FM oil cooler

Postby **beavis** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 11:58 am

An oil cooler behind the firewall and in front of the windscreen is a silly idea.
No airflow there.

Just mount it somewhere near the radiator.

Postby **NitroDann** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 12:13 pm

I think you'd be surprised.

Apu · Postby **Apu** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 3:32 pm

beavis wrote:An oil cooler behind the firewall and in front of the windscreen is a silly idea.
No airflow there.

Just mount it somewhere near the radiator.

I'd disagree. Mania's race cars have them located there, and I copied that.

I've seen my oil temps drop from 110deg to 80deg quite quickly as soon as I get out of traffic.

madjak · Postby **madjak** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 4:29 pm

Given it's a high pressure air zone there, I think a lot of air will go down behind the bonnet and get sucked under or out the sides. If you were really keen you could cut some small slots below the oil cooler to vent air back into the engine bay.

On my car, it's mounted at the front, I see oil temps drop rapidly even though my sensor is before the oil cooler. The issue with it up front is the damage caused by small rocks being flicked up when following other cars on the track.

The only real issue I see with putting the oil cooler under the windscreen is where do you put your tools when your working on the car?

Postby **beavis** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 4:52 pm

madjak wrote:Given it's a high pressure air zone there

Its not high pressure. Much closer to a neutral pressure. (i.e no airflow)

Postby **NitroDann** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 5:07 pm

Open your vents without turning the fan on.

Dweezle · Postby **Dweezle** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 5:21 pm

Haha.
So I wasn't crazy to think that could work?
I was too embarrassed to ask if opening the vents inside would allow air flow if it wasn't present.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

timk · Postby **timk** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 5:23 pm

I'm using the Setrab cooler with the FM mounts, but using custom lines:

To feed the cooler I'm using a GReddy/GREX remote oil filter mount with built-in thermostat. I also have the oil temp/pressure senders on the remote oil filter mount.

Even without ducting it seems to knock off a good ~8 degrees C from my oil temps on track days (from 110 to 102).

Cheers

Apu · Postby **Apu** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 6:11 pm

So here's a question for the oil thermostat guys...is it really that important?

I thought it was, and bugged the Works Engineering guys for one for ages. They got partway down the track, then enthusiasm seemed to peter out. I guess it's redundant for most of Asia.

I then looked at my oil temp gauge - even in winter, if I take a slow drive, once the car warms up, oil temps get to about 40deg...and since we run multigrade oils anyway...theoretically, the oil should be doing it's job.

When I tow my car to the track, I just start it up and let it idle a bit, drive around the pits for a while and we're pretty much good to go. Once the oil is warmed up, it's doesn't cool off in a hurry!

madjak · Postby **madjak** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 6:34 pm

Apu wrote:So here's a question for the oil thermostat guys...is it really that important?

I thought it was, and bugged the Works Engineering guys for one for ages. They got partway down the track, then enthusiasm seemed to peter out. I guess it's redundant for most of Asia.

I then looked at my oil temp gauge - even in winter, if I take a slow drive, once the car warms up, oil temps get to about 40deg...and since we run multigrade oils anyway...theoretically, the oil should be doing it's job.

When I tow my car to the track, I just start it up and let it idle a bit, drive around the pits for a while and we're pretty much good to go. Once the oil is warmed up, it's doesn't cool off in a hurry!

I don't run one... but I don't drive on the road. As you say, once it's warm the engine stays that way for a while. For a track car I see it as one more potential point for failure. So I run no coolant or oil thermostat.

track_addict · Postby **track_addict** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 8:43 pm

Timk: So, you didnt have any issues using the FM mounts? Or did you have to customize something? Do you run ducting as well or not?

Apu: There isn't a thermostat in the works engineering kit then? But you dont observe any issues on the street?

Apu · Postby **Apu** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 8:55 pm

Hi Ash,

I've just sent you the pics.

As for thermostat - no issues. Just don't be silly and gun the car whilst it's cold...and that is a bigger problem for other parts warming up, rather than the oil itself.

As I said - we run multigrade oils that are supposed to behave in the same way whether hot or cold. On the track, it might be an issue as you do want to get the oil up to temp "proper temp", on the street however, you're not going to re revving the guts out of the engine are you?

Once the oil gets up to temp (which it usually does in about 10 minutes...and I'm talking in winter), the thermostat becomes redundant. The bigger issue is keeping the oil cool.

Bryan

track_addict · Postby **track_addict** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 10:18 pm

Bryan, email received. Thanks for that. I drive my car to the track, but it usually sits for close to two hours before I get out on track. I'll have to get used to the idea of not having a thermostat. It obviously wont be an issue for a daily dríven car then?

Apu · Postby **Apu** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 10:39 pm

Hasn't been an issue for my car.

As for the car sitting around at the track, just start it up a few minutes before hand - I usually find sitting on the dummy grid waiting to go, and the warm up lap is enough to bring the oil up to temp.

madjak · Postby **madjak** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 1:13 pm

I find I need to load the engine to get lots of temp into the oil. Idling in the pits brings it up a bit but not as much as you would expect. I really need the warm up lap to get any real temp into the system which makes it hard on the car for the hillclimb events where your relying on temp left over from a previous run.

I figure, that's what multigrade oils are for!