I've reported previously. I expect my adapted/upgraded trans cooler to help that situation out immensely.

[ 01-17-2006, 11:39 AM: Message edited by: ronniejoe ]

[LanduytG]

Towing back from the Rendezvous in 2004, my transmission temperature ran near 260F as I've reported previously. I expect my adapted/upgraded trans cooler to help that situation out immensly.

RJ
Are you running a synthetic in the trans? I would see that with regular mineral oil but withsynthetic never more than 230* and that was with the torque converter unlocked. When its locked never more than 190* or so and this is towing my 5th wheel.

Greg

[GMC Hauler]

Ron,

How much adaption was necessary to fit the old engine oil cooler to the transmission lines? I just happen to have my old cooler, and like you, I saw 260 degrees on my biggest hill climb in Wyoming. This could be my free or close to free ticket to lower trans temps. :D

[rjschoolcraft]

Originally posted by LanduytG:
RJ
Are you running a synthetic in the trans? I would see that with regular mineral oil but withsynthetic never more than 230* and that was with the torque converter unlocked. When its locked never more than 190* or so and this is towing my 5th wheel.

Greg This is with conventional DexronIII and locked converter. It was close to 100F that day and running at elevation in western MT and northern WY. I've considered switching to synthetic, but have not yet.

Edited to get my geography straight... :rolleyes:

[rjschoolcraft]

Originally posted by GMC Hauler:
Ron,

How much adaption was necessary to fit the old engine oil cooler to the transmission lines? I just happen to have my old cooler, and like you, I saw 260 degrees on my biggest hill climb in Wyoming. This could be my free or close to free ticket to lower trans temps. :D Not a lot. I had to make a couple of adapters and modify the bracket slightly. The adapters that I made are OK, but I plan to get some better ones made at the first opportunity.

I made my adapters by cutting the ends off a couple of old factory oil cooler lines to get the nuts. I drilled out the through hole and tapped to 3/8 NPT. This allowed the factory fittings to be re-used. The trans cooler uses a smaller version of the connections at the block for the factory engine oil lines.

As I was doing the work to install the DSG cooler, I had the same thoughts that you just expressed...

[Hubert]

Originally posted by ronniejoe:
Here is what I did:

Do any of you monitor engine oil temperature? If you did, you would see that "too cold" is not a concern; especially on an engine with the piston oil spray nozzles.

Last summer, running solo at 75 mph with the factory oil cooler, I saw sump oil temperatures approaching 240F on a 95F day. Towing short distances under similar conditions saw over 260F. Towing on 20F days has seen temperatures over 220F.

I just installed the gage during my engine project. I ran 224,000+ miles without one. I found significant sludge in the old engine when I tore it down. I'm sure that I've run oil temperatures approaching 300F in the past.

Even now, running solo around 30F, I see 170F - 180F (much lower than before) sump temperature.
Ronnie glad you posted with oil temps I have wanted to ask you about your oil temp quage for a while now.

But IIRC its beneficial for oil temp to exceed 212F so any water condesate will vaporize out of oil. ????

Not sure what the upper limit of oil temp should be though. Someone want to comment on max safe oil temp.

[rjschoolcraft]

Using these oils, the oil temp should not stay above 300F for any length of time.

As for the water vapor...I don't think that's a real issue. Bottom line, the hotter the oil runs, the hotter the engine will run. This accelerates break down of the oil and causes reduced oil pressure.

For information, the helicopter engines that used to work on used oil in conformance with MIL-L-23699. Mobil Jet Oil II and Aeroshell 555 are two oils that conform to that spec. They are both fully synthetic. Max oil temperature was limited to 400F. Any hotter localized temperatures result in coke formation. Typical oil inlet temperatures (after cooler) were 180F.

[ 01-17-2006, 11:27 AM: Message edited by: ronniejoe ]

[GMC Hauler]

Originally posted by ronniejoe:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by GMC Hauler:
Ron,

How much adaption was necessary to fit the old engine oil cooler to the transmission lines? I just happen to have my old cooler, and like you, I saw 260 degrees on my biggest hill climb in Wyoming. This could be my free or close to free ticket to lower trans temps. :D Not a lot. I had to make a couple of adapters and modify the bracket slightly. The adapters that I made are OK, but I plan to get some better ones made at the first opportunity.

I made my adapters by cutting the ends off a couple of old factory oil cooler lines to get the nuts. I drilled out the through hole and tapped to 3/8 NPT. This allowed the factory fittings to be re-used. The trans cooler uses a smaller version of the connections at the block for the factory engine oil lines.

As I was doing the work to install the DSG cooler, I had the same thoughts that you just expressed... </font>[/QUOTE]I just happen to have those lines and nuts. I believe I understand why you would want to update to better connectors. Before I jump in and do mine, what are you going to do differently for your connectors?

[rjschoolcraft]

I plan to have a custom set of adapters made that reproduce the male end of the factory oil lines, but have 3/8 NPT threads on the female end with a larger hex. The problem with the modified ones that I made is that there is a relatively thin wall that may not hold up. So far, my modified adapters are working well, though.

[stingthieves]

I see you recycled your Engine oil cooler in to Trans cooler Duty. Hows that working out? Kind Regards - Rick

[ronniejoe]

Works very well. I'll know more when summer comes.

[stingthieves]

Thanks for the positive reply RJ! It looks EZ enough to do as long as you just had the intimate experience hanging the H7B in place of the stock oil cooler. What brings this to mind for me is my trans cooler lines [the rubber to hard line connections] appear to be failing as the oil cooler lines did last fall. So if over cooling the trans fluid is not an issue - I was dreaming of stepping right up to a twin H7B on the other side too! Will that "over cool" the trans fluid???????
Kind Regards - Rick

[Turbine Doc]

Hey Rick check out a Deraile trans cooler with a fan & thermostat control, I plumbed in one rated for 25K into the return line, switch is set to come on @ 170F return temp, I monitor pan temp it never gets over 200F when towing up to 18K# even on hot MS days, most time runs 170-180 in pan with Dex.

Remote mounted it under the bed on cross beam

Summit/Jegs/Whitney carry them, I've not monitored engine oil temps, on the "to do mod wish list" just haven't gotten round to it yet. Under $200 for the mod IIRC