Installed a Z1 Oil Cooler Today - Something Doesn't Seem Right
 

I had a local shop install a 34 Row Z1 oil cooler with a thermostat today.

Unless I'm mistaken, I was under the impression that the thermostat was supposed to kick in at 180 degrees and not let the car get much hotter than that.

However, I took the car to an empty back road on some private property and I stood up on it to around 6k RPM's from 0-80 a few times after the oil was above 150, and it never even reached 180 degrees. I romped on this thing and it barely crossed 175 degrees at the hardest I ran the car.

So I call the guys who installed it and they tell me that the engine shouldn't ever run above 180 and it's a good thing that it's kicking in at, what seems to be, 150-160 degrees.

Am I wrong? Are they wrong? I'm confused now.

Them telling you that it should never run above 180 is absolute bs. I don't even really push mine hard until the oil gauge reads 180 or higher. I'm running a 25 row cooler with thermostatic sandwich plate.

Mine ran too cold with an oil cooler so I removed it

Without the cooler it runs at 190-200 which is totally fine , you want the oil to get up to a decent temperature from time to time, too cool is as bad as too hot

No offense to you, but your shop sounds like it is full of idiots. Like Memphis stated, most people on here don't even start to push the car until the oil warms up to 180F or so. With the way it's acting, I would check to see if the shop even installed a thermostatic plate.

My 34 row runs around 150-170 degrees driving around calmly. That's from how much the 34 row works. The Thermostatic plate flows 20% all the way to 180 degrees, then goes to 100% flow. If you aren't pushing the car hard, it will cool back down quickly.

For the thermostat to work however, the oil has to first get to 180 degrees. If the cooler does its job correctly, which yours is, it will have to work hard to get that hot.

So, I called Z1 today and told them I wanted to talk to a product representative. They put me on the phone with a very knowledgeable guy who explained the oil cooler.

The 34 Row Oil Cooler with a Thermostatic Plate is designed to open up fully at 180 degrees, like the poster above me stated, then it's supposed to keep the oil between 160 and 180. It's only supposed to go above 180 if the outside air temperature is really hot, like 90's and above, or if I'm tracking the car and running it hard.

I asked him about optimal running temperature and he said that anything above 150 is perfectly safe as the oil is viscous enough at that point to do its job.

See... you're good to go!
Perhaps a 25 row would have kept you a little higher

Good point, and I was going to buy the 25 row cooler, but the area that I live in sees 100+ degree days for sometimes months in a row. Come July and August all 34 rows will be useful when I want to romp on it and have some fun... or hell, just sitting in traffic.

What was the ambient temp when you ran your test?

To clear up a misnomer, the thermostatic plate does not open at 180F but rather it closes the bypass opening that allows the oil to flow directly back into the engine. The cooler is always flowing oil but 100% of the oil does not go through the cooler until 180F.

I have half my 25 row blocked off for street driving and have yet to see more than 195F. Cooler mornings <60F the oil is slow to warm and will hover between 170-180F.

that's correct. oil needs to be around 210 to burn off condensation in the oil.

Interesting Note's Fellow's,as an engine oil & A/T cooler are next on my list.
I too let mine warm to 160/180 before driving hard & normally runs 200 all the time after it warms up (on warm days)
sitting in traffic jams (Atlanta-example) or several hard accelerations & mine's at 220/230
Not sure what temp. will throw it in limp mode? I've heard the A/T will go in Limp if it goes too warm.
Any comment's or suggestion's are welcome. :)

Note that this is likely 150F as referenced by the stock oil temp gauge, which reads low by at least 20F :twocents:

If you're monitoring your oil temps using an OBDII app like Torque that uses more accurate temps then you really do want them closer to 180F before any hard driving.

We've had unusually rainy and cool weather in Central Texas all month. It was around 60 degrees when I tested it the first time.

Last night I went out on the highway and drove her around for a good hour and the oil didn't go above 181, and it was about 65 degrees.

When it hits 105 in July, I'll be happy to have this thing.

I'm pretty sure there are at least two different limp modes. One restricts RPMs to 5000, which I think kicks in around 250-260F. The the other restricts RPMs to 3500 and kicks in around 280F. I'm not 100% sure on the temps, but I've definitely hit the 5000 RPM limiter limp mode on the track before without an oil cooler.