Let's talk about oil cooling for racing....

[Vegas69]

Things have been a little boring around here lately so I thought we could discuss oil coolers. I'm juggling some options that are economical and will get the job done. I started out looking at air coolers but am finding that they are extremely inefficient. They need to be so large to do the job and are hard to package in a 1st gen. I also don't want to impeed the area in front of my radiator necessarily incase I decide to put in my vintage air. It's also not ideal from the info I've gathered because air will pick the path of least resistance. (around the oil cooler)

Next I considered a dual pass radiator with a heat exchanger and that's still on the table. I've already set up my car and radiator support. I would need to rearrange my fresh radiator suport to put the excanger on the drivers side or move my hose ports to the passenger side to put the heat exchanger on the passenger side. I'm not crazy about the length of the bottom hose and the bend that will be needed along with misc. other changes. My only hangup is will my current radiator be good enough on the road course? It has always worked fine on the street, especially at speed. But will it do the trick on the road course?

My plan right now is to run a separate heat exchanger.(Similar to what is brazed into a radiator) Instead of putting it in series with my lower radiator hose, I want to use 12AN hose from my water pump ports along with 10AN oil ports. The water coming out of the bottom hose is usually 20-30 degrees cooler than your t stat housing. If I decide to run heat I can then just plumb it into the return side. The exchanger I'm looking at is a Ron Davis and is a 13 or 14 plate. I can have it built with AN fittings and any configuration I want. It's not tiny at 9x4x4.5 so I'll have to get creative to keep things neat.

What are your thoughts and am I on the right track for the road course?

[XcYZ]

That's a cool unit. No pun intended. lol Do you have an oil temp gauge in the car?

[Vegas69]

That's something I wish was part of the original game plan. I plan to add one to the dash or under the hood. I also have plans for an accumulator in the next couple months so it will likely get plumbed in then.

[GregWeld]

My new Ron Davis radiator arrived yesterday - he doesn't even like the idea of an integrated tranny cooler - so ordered mine without. I'm replacing the junk epoxied tanks unit (that would be the SECOND epoxied tank radiator gone bad!). You might want to just look at using the "along the frame" style finned dual pass oil cooler(s). You can use a large one or a combination of them to fit wherever you can find space.

I think these would help more on a track car than on a street car - as the track car is moving almost all the time (except that time you spend with the nose up against the wall -- ) where a street car can spend a lot of time in stop and go traffic etc.

Just my .000000000000005 worth

PS - They always market this style as a transmission oil cooler - but I can't think of why they couldn't be used to cool engine oil - the pressures and temps would be about the same? and the ones I use are AN equipped.

[Vegas69]

The only place I feel an air cooler would work is in front or behind the radiator. Space is hard to come by on a first gen, especially with a big block. Fluidyne and C&R will both build a heat exchanger in a dual pass radiator.

[70rs]

Todd, you said your current set up works fine on the street. How did it do on the auto-x? Are you having problems now or just setting up for the future use on the road course? I'm not in a climate like yours so I don't know for sure if I need to consider these thing for my car. But I would rather incorporate it into the build and not have to do it later.

[Vegas69]

Autocross is such a short interval so I'm preparing for the road course. The oil cooler and accumulator are definitely for the road course. They may also help for autocross some. The street isn't a concern since your not taxing the engine consistently.

[70rs]

That makes sense, but I am going to run the accumulator for cold start and back up in case something breaks. It may save the engine in an emergency.
Thanks Todd. Let me know how it goes. (with pics too!)
In fact, if you could just spend the next 10 hours in your garage photographing evey square inch of your car for me..... I dig your car.

[Vegas69]

I'm in if you buy the swamp cooler. It's a balmy 110 in there by noon right now.

[70rs]

Uh, go to the lake, pool, sprinkler....just don't go in the garage.