oil cooler. yes/no?
 

Hi I have a 1997 turbo 2000 wagon im going to have mapped to around 300bhp.
I have been toying with the idea of an oil cooler but is it really necessary do I really need one
On my car as im not booting it all over the place and im not tracking it either. Thanks phil.

Not needed, possibly if your doing track days. :)

No point at that level

have you recorded oil temps?

without doing that you cant say you need one or not, track use or road useis irrelevant, some cars just run hotter than others, but no way to tell unless you have oil temp gauge.

What are you hoping to achieve by fitting an oil cooler? A change in oil pressure or just keeping the oil temp down?

oil cooler wont make any difference to pressurem only temp, unless of course wrong oil is put in and its getting too thin or too thick depending on temp.

Wouldn't an oil cooler effect pressure due to a slight change in optimum running temp, therefore thicker, causing a higher oil pressure?

Cooler wont affet pressure unless its keeping the oil too cold or letting it get too hot. Oil cooler needs to be thermostaticly controlled (be carefull, some kits don't have this control, even some on group buys on here :o ) to keep the temp in a range.

Oil cooler doesn't change optimum temp, its there to stop overheating the oil, that can kill your engine very easily.

i suspect the op wont need one, however unless you see what the temps are doing you wont know, my old classic ran hot on oil temps (105 when i backed off on a hot day which hit 110 after backing off before dropping again), cooler sorted it out and its still going with the new owner 30k+ miles later.

Cheers Tidgy, i wasn't aware. My oil temp tends to stay around 90, depends on atmospheric temps.