Oil Cooler

[befarrer]

Litedaze's thread reminded me about this:

Do you think I should add an oil cooler to my Quad 4 Fiero? Originally, the Quad 4 doesnt have an oil cooler, it does have an aluminum oil pan though. My oil pressure does drop considerably from a cold engine to a warm one, not too low, but I think it could be better. I have a rebuilt engine with a .010 undersized crank, with 12,000KM on it, and a new melling oil pump. My oil pressure at idle cold (1300RPM) is about 550+KPa, and when fully warmed up at thermostat temp (180ºF) and at idle (900RPM) it is at about 150KPa, and when at fan on temp (210ºF) it is at about 100KPa. I am running 5W30 royal purple oil. The oil pressure is normal for my engine, I think anything above 3 or 5Psi is normal at hot idle. When cruising down the highway, or actually any driving when warmed up, the oil pressiure is at 275KPA, wether it is at a 2600RPM cruise, or at 6000+RPM, it always seem to stay the same. One thing to note is that the Quad 4 oil pressure sender is at an odd location, it is on the head, after all of the oil galleries, so the readings are after the oil goes through the crank, up in the heads, and through the cams and lifters, the it reads the pressure.

I am just worried about the large drop from normal running temp of 180ºF to the 210ºF mark, an oil cooler would make the drop less durastic I think.

Also, can a tranny cooler be used for an oil cooler? I dont think so, the hoses look too small, but I thought I would ask.

[Shaun41178(2)]

you canadians and your metric system. you and your kpa's I dont' know how that relates to psi and I am too lazy to look up the conversion.

[The Dark Side of Will]

100 KPa ~ 15 psi

The oil pressure stays the same as RPM goes up because you're on the regulator spring. When it's cold, the oil is just too thick even for the regulator to bring the pressure down.

If you have a place where you can run oil hoses to a coolant hose, then you could run an oil water heat exchanger (see the Hard-to-Find Parts/Materials thread) instead of a cooler.

1/2" pipe fittings have over 1/2" ID... you'll need to step up to 3/4" hose in order to keep the ID of the fittings that big.

[befarrer]

What about my oil pressure drop from 180ºF to 210ºF, it almost halves. Would it be wise to add some sort of cooler?