Hey Everyone-

I am going to get an oil cooler for the S2k in the next month or two. I was wondering if there is any particular brand that is recommended (or that I should stay away from, for that matter)? Just doing a bit of research, and am wondering what everyone is running. I know the Kraftwerks kit uses a Laminova (sp?) brand unit...

Also, my GT35r is currently being run without the coolant lines hooked up. I figure I should correct this before i put too many miles on it (I drive like a grandma, and baby the car when I drive it, as I am always paranoid something is going to break). I was wondering where everyone tapped into the coolant system for the feed to and return from the turbo? I am assuming I am not going to want to feed the turbo coolant after the block, and likewise about not giving the block coolant after the turbo... I was thinking if there was a common main return line I could tap the turbo return line into (and do something similar for the supply line too), as opposed to tapping the radiator with new fittings... If I do need to tap the radiator, are there any fittings recommended for the OEM radiator?

Thanks guys!

John

 

Many different options to choose from. You need to define your goals. Street or race?

The stock oil cooler uses the radiator's cooling water/glycol mix as the cold side of the heat exchanger (usually). The cooling water/glycol mix dumps the heat it picked up from the oil cooler (and the block & heads) out to the atmosphere at the radiator. Since the cooling water/glycol mix warms up to operating temp faster than the engine oil does, the factory oil cooler also speeds oil warm-up. So it's really an oil temp stabilizer tied to a fairly constant 200 deg F heat sink (cooling water/glycol mix). A nifty bit of engineering that adds no moving parts to the existing cooling system. It works to both heat and cool the oil (depending on what the oil needs), works in a large range of vehicle speeds, including stop and go traffic, etc. But it does have a finite capacity to dump heat.

Many racers like to replace this cooler with an air/oil cooler mounted in front of the radiator (same placement as an FMIC). For streetability, you can add an oil thermostat to speed oil warm up to operating temp. This thermostat restricts flow to the cooler when oil temp is low.

The reason for the swap is it's a little simpler, which is always better for racing. And it's adjustable, you can add more cooling capacity by using a larger heat exchanger (more surface area). Racers are usually moving pretty fast, so there's plenty of air flowing over the air/oil exchanger. Since it's dumping heat to the atmosphere, the delta T is larger than stock setup. In general, these advantages can overcome the much lower coefficient of heat that air has compared to water as a cooling medium. So the maximum heat transfer capacity with this setup can be improved from stock with less trouble than trying to increase the capacity of the stock system.

There is no reason you can't use both coolers though. The oil/air cooler can be plumbed in series (if no oil thermostat is used) or in parallel with the stock cooler.

I would get the water cooling lines plumbed to the turbo cartridge. Don't try to drill holes in the radiator to mount fittings or else they will leak. Just get the instructions from one of the kits manufacturers to show where they tap into the cooling lines. Or wait for someone to post pictures.

Water-cooled turbo cartridges are a fairly recent improvement. This feature maintains turbo longevity w/o the need for long cool-down times before shutdown. While the engine is running, the oil carries most of the heat away. The water cooling lines move a small fraction of the heat away. But once you shut down, the cooling water lines alone carry the heat off the turbo. Since neither the oil nor water are still being pumped, how does this happen? It turns out that the water in the cartridge boils off as steam, then re-condenses as it nears the radiator. The void left behind sucks more water into the cartridge to cool it off.

 

Thanks man. I was looking to add a water-oil cooler similar to the Kraftwerks unit, with an adjustable thermostat. It gets REALLY hot down here in FL, and I really do not like the idea of oil coking up the turbine seals...

I was thinking something like this:
http://www.laminova-online.se/Front/Page/P...?pid=354&cid=81

I wonder what size core the Kraftwerks kit uses...

I was going to put the coolant lines on as soon as I got a reference of where to tap into for the feed / return.

I will look for turbo kit install instructions for other kits... any recommendations? I could not find any instructions on google for any S2k kits...

John

 

Great explanation snakeeater. jwa4378, if you dont want to fab your own system, Kraftwerks has talked about selling their laminova oil/water cooler setup seperate of the SC kit.