Custom water/oil heat exchanger

[rthy]

I have in my possession a water over oil heat exchanger off a 5SFE engine (Camry) which sits inbetween the block and the oil filter that would normally have some of the cooling system water running through it. I wanted to install this on my 20V because it seems to have the following advantages over a traditional oil cooler:

no messy/bulky oil lines, although it would have water lines they would be at the back of the engine out of the way.
heats up the oil when the engine is warming up
compact
tempreture controlled by engine thermostat

All this considered though I had a good look at this heat exchanger and while its a clever design and has a great surface area for the water to transfer heat, on the oil side of it is quite a different story. The oil comes straight out of the block through the threaded pipe into the oil filter so nothing happens there, this can't be changed but on the return there is a short section where it passes through the heat exchanger and it has a bit of a ribbed section, in my eyes its crap all surface area to transfer the heat to/from the oil.

I want to stick with the idea but I just don't think the 5SFE part cuts the mustard so what i am thinking seeing I have been mill happy lately is to make my own heat exchanger up. I am thinking of making the main part out of two blocks of aluminium that clamps together. The engine coolant would flow around the outside in a zigzag shape and the oil coming back from the filter would possibly have to pass through a multitude of small drilled holes, this would then let me have a decent surface area in small space.

Can anyone pick any holes in anything I have proposed above?

[dustyae86]

doubt you will have any noticeable gains, once the water temp gets up there, I personally don't think it will be effective, trucks use thenm heaps, and sometimes are actually integrated into the block

[rthy]

what do you mean by noticable gains? gains in what exactly? as in cooling effectiveness?

[Gunner]

Sounds good Sam, as long as you can garuntee that oil will not be restricted on its way back through, cause it would suck to go through all that fabtime to have it eat your engine.

If you can get access to a WRX heat exchanger, that may give you a good idea, as these seem to be very efficient. They use a series of ribs, though I haven't cut one up so I'm not 100% sure on the internal workings, but I can confidently say, that they still work on 400hp+ suby engines

[rthy]

yeah I just had Bill sherwood post a pic to me of one, thay look better than the 5S ones. Your very right about the restricion, for this I would be looking at running an oil presure gauge to make sure its all ok.

[Gunner]

Actually, why don't you modify a suby one to fit, the have the coolant lines already, but they are a little bulky. I'll see if i can get one for you on the cheap.
another plus is you could run a 495 filter, giving a bit more oil volume

[biggo]

I thought Some 4agze's already had these?

it looks like mine has one anyway, maybe post a pic sam?

[rthy]

gunbz-r: I want to see it first before I buy it because I want to know how good they are at what they are designed for.

biggo: I will look for mine but I don't like my chances, no 4a engine came with one stock

[sr_rolla]

why can't you just use a smaller air/air oil cooler and make a small tank around it ala water/air intercooler style?

[rthy]

would take up a fair bit of space and plumbing would get messy quick I think

[choom78]

integras and skylines have them as well if u looking for other alternatives.

I looked into this as a easier way around your traditional air/cooler but am yet to be convinced that the system has the capacity to pull down oil tempatures efficient enough (e.g. on a race track or continuos high rpm/load). Having our oil filters under the extractors doesn't help much either.

If you want to go try it, use a temp probe and measure to see how 'efficient' that thing is. I've seen results on other cars showing that those types of oem coolers don't meet the requirements as above but I be interested in the results anyway.

Some of the newer designs which involves a larger dedicated exchanger unit (seen in jags and mocal laminova would work better than those sandwich plates). Though if u going to spend that money, I've seen a very nice custom heat exchanger. Its normal but on the one of the side tanks it has 2 AN fittings welded and inside it has coils which makes up for a clean setup. Also remember, oil and water don't mix, so running them in parallel you hope theres no chance of any leakage, sipping etc.

[rthy]

choom when I get the chance I will be installing a temp probe in my sump to monitor the temps, I already have everything else setup for it. My concept works on the idea on if whats available doesnt have a capacity then hopefully with my custom design it would have a massive surface area and therefore have the poential ability to disperse the heat better than any stock one. I will have a look at the 3dge ones as I have been told they are beefier than the 5s I have. Also I know its one of those I will do it one day jobs but I want to put a heat sheild on the inside of my extractors, morso for my starter than anything else.

[Vezza]

On a slightly different note, what about using a radiator with an in built transmission cooler? Could you run engine oil through it or only transmission oil?

EDIT*
Although this would be a similar setup to a normal external oil cooler I guess. Cos the whole point of having the water/oil cooler on the block is to have the engine temps raise as quickly as possible, whilst being regulated by the thermostat.

[sr_rolla]

PWR make these coolers aswell btw, i found them the other night as I'm thinking along the same lines as Sam_Q with my car atm

[rthy]

what do these PWR coolers look like SR man? got a pic?

[sr_rolla]

its on there site, just goto the PWR website and look at water/air oil coolers

[rthy]

thanks, linky:

http://www.pwr.com.au/oil_water_oil.html

no pic yet