Rad Mounted Oil Cooler Or Coolant Heat Exchanger

[Phil H 16]

The more I think about it, the more I can't see how the MI16 oil cooler works...hot water comes out of the block then down to the oil filter exchanger and is surely heating the oil andd not cooling it....or does the oil get much hotter than the coolant aand heats the water....which then travels around the block again and getting to the radiator if it is lucky not to do the same circuit again. I can understand it warming the oil to a point, but the cooling is surely not as effective as the rad mounted cooler.

 

Then the rad mounted oil cooler. Does this have a stat in it to open it at certain temperatures or is it live all the time as surely it will not be effective on short journeys, cold conditions etc?

 

What should I fit to my MI engine that will be be ok for fast road and occassional track days? (aswell as a baffled sump)!!!

 

I gave up Physics in the third year of secondary, so can anyone more qualified than me, please explain the effectiveness of either?

 

Thanks

[Anthony 1,003]

The heat exchange does indeed to a better job of heating the oil than keeping it cool. The idea is that excess heat from the oil is dumped into the cooling system which then disapates the heat as usual, but what I tend to find happens is that rather than just the oil temperature getting high, the coolant temp goes through the roof as well. Certainly I've had both gauges on the end stops on an old 309 GTi of mine during a 15 mintute track session, and pretty much the same thing on a 306 GTi-6 too, both of which had oil-water heat exchangers fitted.

 

The standard oil cooler does not have an oilstat fitted, and hence does more harm than good IMO during the winter months and on short journeys.