Anyone running an external oil cooler?

[Eric Rose]

Thinking of building a kit like this using junkyard parts. Ideally I would want the sandwich plate (that goes between the block and the oil filter) to have a thermostat in it. I know a lot of Volvos have a thermostat sandwich plate... but I don't know if it is big enough to mount a FL-1A to.

 

[XFlow_Fairlane]

2.3L turbo ford cars used a oil/water cooler. mounts between the filter and block. jus thave to run a heater hose through it. this is pretty simple on the inlines since the oil filter is right next to the waterpump. Also helps with oil warm up and maintains a more conctant temp than a air/oil will.

 

[Geezer 300]

I've been running an engine oil cooler w/2 filters for years in my truck, don't have a thermostat. Alex.

 

[Eric Rose]

2.3L turbo ford cars used a oil/water cooler. mounts between the filter and block. jus thave to run a heater hose through it. this is pretty simple on the inlines since the oil filter is right next to the waterpump. Also helps with oil warm up and maintains a more conctant temp than a air/oil will.

Water cooled VW's use a similar setup... in fact I have one in a box somewhere. The VW setup is more of a "heat exchanger" than an oil cooler though. It just takes heat from the coolant and transfers it to the oil. So oil temps actually go up while coolant temps go down. Or vice-versa. At least thats what a friend of mine who has one on his Jetta has told me.

I was looking at a website that had some oil coolers with small electric fans on them (just like a radiator would have).

 

[Williboy]

I've been looking at an oil cooler set up too. Unfortunately I don't think on my '61 Ranchero there is enough room to mount a thermostat sandwich adapter. I would have to run a remote inline thermo switch or I maybe run a remote filter and cooler setup. The fan cooler would be cool ( pardon the pun ) but I think that's for air-cooled or serious racing. Just getting the oil out of the block into ambient temps would help.