Has anyone on here, ever installed an oil cooler to their car? any car?
If so, did you have an oil temp gauge before with any idea how much of an impact it made to oil temps?
I cannot find any information on the net about just how much cooler engine oil is when a cooler is used. liek ball park even
1 or 2 degrees, 10 degrees, 20-50, 80?? 
Anyone know anything about the subject?
I ask because id like to consider cooling my oil to keep the viscosity up there for this old engine.
when me 4K is hot, it clicks n slaps n knocks at idle.. these old motors don't have much oil pressure at idle when the oil gets hot.
Factory specs say 28.4 psi at 300rpm, i get as low as 5-10 at hot 650rpm idle. :(

Please don't tell me to rebuild. Id like to avoid that. It runs fine and silent for the first 10 minutes, but once the oils hot, it just can't stay thick enough

running 20-50 mineral (castrol GTX)
 

All the good oil cooler systems restrict the flow of oil to the cooler until it goes over a certain temp. Same as a thermostat in coolant system. 

Remember, cold oil is not happy oil. 

I put a mocal thermostat controlled set up with a setrab cooler in my AE86. They used to have an incredibly informative catalogue you could download with detailed information about setups, and a very helpful technical department. 

Edit: a cursory look at the current website doesn't appear to show the printed manual/part listing, but still an informative FAQ, that addresses a number of you questions. http://www.mocal.co.uk/ocfaq.html

when you click on each category in their product range, further tech can be viewed

Edited October 19, 20178 yr by parrot

I've put one on my 5k. Before hand it would climb up to about 120 degrees when having a bit of a dip, now I haven't seen it go past about 85 which is also where the water temp sits. 

thanks taz, i think that answers my question perfectly. it has quite a significant effect.
Dave, this is true, but what if your engine kind of needed warm moderately runny oil instead of fucking hot thinned out oil which slips through the loose bearings like water.
Thats the issue I'm facing.
Oil likes to be hot yes, but only so that it can perform at its intended viscosity, and that intended viscosity is designed for an engine in nice tight working order and fresh.
Mine is old and worn and the crank shaft is unable to be machined. (no one here can do it)

Edited October 20, 20178 yr by rebuilder86

hey parrot i had a good read. 
perhaps i didnt think about the other issues apart from viscosity, that cooler oil might introduce.
I have no idea what temp my engine currently runs at, i just know that 20-50 is the thickest oil i can get here so my only option is to cool the oil., unless i smuggle some penrite HPR40  25-70 in my suitcase

http://www.penriteoil.com.au/products/baseoils/mineral/hpr-40-25w-70-mineral

Perhaps if i do go an oil cooler route, i will have to control it with a thermostat as well. I'm sorry i refuse to use the pansy marketing term OILSTAT. haha

Have you considered running straight 20w oil?

how does that help? that would be as thin as water when hot. bigger number is better, higher viscsity.

do u mean straight sae50?

Yer probably:p

Whatever makes it thick all the time.

well thick all the time wouldnt help, that would either blow a seal or exit the relief valve at startup and starve the engine of oil. but maybe there is maddness to ur theory... maybe a straight sae 30 will stay thicker when hot than a 20-50...

nahhh

don't wanna risk it.

need to find the cheapest nastiest oil cooler to test my theory.

"The numbers without the W are all tested at 210° F or 100° C which is considered an approximation of engine operating temperature.

In other words, a SAE 30 motor oil is the same viscosity as a 10w-30 or 5W-30 at 210° (100° C). The difference is when the viscosity is tested at a much colder temperature."

So the oil cooler shouldn't help.   You have SAE50 at idle when at hot temp, and you can't improve on that unless you can find 20W-60.

How about a new oil pump instead? Can you strip yours and refurbish it? Not much you can do about the edges of the impellor, but if the endplate is groved you can grind that back smooth.  Pretty desperate stuff!  Better with new bearings on the worn crank, I did that on the Girls KE70 and it shut the knock up.

what do u mean an oil cooler wont help.

I'm sure thats not right. colder oil means more viscosity. yes the oil stays at 50 grade, so when cooler it is thicker. 
At 100 degrees it has a cSt of 18.09

at 40 degrees it has a cSt of 159.1

Just a generic thing i found on the net, but lets imagine that 20-50 purple line is my catrol GTX. if i can bring the temp down form 120 (off the chart) to 80, then ive gained some viscosity.

Probably not much tho. but somewhere around 34 is better than the current ~17 cSt i guess??
maybe your point is that i wont notice the change, but i think i will, as there is no ticking until the 8th minute of driving down the dirt road. Id imagine the engien wouldve come pretty close to equilibrium for dissipating oil heat by then, so even a few degrees cooler should help. Ill be stoked if a cooler can bring it down to 90 degrees.

id love to be able to get some of this over here smuggled through the airport:

http://www.penriteoil.com.au/products/baseoils/mineral/hpr-50-40-70-mineral
At that viscosity, cold starting wouldn't be an issue, id imagine its so thick the oil would happily just hang in the bearings all day with the engine shut down, and when started up, it would be like permanent assembly lube and flow wouldn't be needed haha.
 

These are all my potentials, and you can see why i want HPR50. The nulon stuff is an SAE lie so id steer clear.


But i just can't get it, so I'm doing what i can to lower temps instead.

Edited October 22, 20178 yr by rebuilder86

speaking of all this, has anyone got an original 4k piston laying around, i would like to know how many oil return holes there are perpendicular to the wrist pin holes, ensuring not to count the 2 pressure supply holes FROM the wrist pin.

So in my experience you start raising the viscosity of your engine oil as the moving parts of your engine start to wear it stops oil burn and that awful K series rattle. However if you raise the viscosity of the oil and then keep it cooler than normal operating temperature the poor old oil pump is gonna have a hard time pushing the oil around as it is thicker and heavier than it can handle which in turn will lead to other rotating parts to starve of oil and they might prematurely fail. Just another train of thought.