To oil cooler.....
 

That is the question? I am running a turbo set up that has me relocating my oil filter and getting rid of my oil cooler. I would like input from you guys that push your cars to the limit on if you think a street car with some heavy spirited mountain driving would be in need of a normal finned type oil cooler or if it would be a better choice to go with a thermostatic(fan cooled/ oil temp switched fan(thermostat)) type oil cooler? Does a finned oil cooler keep the oil temps with in check?

What temps do we want to keep the car with in?
Thanks guys.

My car is NA and I don't have any empirical data to back up the effects of the cooler, but I did notice my engine ran cooler (water temp wise) during lapping days after adding my oil cooler. It has since been removed for STR auto-x compliance...

The basic setup was a canton sandwich plate, -10AN lines, Mocal thermostat and an 11"x8"x1.5" B&M heat exchanger. Here's how I mounted the cooler and ran the lines -

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...o/DSC01597.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...o/DSC01600.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...o/DSC01602.jpg

Interesting, you ran both the stock water oil cooler and the aftermarket air oil cooler. Thanks for the reply and pictures. Looks like it was nice set up! Anyone else?

You seam to think that is an oil cooler. It functions as an oil heater too. Ideally you want to keep the oil temp around 230 for proper performance. That is the reason for the T-stat in the above setup. Since oil ir normally hotter then the coolant, the OEM part serves to cool the oil once the oil temp exceeds the coolant temp, but before tha is heats it.

Thanks for the explaination. I do and did understand that. However cars have very little problem heating the oil, at least here in Ga, so I'm far more concerned with cooling but as you can see in my first post I was asking about a thermostatic cooler ie what you explained but my question that no one has answered is, is a fan cooled oil cooler needed on a car that will be pushed in hot temps or is a regular fined cooler fine, eg in two posts up?

Depends on the temp you normally see. I will bet few if any track car that have oil coolers have any fans at all. But then again speed in a single lap can max out upwards of 130

yes the stock oil cooler will actually heat up the oil to whatever the engine coolant temp is, usually 180+, not to cool to me. when talking to serio0us turbo guys and especially those who track them ( roadrace, not dragrace) and oil cooler is very good to have. just having the relocation itself with longer hoses means you will have more oil capacity, like at least an extra .5 quart so that alone will help cool temps. let me know ill lower price a lil for you, u need this thing gone! PM me