Oil cooler draining/refilling

[Chairs with flares]

I was thinking of fitting an oil cooler before I head to the track again since oil temps were WAY high last time I was out there.

The thing is, I don't really have room or want to get a kit or relocate the filter as it just makes more failure points.

My question is since the oil cooler would be above the filter/sandwich plate, when you undo the filter, the oil from the cooler would also drain. This so all good and well for keeping oil fresh, but it means that the oil pump would have to fill up the cooler again before the rest of the motor gets oiling.

The only alternative I can think of is to relocate the oil filter to higher than the cooler (but then you never change out all the oil) or to take off the cooler and sit it lower than the sandwich plate so it doesn't drain out (hassle). Guess if I was crazy, I could always undo the cooler hoses and fill it up with a funnel before I filled the engine... :gah:

Thoughts people?

[Clinton]

i guess if you were that worried about it when you change the oil undo the oil cooler from were ever you mount it and start the engine with the cooler lower then when your happy put it back.

whatever makes you feel good about you taking care of your engine i guess...

[Dish]

Last time I pulled my pressure sender out and kicked the car over about 2 litres pissed out at very high speed within a second. I don't think you should be too worried about it taking 2-3 seconds on start up to fill with oil, what happens on a cold morning when the motor has been sitting all night, still takes a little time to distribute oil to the motor. It all depends on how you mount the cooler core aswell, whether the lines run to the top, where the core will always have oil in it.

If you change oil regularly and take care of your engine I wouldn't be very worried about 500ml-1L of oil sitting in the core when you put in another 3-4L of clean fresh oil. If your block and all creveses are filled with hardened dirty oil (Black death), worrying about having clean oil in every part of the motor is the least of your worries.

[n00bvak]

what kind of oil cooler setup are you going to run, stock or aftermarket?

If it is aftermarket, normally they have a thermostat which only opens when it reached a certain temperature to help the oil get to the correct viscosity quicker. This also helps prevent the oil draining from the oil cooler when cooled down. So it would not hurt the oil pump.

If your sandwichplate does not have a termostat valve in it, you can get an external one through rocket industries for around $100 i think.

[johl]

but before changing the oil you should warm the engine. so the thermostat will be open anyway

[n00bvak]

^^^ oil should not be hot enough for the thermostat to open when doing an oil change unless you want to burn your hand undoing the sump nut. Always let your car to sit, preferably overnight so its cool, then run for a couple of mins, to make the oil a little more viscous and flow quicker/better.

It doesn't really matter that there is a bit of old oil in your system, your never going to get it all out, and if your doing oil changes regularly it shouldn't matter as you are dumping the oil before it is at the end of its life.

[Dish]

The way we do it at work is put 150 odd ml of engine flush in and run it for 5-10mins. It's stinking hot when it comes out, but that's the proper way to do it, when it is pretty much hot and if you let it sit there long enough you get a fuckload more of the old oil out.

[Tally]

yea do you use the nulon stuff?