I'm looking for a cheap oil cooler and these look pretty good. Anyone using one?

Another option would be to use an RX7 cooler. These are particularly nice with an integral t-stat. May have fitment problems due to its massiveness though.

 

That's not a bad. I'd go for it. CXRacing puts together decent stuff. I rock a I/C kit from them.

 

The trucool coolers work well and come in more manageable sizes.
TRU-Cool Oil Coolers
It doesn't take much to drop the temp of your oil once it's outside of the block.

 

i buy there stuff all the time for me and other people. stuff is not bad. and they are really close to my house. LOL

 

Holy crap those are cheap. I'm gonna try to stuff one of these in front of the passenger side wheel well.

 

I agree with M2. I had an oil cooler that was a 9 or 10 row when I was SC'd, and even during 30 minute track sessions, the temps were great. Now, with the turbo, I am looking at most a 13 row.

 

Good to know. What other cooling mods do you have? My preference is to keep the stock radiator and go with a bigger oil cooler to keep temps down. I could be wrong, but I'm guessing the larger temperature delta in an oil cooler will make it more effective at shedding heat than in the radiator.

Thanks for your replies.

 

What sandwich adapter are you all running? Finding a cheap oil cooler isn't really the hard part. Finding a cheaper sandwich adapter (with thermo) and the lines and fittings really seems like the expensive part.

 

Anyone want to comment on the efficiency of the B&M/TruCool style coolers vs. Mocal/Earl's/CXRacing? The Trucools look like nothing I've ever seen before, and the Mocal is like a little mini radiator. I have a TruCool 5.75x11 right now, and I am ditching it for the monster Rx7 cooler.

I use a Mocal sandwich plate with internal 180 degree thermostat, which should be around $120 including the BSP to -10AN fittings required to use it. I used push-lock fittings and hose to keep cost down from there.

 

Sav, What kind of temps are you seeing with your current setup? What's the hottest it get and what Oil are you using?

Chris

 

With Mobil1 10w30, I would see around 250-260 on a hot day. My temp gauge has been broken recently, but I think the temps have risen higher than that now since the car is going faster. 280+, or thereabouts. All the bearings I pulled out of my 99 motor, with 3k miles on it, were spun. This is WITH a 6x11 TruCool. On the new motor, I switched from M1 to 10w40 Rotella dino.

 

I wonder if that's evidence the new formula Mobil1 isn't up to what the old "true" synthetic mobil1 was? A friend of mine ran the old mobil1 in the motorla cup in his firebirds. They saw 300f oil temps for the entire race (usually 3 hours) and never had an engine failure.

The rx7 oil cooler is massive. I can't imagine that won't have a positive impact on oil temps. Have you measured the capacity? My mercedes diesel 123 cooler holds a full quart.

 

I had a PWR radiator, the stock Miata oil cooler, lots of air ducting, FM heat extractor hood, and a DIY front splitter/undertray.

The PWR sprung a leak, so I replaced it with something recommended by an SM racer, forget the name right now. It's so thick I've had to flush mount the fans to the radiator. I had to ditch the old ISC Racing oil cooler setup since the BEGI turbo pipes interfere. So now I am going to get the Mocal sandwich adapter and a 12-15 row oil cooler.

 

Those are nicely priced. I'll be picking up that 48 row one asap. Just need to figure out my sandwich plate situation, and hook it all up.

300 degrees? That sounds like death to me. I was running 280ish and decided to back off a bit to try and cool down a bit. Granted that was on top of overheated coolant as well.

 

I'm curious about the efficiencies too. Trucool & cxr both look like stacked plate exchangers which are clearly more efficient than tube/fin. Cxr looks like a thicker core though. Given the same area and fin density cxr type has the advantage in overall surface area. Under ideal conditions the cxr appears to be a clear winner. On the other hand, I plan to put the cooler in the space just forward the passenger side front wheel well. This spot is less than ideal as air is likely to be turbulent and swirling as opposed to linear. My thought is the thinner core of the trucool might allow more air to flow through in these turbulent conditions, maintaining a better temperature delta and better heat dissipation.
Opinions?

 

Wow, with all of that I'm surprised you needed an external oil cooler. Crap, now I'm worried.

 

Are there any inherent design advantages of the mocal plate over this $30 hayden unit?:

 

bryan, i have a tru cool cooler in the same place your looking to do yours. Your welcome to come check it out. I was yet to see anything above 250* keep in mind i don't drive nearly as hard as sav.

 

Nick, you got PM. I lost your #

 

Only that the mocal has 1/2" ports and the hayden has 3/8". I've tried both and saw no difference in temps for the average street/boost beating. Both of them had thermostats and appeared to work similarly well.

It's possible that the smaller ports could come in to play in a longer track session.

I'm running the smallest trucool mounted in the nose and my oil temps max'd at 225f on the hottest of days here in ATL. I do have a very larger radiator though.