V2Rocket

Anybody try out a 2-cooler setup for hard-driven street car in hot areas, and then find that the second cooler is always ambient temperature to the touch even after a hard drive?

I have two KISS type Setrab coolers mounted in series on my car and even in the middle of summer (over 100F) the second cooler is ambient. Am I overdoing it, would just one suffice?

cjbcpa

You might be.

Ideally, IMO, oil temps should exceed 212 degrees in order to cause any water/moisture that might accumulate to boil off, especially if the car sits a lot between use. My car is strictly track driven and on moderate to cool days my oil temps hit 265-275 and, of course I am driving the car a lot harder than any street car would be driven for the same 20-25 minutes. For reference, I use dino oil and only have the stock oil cooler.


CB

reno808

Their is no such thing in the 944T world. That being said i dont think your setup is optimal given the general setups ppl have here. I have what works the best is one large one. Works perfect every time.

mel_t_vin

Out of curiosity, where do you have your oil temp sender installed?

Dougs951S

I'd like to know more about this as well, I'll be running a stock oil cooler and and a ducted FD RX-7 oil cooler in series, but my car will also see the track a fair bit.

Chris White

Check to see if your oil thermostat is stuck!
No 944 turbo ever made has too much oil cooling!!!

michaelmount123

I don't question whether one cooler would suffice, but isn't the question 'why isn't my 2nd cooler hot'? I'd say you have a plumbing issue. Remember, a cooler must fill from the BOTTOM, and exit out of the top. If reversed, hot oil just falls to the bottom of the cooler and exits, and without any cooling function. Check your flow routing.

lee101315

The only time I would say it would be a problem is if the oil doesn't get to operating temp for short 15-20 min trips... Which is why the oil coolers immersed in antifreeze have a dual purpose, to bring the oil up to operating temp faster, and keep it from getting too hot once its all warmed up. Other than that, no such thing as too much cooling, especially on a turbo engine.

mj951

Those are extreme temps, something's not right.

I have a dual oil cooler setup also plumbed in series and installed a VDO temp sensor and gauge into those lines so I know when my thermostat has opened. I rarely see temps at 200 on the street and only slightly over on hot track days, 220 deg. tops unless I park it hot and get some heat soak.

As mentioned above check you routing and maybe disassemble / reassemble making sure your lines are clear.

cjbcpa

I tapped the large banjo bolt on the turbo oil return side (driver) side of the car. I was tempted to tap the oil lever sender block off plate, but that's close to the exhaust manifolds and might pick up some radiant heat from them. This location seemed mitigate that to some extent and also captures temps as the oil returns back into the pan, sort of at the end of its cycle through the system.

CB

odurandina

has to be.

and incredulous how.

V2Rocket

On my setup, on both coolers, both fill and exit are on the bottom. Setrab coolers mounted horizonally, ports down.

michaelmount123

I had commented earlier that oil should always enter the bottom fitting, and out the top. This is true for all the coolers that have lower and upper fittings, or are mounted in that configuration. This is to ensure the cooler fills with oil (so said oil can be cooled) before being allowed to exit. Goggle showed me the configuration of the Setrab coolers. They can be mounted with both fittings UP and the cooler will work fine. If the Setrab's are mounted with the fittings down, they can't do their job since the cooler won't fill with oil. I'll bet many of the cars with multiple coolers could go to a single cooler if faulty plumbing is corrected. Minimizing the number of coolers also removes weight and increases oil pressure.

Case in point: I had an RSR in the shop with three (3!) oil coolers in the nose, and the car chief told me he still couldn't manage oil temps. Looking at the routing, he had it all wrong and most of his coolers were full of air. I re-plumbed it, removed two coolers along with yards of Aeroquip, and the oil temp was very happy with a single cooler.

Just one more suggestion: Pay attention to airflow and make sure there's not only a good path through the cooler via ducting (air will go around if you let it), but also a path for the air to exit. A cooler mounted against a bulkhead won't work very well either.

Thom

I mounted my KISS/Setrab cooler from Lindsey with both fittings up, added some ducting between it and bumper fins, and it works well.

http://reutterwerk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28003

Van

If it's ambient temp, then there's no oil flow in your second cooler, and you have some other problem.

Let's say your oil is a "low" temp of 200F... the stock turbo cooler will probably bring that down 20 degrees or so. Obviously, 180F is much higher than ambient...