GregBBRD

Yes, so obvious, it's almost stupid. Certainly the best of both worlds when two coolers are used.

The radiator cooler also makes the engine oil warm-up quicker in cold weather.

There are a couple of problems with he dual oil cooler "set-up".

1. The current "favorite" aluminum radiator pushes the welded in fittings too far back and makes fitment almost impossible.
2. Making a set of hoses requires a set of the 90 and later oil cooler hoses, which are somewhat rare. Every time someone doesn't send me back the "cores" and I can't make hoses for the next guy. I've had to "solve" this problem with an absurd core charge on these fittings.

GregBBRD

Keep in mind that I probably take more engines apart than everyone on this Forum, combined....so I "get" to see a wider cross section of camshafts than anyone else. Both GT and GTS camshafts with severe lobe wear is becoming the "norm". But they still have a couple sets of GTS camshafts...and they are only $4800, plus another $2600 for a set of factory lifters.

"Chump change" in the 928 world.

If you live anywhere it gets 90-100 degrees in the summer and you have bad traffic (my business is in So Cal....the "home" of bad traffic), put an oil temperature gauge in your oil pan....270 is common.....and 270 degree "splash" oiling isn't very good.

The Forgotten On

The oil temp makes me worried about how my 81's engine will fare considering I don't have a cooler at at all.

Time to stick a large one in the fender well I guess...

Speedtoys

"I can't see how a car can be under any serious load when stationary in traffic"

Fuel still burns hot

C531XHO

Thanks worf928, that's very useful. Definitely like to get my hands on the PO/monkey that did the delete...

C531XHO

Thanks all - just seen all the other posts. Everything I need to make a decision - pity I'm so indecisive...Doesn't help being a design engineer either, always another option to consider....

merchauser

[QUOTEYes, so obvious, it's almost stupid. Certainly the best of both worlds when two coolers are used.][/QUOTE]

there is no cooler in my radiator, so how does this work for my application??? or is this with an aftermarket radiator??

UKKid35

Do you reckon that is mainly due to heat, or to inappropriate oil? (or most likely both?)

There doesn't appear to be a readily available control or counterfactual, as 'all' GT and GTS have the separate oil cooler



For what it's worth my experience of running the car in hot ambient temps is very limited, first time I tried the solder on the rad fan plugs melted

Luckily despite being on a three week holiday in Southern Europe, I had my soldering iron in my toolkit

GregBBRD

there is no cooler in my radiator, so how does this work for my application??? or is this with an aftermarket radiator??[/QUOTE]

Buy an old radiator with a cooler. Pressure test it. Have the local radiator expert install it.

Speedtoys

Buy an old radiator with a cooler. Pressure test it. Have the local radiator expert install it.[/QUOTE]
Greg, I have a couple S4 rads, but to repair them,...isnt the side seal hard to find?

Or is it the end tanks...

GregBBRD

I've seen worn cams in every model of the 32 valve engines....the GT and the GTS models seem to suffer the most.

Interestingly enough, the exhaust cams always have the most wear. Since they sit in the lower part of the head (and the head is at a big angle), they are certainly "swimming" in oil at higher rpms. I've never measured the amount of oil on the cams at idle, but presumably the oil flow should be lower and the oil returns to the crankcase are probably able to drain away all the excess oil.....so I'm guessing that both cams have an equivalent amount of oil, at idle. I've never measured the temperature differential inside the cylinder head. Maybe the exhaust ports increase the oil temperature on the exhaust cam. That would be an interesting experiment.

There's a whole other group of people that think the valve springs on the GT and GTS engines are inadequate and the cam wear comes from valve float. Since the exhaust cams have less lift and duration, I've always thought that this was not the major issue....however, I've never calculated the lifter acceleration on either the intake or exhaust cams....and less duration can increase lifter acceleration.....so that could be a contributing factor. (Although wear is always higher on the automatics, which rarely "see" redline.)

The most "beautiful" set of GTS camshafts I've seen came out of Randy Venier's automatic GTS with 230,000 miles on it. Virtually flawless lobes. Worth noting, this engine "lived" on 15-50 Mobil One, virtually its entire life. Randy also drives it like he stole it (and it lives in a slightly milder San Diego climate....there might be some "tipping points" there.

The Forgotten On

Just curious. Is the internal trans fluid cooler the same cooler as the oil cooler on the other end tank of the radiator?

I have a spare radiator with a small hole in it and would like to know if swapping it over to do engine oil cooler duty is advisable.

merchauser

+1

how much lower oil temps can be expected using two coolers??

and…..how much lower coolant temps can be expected?

Hilton

Brits usually refer to the year of their car based on delivery date.. which means that you saying "89 model" might mean delivered in '89, but could be an L model year VIN (90 model year), as the model years run from Sept through July. Does your VIN have a K in it, or an L? (K = '89 model year, L = 90 model year).

Manual '87-89 (S4, GT, SE, CS) have an oil cooler on the left side inside the radiator for engine oil, and no cooler on the right side. The oil cooler is well made and has a fairly large surface area.
Manual 90-91 (GT) have no oil cooler in the radiator
Manual 92-95 (GTS) have oil cooler on the right (gearbox oil)

I've had manual S4's with original radiators, and one with an Adrad aftermarket unit with 2 coolers (and useless threaded fittings which didn't seal - replaced with ones from a dead stock rad). If you have no cooler, and a K VIN, then someone replaced your radiator with the wrong model.

A local 90 owner added a fan-assisted second oil radiator in the front left wheel well space behind the splash shield) due to temps seen with just the stock 90 air-oil cooler, and has been happy with resulting temps.

C531XHO

So my car is definitely and '89 according to the VIN, so I agree with Greg it would have had the radiator with oil cooling in left hand tank. No sign of any separate cooler ever having been fitted. I have plumped for an aluminium Radtec unit, which several of the UK 928 guys have fitted and say is good. Hopefully given it is an all welded construction rather than crimped end tanks the long term risk of side tank/core seal failure is avoided. Thanks to all for the advice and options.

So just the clutch slave, new tyres/wheel refurb, fan rebuild and little bits to sort before a drive form Edinburgh to Nice in the summer. What could possibly go wrong...

D