Oil cooler thermostat

[spdbrake]

Originally Posted by bobcowan

Cool, I like it. Keep in mind this is NOT a cooler. This is a heat exchanger. There's a difference. The purpose of this is to keep the oil temp pretty close to the water temp.

IMO, this is the best set up for a street car. It warms it up when it's cold, and cools it off when it's hot. Just like the transmission heat exchanger in a stock car.

You have to make sure the radiator is big enough to handle the additional thermal load. That's the only down side; as fitting larger radiators in these cars can be a challenge.

If you really want to get trick about it, Gordon Levy will sell you a radiator with a built in heat exchanger.

Bob, So Tortuga has a Heat exchanger for an oil cooler? I see the Canton Oil thermostat in his photo but can't make out the remaining routing (old eyes).

I like heat exchangers except when they spring a leak and xfer water into the trans or engine. Like my Nissan Frontier could have had. A few years ago Some folks were complaining on the forums about Pepto-Bismol (pink) transmission fluid. I installed a small trans cooler to preclude any issues. Around a year later my radiator started leaking from the two trans ports I purposely left open. Saved me from buying a new transmission.