rapid.STI

iTrader: (5)

basically i have been advised by some folk off here to replace oil cooler modine, coulsd i replace this for a frount mounted oil cooler? say mocal?
thankyou once again

dazdavies

iTrader: (22)

Oil coolers usually involve an adaptor that sits in between the modine and the oil filter thus retaining the Modine.

Mrchips

iTrader: (7)

Good question I'd like to know if this is a worth while mod?

2-pump-tone

hard/alot of track use maybe, as a fast road car no i woulnt of thought so. i drive mine hard and dont really get over 90s with oil temp useing 10w/60

kyah710

iTrader: (10)

Dont bother. WRC cars dont run them and neither do Group N. The impreza modine is superb at keeping temps down. Also too low a temperature can be more damaging to the engine than too high. You would find on a winters day on a motorway or steady cruise that the oil temp would be too low to fully ptotect the engine.

The other issue with front mounted oil cooler is the piepwork passing between the sump and headers - you would need to heatwrap both as a minimum. I did just that but still managed to melt an oil hose and set the car on fire at Brands. I am now in the process of removing the negine to clean up the mess that powder fire extinguishers leave, especially when they are corrosive to aluminim. Its not a pretty sight.

I learnt the hard way on my competition car and I would think carefully about adding an unnecessary cooler to an impreza:

rapid.STI

iTrader: (5)

gutted for you there mate. so i'll be sticking with the modine then. thankyou

MrRA

I beg to differ. WRC do use them, I have been on a tour of M Sport factory and seen them. GrpN also use them. Under competition conditions is where you would need one the most.

Fitting an oil cooler to your car will have benefits as you will be increasing the overall volume of the system and each unit of oil will then be doing less work in terms of carrying temperature.

Spec C's come with them fitted as standard and is this not a GrpN homologated car? They are thermostatically controlled and shut off once the temp drops slightly below 80ºC, allowing the temp to build up again slightly. I have witnessed this on my own car doing a steady 60mph drive on the motorway to work in -2ºC temps.

In the summer giving the car some heavy stick I have seen my oil temp reach as high as 105ºC.
Lack of oil pressure is what generally does cars the most harm.

dazdavies

iTrader: (22)

Totally agree with the above.
A correctly fitted oil cooler can only be a good thing. It's also possible to route the pipes so they don't have to cross the headers.

Here's a good picture of correctly fitted cooler pipework. notice the heat proofing near the up-pipe.

Adam K

My advice is don't add another oil cooler, just get yourself an oil temp gauge.
Yes, the oil will get warmer on a track, but when it does and you have to back off due to the hot oil, probably other parts of your car will need the backing off too, like brakes/fluid, gearbox and diffs, and your good self!

mshill

iTrader: (4)

i have got an oil cooler and noiced that when driving normal, the temp sits at 75 - 76 and i was starting to think that this is too low.
it is fine in the summer as sits at 82 - 83

is mid 70's too low, should i blank of the cooler during winter?

MrRA

So what do you do if you happen to be on stage or in the middle of a time trial on track? Do you back off then?

No that's fine. As already said, it's lack of oil pressure that does the damage.

Jay_

Hmmm, I would have thought oil in the 70s is too low imho.... the point of oil getting up to a good operating temperature is to allow it to function correctly whilst 'burning off' contaminants. If you;re running 70s in winter then block off your cooler... you should then see temps in the 80s on normal driving and 90s if pushing it. if doing a track day then just remove the cover. An oil thermo, either in line or sandwich will help. You should definitely have an oil temp gauge if you have a cooler.

Disagree about oil coolers not being required and subaru modine being adequate.... if you drive off boost all the time, then fine, but any car pushed hard on road or track, and especially higher power cars, will benefit from an aftermarket cooler if correctly installed and monitored.

kyah710

iTrader: (10)

The opinion of my local specialist who maintains a group N impreza is that the temp is too low and that it is damaging to the engine. I know that as far as he is aware there are plenty of group N cars not running them, as I said.

I also believe my local hero doesnt run one in his wrc impreza:

Will Nicholls ~ Nick Broom ~ Subaru Impreza WRC

Will Nicholls ~ Nick Broom Subaru Impreza WRC

dazdavies

iTrader: (22)

Plenty of more experienced well known tuners that deal with some of the country's best prepared cars advise them. A sandwich plate with a built in thermostat is easy to fit and around £40 for a genuine Mocal one.

It's a no brainer for serious track cars!!

Tidgy

My god, for once i agree with daz lol, as long as there thermo controlled then the oil temps wont drop too low, even in negative temps. once the thermostat hit its set value it shut off and shuts off the flow to the oil cooler and temps don't go down anymore.

as far as what should have them fitted and what shouldn't, i have one on my road car, its runnign 340bhp, standard 2lt lump bar turbo, front mount, autronics, ind kit etc. i also have a set of defi's, after seeing my oil temps go to 110 degrees, even when i backed off at 105 (takes very little time to go up like that in the right conditions) before comming down again i decided to get one fitted. So its worked a treat, yet to see anything above 98 degrees, or below 80.

as far as bashing the pipe work, if i were to bash mine then i'd destroy the whole front end of my car, so either wasn't positioned well when yours poped/nocked off or your just damn unlucky.

dazdavies

iTrader: (22)

The devil himself must have skated to work this morning

minty

iTrader: (1)

where have you guys got the coolers from....as complete kit's or a mixture ?

i have a rad but need the sandwich plate (with themonstat) and pipe work (braided hose i guess)

any suggestions on good suppliers please ???

Adam K

Late reply to MrRA:
When I'm on a time trial/auto x or similar the runs are so short and I don't run the car like mad before so the oil temp don't get too high.
On tracks it's basicly the same, I don't waste my own energy running hard just before any timed runs. And as I said before, when I do see the oil get hotter than I like then I know the brake fluid, probably the gear oil and also myself are warm and tired enough.
I'm not talking about competition cars here , mind.
But to each their own.

Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

From the above then maybe you should have said it was not applicable to you.
I know that it is to me, I regularly used to see over 110degs on track over no3 pot.
At the northloop last year the track temp was 40degs at mid day, oil cooler kept the oil down to a sniff under 100degs which meant I could carry on driving, those jap cars that didnt have the extra cooler were all to be found in the car park with their bonnets up looking daft.


As for 70degrees oil temp, is that at the sump? Because as a guide, using the temp over no3 pot you should avoid high boost until it hits 80 anyways so either:
reading/sender/gauge is duff
or
you drive like a complete pansy

fmp

iTrader: (7)

i just had an oil cooler fitted by Zen (along with a few other bits).

Recommended if you do alot of track work.

And having a thermostatic sandwich plates means it will only work when needed.

So fit, forget and enjoy hard driving and track days without ANY worry of oil temps getting too high!

Austrian Impreza

iTrader: (9)

Does the oilpressure differ between cars with and without oilcooler?
Does the stock oilpump do it´s job as normal with an aftermarket oilcooler installed?

Splitpin

Harvey's post at the bottom of this should help you answer that one - as well as Austrian Impreza's questions.

If you're not running an oil temp gauge now, then you'd probably be better off fitting one before simply whacking a cooler on there - even with a thermostatic sandwich plate.

Cooler oil is not better if the standard modine is doing a good enough job. Harvey's customer illustrates one of the possible downsides.