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View Full Version : Oil Cooler, Anyone install one? Where?



vwdmc16
06-09-2011, 05:30 PM
Ive noticed in these summer months after a 30 minute cruise on the interstate my oil pressure goes down half a notch and at a gas station checking the oil its really hot, 215' +

So in the interest of increasing reliability and oil life i want to install an oil cooler. if any of you have installed one where did you mount it? on the frame with a scoop? in the pontoon, other.... im gathering placement ideas. any old articles in Delorean world mags?i have a collection of coolers from 5x23x3" to a 12x6x2

Bitsyncmaster
06-09-2011, 06:29 PM
How do you plan to get the oil moving through the cooler? I guess you could just have an orifice to limit the pressure drop from the oil sender and just dump it back into the oil pan.

It's a lot of work to plumb and install a cooler. I did it for the fuel tank.

DMCMW Dave
06-09-2011, 07:19 PM
Typically an oil cooler is a large spacer between the oil filter and the block. I've never seen one on a DeLorean.

The factory sort of made an accomodation for this application by increasing the capacity to 7 quarts and putting fins all over the oil pan, in the Volvo app the capacity is 5 quarts and the pan is stamped steel.

content22207
06-09-2011, 09:32 PM
Actually Volvo's PRV oil capacity is 7 quarts as well:
871
You are correct that the oil pan and lower block casting are shaped differently.

Bill Robertson
#5939

DMCMW Dave
06-09-2011, 10:10 PM
I was basing it on the fact that I had one in here and it took 5 quarts, so there may have been other applications. The pan was notably shallower. It's also very apparent that the DMC oil pickup has an added-on spacer to drop the pickup about an inch from whatever it was originally designed for.

content22207
06-09-2011, 10:23 PM
Perhaps the engine you worked on wasn't North American spec?

That scan was from a 1983 B28F manual. This is from a 1978 B27F manual:
874
Unless Volvo changed oil pans in the interim, it seems reasonable to assume that North American oil capacity remained constant.

BTW: Did you notice the reduction in viscosity specs? Volvo eventually concluded that the 20W50 was too thick and caused oil delivery problems.

Bill Robertson
#5939

DMCMW Dave
06-09-2011, 10:33 PM
Perhaps the engine you worked on wasn't North American spec?


I have no idea. It was certainly here in North America, installed in a DeLorean. But neither I nor the owner knew where it came from. But I doubt some DPO imported an engine to save a few bucks.

content22207
06-09-2011, 10:49 PM
Are you sure the engine was Volvo? When I bought #5939 it had been re-engined with a Euro-spec Renault block (Z7V). Some fellow in Ohio was importing them in the 1990's and marketing them to DeLorean owners with melted OEM blocks. He advertised in the back of DeLorean World magazine.

(#5939's Renault block had a DeLorean lower casting and oil pan transferred to it, so I don't know from first hand experience what the Z7V oil capacity is).

Bill Robertson
#5939

vwdmc16
06-10-2011, 10:30 PM
back to the discussion, where to mount the heat exchanger

Dangermouse
06-11-2011, 12:26 AM
When nullset did his frame off on 2930 (see the Freeside threads in the SEDOC group area for pictures) he found an oil cooler attached to the front of the AC condenser, which is in turn mounted to the radiator.

However it was felt that this was too far away from the engine to be very effective. It is an AT btw.

sean
06-11-2011, 08:06 AM
When nullset did his frame off on 2930 (see the Freeside threads in the SEDOC group area for pictures) he found an oil cooler attached to the front of the AC condenser, which is in turn mounted to the radiator.

However it was felt that this was too far away from the engine to be very effective. It is an AT btw.

It was also a cooler for the AT fluid not the engine oil but I have seen the same style cooler used for engine oil. In the past 13 years I've removed at least 4 of these coolers from various Ds and 2 were due to catastrophic failure of the cooler/plumbing, very messy. IMO, I do not see the value of using these coolers on DeLoreans.

nullset
06-13-2011, 08:40 PM
When nullset did his frame off on 2930 (see the Freeside threads in the SEDOC group area for pictures) he found an oil cooler attached to the front of the AC condenser, which is in turn mounted to the radiator.

However it was felt that this was too far away from the engine to be very effective. It is an AT btw.

That cooler was for the transmission fluid. It's now been removed.

If only I had a time machine to go tell the P.O. that, if he wants to do that, it's fine, but don't CUT THE F@#%ING OEM HOSES IN HALF WHEN THERE ARE PERFECTLY GOOD FITTINGS YOU COULD USE! $100 down the drain for new hoses……

--buddy

DCUK Martin
06-14-2011, 07:25 AM
Bill, you're never gonna find DeLorean oil capacity and pickup info in Volvo manuals because the DeLorean has a Renault crank case, sump and pickup. The sump and the spacers on the pickup are (almost) duplicates of the Alpine GTA's units. Other cars using the same engine have a shallower steel sump (Renault Espace, 25 etc). GTA turbos have a heat exchanger on the oil filter. Attached are pages from the parts manual showing one type of remote oil filter housing and and oil cooler which goes directly onto the block.

I can supply the oil cooler no problem, but it requires the use of a later type shorter starter motor so there's room for the hoses. It's not really an oil "cooler" - it's more about getting the oil to warm up as fast as possible and preventing it from getting too hot. The water piped through it is the heater matrix feed.

11361137

vwdmc16
06-14-2011, 02:19 PM
while ive never had one of those water-oil heater fail, i dont like that the coolest it can make your oil is the near 200' water temp, thats not much temp differential.

Bitsyncmaster
06-14-2011, 02:30 PM
while ive never had one of those water-oil heater fail, i dont like that the coolest it can make your oil is the near 200' water temp, thats not much temp differential.

So what is the typical oil temp?

Mike C.
06-14-2011, 03:17 PM
There was a turbo car in SoFla with an oil cooler plumbed into a filter relocation unit.

It leaked.

vwdmc16
06-14-2011, 08:04 PM
So what is the typical oil temp?

180-220' f
sane as engine coolant

cineman
06-21-2011, 08:33 AM
I have now a oil cooler for my turbo delorean, it's a sandwitch plate under the oil filter from where 2 hoses starts and goes to a small radiator i put just on the right, about in line with the black plastic under the passenger quarter panel.
I know it's a bit of concern, cause it COULD leak or worst, damaging while on the road...
but I want to have an oil cooler cause i experienced that turbo's PRV suffer more easy of low oil pressure, mainly if you put one or two oil usage like turbos, and the temperature really goes high if you push.

Another solution i have in mind, and maybe i will change to it, and i think it will be also enought for a stock aspired engine, it to put a sandwitch plate under the oil filter and take the 2 hoses to a big professional heat exchanger putted in line with the water hoses on the right, where the automatic cars has from stock the heat exchanger for the transmission, and use it to cool the engine oil, but for this i want to get a bigger aluminium 3 row radiator for the water (now you can get just 3row brass or 2row alu), wich is going made by a guy in france at the moment ;)