Engine oil cooler.

[David Garton]

I recently purchased a tower type oil cooler for a Continental aircraft engine and it comes without the base. I am trying to figure out my best way to plumb it to my application? Looking at the factory bases for that cooler it looks like they have a built in bypass valve or thermostat flow valve? Should I just make a large base dividing the cooler in the two haves and have an in and out of the bottom or add a port at the top of the tower and have all the oil come in the top and exit through both halves of the cooler and exit through my thick base? Or use the factory one just not sure the flow of the factory one?

 

[Joel Heinke]

If you are putting an oil cooler on a street driven car, you will want to have a temperature control valve on it. For track only applications (where engine is running in top 50% of rpm range), you most likely don't need temperature control. The most common complaint from Cobra owners who have an oil cooler with no temperature control is that the oil doesn't run hot enough.

 

[Howard Jones]

The type and size of an oil cooler or whether you even need one range from probably not necessary to critically needed, The best advice I can give you is to detail the use you have envisioned for the car. Include where you will drive it, seasons/ambient air temp range, engine description, and RPM range, power output, as well as race/session length if tracked.

Also, the total oil capacity of the engine as well as dry sump or wet sump makes a big difference. We need to estimate how much heat you are going to make over how long a period. That's the issue really.

 

[JMCGRATH]

David,

Lee Holman sells them. Call him. About 350.00 with gasket.

JM

 

[Devin]

For those that are using an upright (above the oil pan level) oil cooler, are you using a check/one-way valve on the return line? If so, which one do you recommend? I’m looking at a Continental cooler and a remote oil filter with thermostat (probably from Improved Racing) but am concerned about post shutdown drain back and the cavitation of the oil cooler for the next start up.

I did a lot of forum searching, attempted looking through any photos and even online search engines aren’t providing good results. On my Cobra and other past projects, I’ve been fortunate to be able to locate the cooler lower than the engine with minimal concern for this.