Oil cooler and effect on volume
 

Hey Guys,

Hopefully I can phrase my question correctly but when an oil cooler is installed, how do you know that the amount of oil flowing out of the cooler and into the motor is sufficient enough and not starving the engine of any additional oil needed? In other words, i guess the most direct way to ask is: "is the diameter of the L-shaped elbow fitting and the hose big enough to deliver enough oil to the motor? This was always the only question i had. Thanks in advance and sorry if this is a newb question.

Cheers,

Tim

**Edit
Changed thread title to better reflect concern.

No meaningful effect on oil pressure in a typical automotive application. I might start getting concerned, if we are talking about long runs of line, and multiple coolers. Definitely nothing to be concerned with, for those installing front mount location oil coolers.

Changed thread title. I am more concerned about the volume of oil than pressure for which I know is okay. Thanks!

You're basically concerned the pressure drop across the cooler would be too high for the oil pump to keep up with and feed into the engine?

There is no need to run all the oil through the cooler. Make sure you have an oil path that goes directly to the filter. If you have a thermostatic sandwich plate it will already have a direct path that you can open up more. If you have a nonthermostatic sandwich plate then you just need to drill a hole it it to allow some oil to go directly to the filter.

haha i guess im not wording my concerns properly. It comes down to this. Does having an oil cooler starve the engine of oil in ANY way? Forget i ever said pressure. This has nothing to do with pressure.

Simple answer: NO

Thanks Mod you were the one person i was hoping to hear from. When you do oil changes, do you just unclip the elbows, drain from the core and hoses, clip the elbows back on, and fill as usual? Thanks again in advance.

Tbone...No problem!

I actually haven't changed the oil since the cooler install at 1600 miles. I'm at 4700 now and plan to do the change at 5K with synthetic....To answer the question though, Yes, I'll just pull one of the AN fittings at the thermostatic plate and drain from there. Since my cooler fittings are on the bottom, this should work just fine

Ah....gotcha. I probably will need some more help from you when I actually install the thing in spring. Is it okay if i pm you with some inquiries around that time? thanks for all your help i appreciate it.

Tim

Sure Tim...No problem..:tup:

Fittings at the bottom, the way I've always installed them. I don't get the folks, even some sponsors here, who mount them with the fittings facing up.

+1 NYE rep

Correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't the downside of that oil not being readily available in the core so that when you fire up the engine, there's a split second where the engine receives no oil? That's what i'm hearing from a few people here.

Haven't you ever seen those commercials where they drain the oil out of an engine and it continues to run just fine??....;).......LOL

Seriously though, the fraction of a second it takes to pressurize the system is meaningless in the grand scheme of things. The VQ motor uses a very high volume pump. This is no more a problem than starting your engine with a dry filter after an oil change.....Oil film remains on Bearings and provides all the lubrication you need on start-up. There is never any metal to metal contact. The time from start to full pressure is almost instant. Besides, with a thermostatic plate the oil is routed to both the filter/engine AND the cooler simultaneously anyway.

I'm sure the Anal types will weigh in here. Worrying about this stuff shortens YOUR life, not your engine's....:tup:

Good feedback thx Modshack! As always you explain things in layman terms and keep it simple.