Oil Cooler and Engine Reliability

DEpointfive0

... Brother... You don't know why they say to do it then... And this is going to seem prickish, but I don't think you know how the system works either.

The engine has air in it. More air than oil.

You have to prefill the cooler because if you start it without filling it, you will effectively drain out 1+ quarts of oil out of your engine into the cooler, and you may cause the engine to STARVE itself. Not because of a bubble.




And it takes longer to warm up for 2 reasons:
1) The thermostatic plate is never closed, at "closed" or cold, it's circulating something like 20% of it's flow capability. Then it opens to 100% at 180 degrees
2) There is somewhere on the forum that says that the temperature gauge will read about 20 degrees cooler than it really is because the placement of the thermometer; it is right by the inlet (right out of your cooler)

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mcspooney

Whoa whoa. Don't say that I don't know how the engine works. The CRANKCASE has air in it, the oil passages should constantly be flowing oil! I think you are mistaken. If those passages are deprived of oil, lets say at 7000 rpm, for even a few seconds, you could seriously damage your engine.

In response to an empty oil cooler at startup: you are wrong. Make reference to Z1's install manual:

"Using Fresh Engine Oil, it is HIGHLY recommended that oil cooler core be filled
completely. This will prevent a dry start scenario and will help prime the oil
cooler FASTER!"

See how they say 'dry start'? That's what this thread is about. Yes the engine would be deprived of 1 quart of oil too. But that could potentially be fixed by topping off after the first start--the real concern is the dry start.

Your response seems prickish because it is. I wasn't saying that my engine was going to die today. I said it could damage the engine over time. Something like 90% of engine wear occurs at engine startup (at least on passenger cars), before engine oil has been given a chance to circulate and warm up. Imagine the volume of the empty oil passages within the block could cause the majority of the wear on your engine. Now imagine that you are adding the volume of two ~6 ft hoses to the volume of empty oil passages. I think its reasonable to be a little concerned.

I don't think that my original question warrants a "you don't know what you are talking about" response, brother.

Anyway. I didn't know that thermostatic plates still flow 20% below 180. Good to know. Thank you.

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Z1 34 Row Oil Cooler, Swift Springs, Nismo Struts, SPL Camber Arms. Z1 2 Piece Front Rotors. 10" Wide Sport Rays all around. BFG Geforce Rivals 285/35/19 all around.