2012 oil cooler at Willowsprings
 

It was in the 40's today so it was pretty cool, oil temp never went over 255-260. Wonder how it will hold up to 70 degrees or so.

Went with stock pads and they actually were not as bad as I though but will need to update the pads, lines, fluid, and stiffen up the suspension it is way to soft in the rear and sway bars!

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...51213027_n.jpg

uh....255-260 is pretty darn high for oil temp, especially with an oil cooler. Definitely will overheat at 70 degrees. Seems like the stock oil cooler is not up to the task.

interesting. curious to see how it will hold up to warmer temps.

yeah we'll see, when doing a few laps oil temps don't shoot that high but once ur pushing 9+ laps it gets there.

Yeah, we pretty much knew this would be the case. The factory oil cooler is the one that was being used in Australia and the Middle East on the previous year models and the 350 - good for enthusiastic street driving, but not designed for the track. It is oil to water and is very efficient but it is rather tiny.

Thanks for your post Martin. Bummed out the results weren't better...especially since this is the coldest time of the year. It will only be worse at 70 deg plus.

does any know of any 2012 owners with air cooled oil coolers installed?

-Ray

I wonder if it would be possible to just install a larger core on those cars since it's already plumbed and all. Could make for a really nice cooling setup.

hmmmm

Yes I think if there was larger aftermarket oil to water cooler that takes its place that could be a viable solution. I think for many people that would be enough. Some would start to find the limits of the stock radiator at that point but now that there are a couple of radiator upgrade options that isn't all bad.

my radiator temperature never moved an inch, I have ordered an obd2 wire so I can monitor it next time also.

I've only had a high water temp on the hottest of days and in longer harder sessions. In the Spring, Fall and Winter it isn't likely to move much. The good news is that water temp corrects extremely quickly if you back off.

I will have to research now how to add an oil cooler now or cap off the 2012 oil cooler they added............

stock water temp gauges are never accurate...moving up one or two dots could mean a bigger jump in temps...best to use aftermarket gauge and probe in my opinion.

I'm curious if fixing the cooling/coolant issue will help lower the oil since stock is water cooled. Cooler the water, maybe it can cool the oil more effectively as well?

Let us know what you're thinking for the oil cooler if/when you get one Martin. I'm very very interested in how you are going to bypass the stock setup, cap it off, or implement the stock in the setup.

-Ray

Wow thats really hot given how cool it was. I dont get much over 235 degrees on days that are 75 to 85 degrees. What kind of lap times were you turning? Hard to believe stock pads and brake fluid were holding up, but maybe cool weather helped?

I was lapping around 1:41-1:43 at the big track, I could push it harder but didn't wanna overkill it with all stock setup and end up with no brakes and crashing!
Here's a picture of the front tires to get an idea how I was pushing it. I had 2,100 miles before the track now i'm at around 2,400 with maybe 1-2 more times left on those front tires.

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...59315068_n.jpg

^like i said, big willow is hard on left front tires, and you need a significant amount of static camber to help combat this

Will be going to streets of willow this saturday, never run this track so will be fun. I'm at almost 3K miles, and need to do an oil change before saturday. Thinking of going full synthetic 10w30 thoughts?

I have been running 5-30 DEXOS cert Mobil 1 oil in my Z06 and it hasn't blown up yet. From what I understand, that's what they run in them at Spring Mountain outside of Vegas year-round beating on the cars in 100* heat. Works fine. Should be able to find it anywhere almost.

There's no point raising the cold weight, it will just mean the oil is thicker on a cold start. If you are seeing high temperatures regularly then you could consider an oil with a higher hot weight, e.g. 5W40. The second weight is measured at 210F. The 5W30 is going to be at it's ideal weight at 210F where as 5W40 will need 230-240F to be in it's sweet spot, and you'd have more protection at 260F.

Didn't think the stock oil cooler would work well in track conditions...

I will have someone take a look at the stock system tomorrow, I will see how easy it will be to cap off the lines from and to the radiator and switch to either air cooled one.

Keep both if you can (if enough room). The water system is beneficial in helping the oil warm up faster.

Yeah it sucks that the little stock oil:water unit can't really be upgraded in any useful way without tossing it. You might still take a look at just stacking sandwich-plate adapters to add a smaller air cooler onto the water cooler (e.g. a 19-row Setrab), but there'd be concerns about the integrity of the double-stacked adapters maybe. Hard to say without having seen the water one up close on how everything fits together.

I will take some pictures tomorrow, car should be on a lift for oil change and brake pad changes to get ready for track for sat.

One thing one of my friends said, there are some VW and Audi that have similar water to water cooler, he said I might be able to find a bigger unit to replace the stock one but will need to research............

please keep us posted about what you find for an upgraded oil:water or "sandwiching" the oil:water with an air:oil cooler.

Ran out of time at the oil change place. But today at streets of willow, must have been 50-60 deg out max. I was pushing as hard as the car would let me, ran a best of 1:32.7 this was the first time out on this track, so over all I think I did great. Oil cooler not so much, anything under 8 laps or so is no issue, oil temp stays at 235-245. If I push to 11-12 laps then the oil temp shoots to 250, didn't reach 260.
I definitely will need something, weird thing is the coolant's temp never moved an inch....