WR-MIKE

Here’s a question for all the engine gurus out there.
If I was to fit an oil cooler to my car with a thermostatic sandwich plate i.e. doesn’t let oil flow through the cooler until the oil reaches a certain temp, does this make the process of pre filling the oil filter and cranking over the engine prior to start up pointless as when the oil reaches the required temp and starts flowing through the cooler it will push the air that is in the cooler through the engine possibly causing the bearing to pick up?
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks, Mike.

WR-MIKE

Anybody ?

Jolly Green Monster

iTrader: (4)

surely if the cooler has a thermostate on it they should have covered this issue??

Is there a drain plug / filler on the cooler so you could pre-fill that?

You would still benefit from the pre-fill filter and cranking as the engine would be hot when the cooler thermostate opened..
possibly would open slowly allowing still some oil to run the normal route?

JGM

WR-MIKE

I have not fitted a cooler yet but all the coolers that I have seen do not have a seperate drain.
reason for the question is that I dont want to destroy the engine by fitting somthing that is supposed to help the engine.

aus73

Just a quick note. While the oil cooler system has a thermostat, there will still be an amount of oil fed through the oil lines to the cooler - it just runs at a much lower pressure until the oil reaches the thermostat temp setting. Feel the lines to the oil cooler as it warming up and you'll know what I mean. Provided the oil cooler system is above the drain plug, you should be able to drain all of the system oil when you change it.

We still pre-oil the filter before start-up as the oil system runs as standard for the most part - if you just think of the cooler system as a small leak before the thermostat opens. Really there's no problem provided you check the oil level after the thermostat has opened.

The only problem you may have is if the thermostat isn't positioned in the right place (if its a sandwich plate), and the thermostat stops oil returning to the system. This will drop the system oil pressure to 0 at some points and could cause problems if not checked. The oil cooler will still run warm so you may think everything is ok - beware.

Cheers, Chris.

WR-MIKE

Thanks for the reply Chris, I'm now off to price up coolers.
Mike.