Oil type and temp Questions (houston area)

roy'sz

The whole kit was for free so I think i'll keep it lol. When exactly does the solenoid start to open on the mocal? The way I understand it, is that the valve starts to respond to the warm oil and it starts to close. Thats what creates or is supposed to create your 180 degree baseline for the adapter. If I have this wrong by all means break it down for me because Z1 kinda confused me a little bit and i've been tryin to get my head wrapped around it. I know its simple and im goin to end up goin"OOOOOh" lol.

MattP725

I don't think anyone knows when it "starts" to open and close... it is a 180deg thermostat so I think Mocal would try to convince you that it simply opens around 180. I have heard they are surprisingly accurate though. Assume that you always have partial flow and somewhere between 175 and 185 you have full flow.

Maybe in CA 60 degrees sounds cold but in NJ that is pretty damn warm lol. I think the point is that even when the oil is at 40 degrees you can still drive it, just be easy on the motor until it warms up that way you can be sure to have efficient lubrication. Normal driving on an ice cold engine won't result in failure or excess wear on a newer car, just keep it rational until the temps rise.

Those cold weather packages are "generally" on diesels because they need a higher starting temp to get the engine fired up. The Z wouldn't really get much benefit from them (plus who wants an outlet coming out of the front of the car).

roy'sz

When I spoke to the guy at z1 he said that the thermo starts in the open position and makes its way towards closed? I looked at the adapter and the pin is seated way back, you can barely see it in its housing. It would be awesome to have a little more info on this just as a fyi ya know? The 60's is warm and thats right about this time of year but in late semtember we start getting the cold nights and where I live in cali it does get to the hih 30's at night. I also agree that it would be an ugly sight plugging your sports car into the wall hahahaha. My dad did come up with an interesting idea and that was to grab a AT radiator. Being that it is a cross flow design to run oil lines from the mocal to that. Not sure if it would work or not but it would shorten your warm up time by 75%, but not too sure about that one. I kinda like keepin my stuff seperate.

Astrosfan

wstar

I'd just get the little 19-row if you're never going on a track. It will hold up to TX weather fine with that. Technically you're probably fine even without a cooler. On the worst summer days you might hit 240 on the street driving kinda recklessly, but that's really not a huge issue.

If you can, I'd recommend learning to do your own oil changes (and to check and change the other fluids on the car yourself as well). It only requires a minimum of tools, knowledge and effort, and frankly nobody (not the dealer and certainly not jiffylube) really cares about your car more than you do. Eventually they'll do something stupid or criminal out of haste (not use the oil you asked them to, not change the filter, over-tighten the drain plug, maybe even leave the drain plug loose so you dump oil later).

If you're really unwilling to do your own oil changes and really feel you need a cooler, IMHO your best option for worry-free maintenance is to have a Nissan dealership install the Nissan Motorsports oil cooler package for you, and have that dealership do all of your oil changes as well. Then there's only 1 party involved: if anything goes wrong, the dealership has to deal with it and cover it and there's nobody else to point a finger at.

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wstar

Re: the Mocal questions, I called them a couple of years ago when I bought my thermo plate, I've posted this like 3 times on different threads here somewhere:

The Mocal starts with both passages (oil cooler + bypass) open. The thermostat closes the bypass passage gradually over roughly the 175-185F range. So at 185+, basically all of your oil flow is forced through the cooler. Under 175, most of it takes the bypass route (least resistance), but a small amount will still flow through the cooler as well since the passageway is open (and this helps warm up the cooler and lines themselves, so it's not a sudden temp shock).

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ChrisSlicks

There is a 200F degree spring available from Mocal as an alternate to the 180F spring.

The Mocal always allows at least 10-20% flow to the cooler so in colder climates it can be impossible to get the oil temperature above 160F for months at a time unless you have long idle times. That is why many are using a block off plate for the winter.

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cossie1600

If I were to do over, I would have paid an extra $50 for the 200F spring.

fuct

damn $50 just to increase to 200F? yikes

soooo im starting to rethink my oil cooler needs. normal driving here in sugar land/houston area im at 210-220. then when i get "spirted" haha it reaches 240-250. then quickly goes back down to around the 220 mark. i dont plan on tracking the car anytime soon but this horrible heat doesnt look like its letting up soon either.

i understand 200-220 is a great temp to drive at hard, but im at that temp while i putt to wal-mart...:\

what do yall think?

200F mocal plate
25 row oil cooler

roy'sz

I got a 34. It takes a while to warm up. If you plan on modding your z then the 34 is worth the investment. My normal driving was 220 before the cooler and it would skyrocket to the 260's in no time. It would take forever to cool down even runnin the heater with the windows down lol. I didn't know that they had a 200f spring, anyone know the torque requirement for the fittings on the adapter? Im goin to be installing it this weekend or next and needed to know.

ChrisSlicks

If you're only getting to 240-250 occasionally I wouldn't do anything at all other than use good quality oil. If you're doing it every day then you might want to consider a cooler, the 25 row would be ample and would hold you to 220 max on the same kind of driving. Overcooling is just as harmful as overheating, although if you go big you can always add a block off if necessary.

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sonic370

if it helps you feel better. get the oil cooler. under normal driving conditions
imho if you only drive it on the street its not needed...

i live close to the houston area and during this past summer even on 100 degree days i would stay around the 200 degree mark.....

but when the mood strikes and you kick her in the rear every once in a while
it will get up in the 220 to 240 range. but seems to cool down pretty quick.

choose an oil and stick with it. ask 5 guys and you will get 5 different answers. i use mobil 1 5w30.. im at 27.000 miles and it doesn't burn a drop..

roy'sz

yeah sonic i run mobil1 also. My dad has a 350 and has 170000 on it with nothin but mobil1. it definitely is a great oil. My car runs hot, i mean damn hot without the cooler. just cruisin down the road with ambient temps at 105 it was 230 and just very little spirited driving got me to 250. Im talkin 30-45 seconds.

PaulZ370

Same situation here with the heat in my 370Z. however, I think the car was still new and the tolerances were still pretty tight. I was in Houston running around on the interstates there at an ambient of around 101-103, and I was spiking temps of 240-245 with just a little sprint of about 30-40 seconds just as you mentioned. I did install a 19 row oil cooler (not tracking the car), and my temps now are running in the 180-200 tops, even with high ambient temps and very spirited driving. The downside is with the morning mid fifties ambients, I can barely get the temps up to 180 for the 7 mile drive to work. I will need to blank the cooler off for the winter for sure now with cooler temps/maybe some freezing ambients as well.

I run Valvoline full synthetic 10W30 with a Purolator PureOne filter by the way.

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wstar

As discussed recently elsewhere, be sure you're doing something to get up to 220-ish on a very regular basis. Otherwise the condensation water in your engine doesn't boil off. Instead it mixes with the oil and the net effect is to turn the oil acidic prematurely.

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