Oil Cooler

Anyone running an external oil cooler? I have an extra frame rail type cooler that I was thinking would work good as an oil cooler, mounted somewhere behind the grill.

I know space is tight on our oil filters, as-is, but I was looking at something like this: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/hda-225/overview/make/chevrolet

Pros/Cons on oil coolers? Seems like it would help our cooling cause.

I still have the adapter hooked up and routed the line to just curculate the oil back to the filter. I was going to run mine, but after the electric fan and new 3 core rad, I felt it was no longer needed. Once the tunnel is built in front of the dog house and the belly pan is on with an air scoop added to it....I'm thinking it should be cool enough. But if you don't have all these things in place, then the oil cooler will certainly help. Mine came with the police interceptor donar car and it had A/C and the coolers all in front of the rad and that car was always around 170 to 185 degrees all day long.

There's this whole other fluid pumping through the engine besides antifreeze. Cooling the oil sounds like a great idea. I did some Google searching about oil coolers. It sounds like the main reason folks add the cooler is for pulling trailers. Seems like they would help cool our engines-in-a-box too.

These oil cooler setups look good.
http://www.etrailer.com/p-D15502.html
This page they say it will fit on a Chevy 250:
http://www.etrailer.com/question-33630.html

The adapter has a built-in thermostat that only opens up when the oil is above 180º. The sandwich adapter is 1.75” tall, so our oil filter would need that much more room to fit. (They make one that is only 1” thick but it has no thermostat.) There is room for the oil filter to extend 1.75” further, but on my van my heater hoses are in that space. It looks like the hoses could be routed around the thermostat instead of past the end of it, but the hoses might have to be a bit longer.

The other way to go is to relocate the filter elsewhere. This kit comes with a “passageway” that you mount where the oil filter was. It’s basically a plate on which you can attach two hoses. It comes with a mount so you can relocate the filter where there’s more room. This video shows them putting it on a truck:
https://www.etrailer.com/Engine-Oil-Coolers/Derale/D15551.html

Here’s the manufacturer’s site: http://derale.com/products/coolers/engine/series-7000-tube-fin

I thought I'd see more discussion here about adding oil coolers. Once you get your cooling system in good shape is it unnecessary? I must say, I’ve had no overheating problems with my van and I haven't gotten around to adding an electric fan or installing the belly pan! All I did was recore the radiator. (Can’t remember if I went with 2 or 3 cores. I think he said two big cores is just as good as 3 smaller ones.) I don’t drive the van much, though. Never been stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, for instance.

Is there one to fit a Dodge A100 V8?

This sandwich adapter fits oil filters whose seal is 2.75" in diameter, which they say is most cars. It's pretty clever how it just screws on like an oil filter. And the kit comes with several different threads, so I bet it will work.

There is also a cooler thats a ="Dual Pass" system -allows you to do engine oil & Auto trans oil too.

That Dual Circuit system would be the way for me to go! I've already got one cooler for my 700R4 tranny, I wouldn't want to have to fit in two.

Of course, their instructions have you mounting the cooler right on the radiator, which is an easy way to do it. But I want to have an electric fan blowing on this, for when the van is not moving. There isn't room for a fan in front of the radiator, especially if you add a cooler like this. Several guys here have mounted a "burger fan" down by the sway bar the blows air upward into the front of the doghouse. I wonder if that would add enough moving air over this cooler. This would be in addition to the air the engine's fan draws in.

Thats wise =Vanagain!! I like the dual cooler also - with fan & mounted flat inside the frame -so the air blows down - someone here 's done that i see.

ScottyJones wrote:Anyone running an external oil cooler? I have an extra frame rail type cooler that I was thinking would work good as an oil cooler, mounted somewhere behind the grill.

I know space is tight on our oil filters, as-is, but I was looking at something like this: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/hda-225/overview/make/chevrolet

Pros/Cons on oil coolers? Seems like it would help our cooling cause.

an excellent idea .I added one to my 68 A-108s 340 and installed a oil temp gauge too. a great way to lose 30 or so degrees out of the engine

VANagain wrote:There's this whole other fluid pumping through the engine besides antifreeze. Cooling the oil sounds like a great idea. I did some Google searching about oil coolers. It sounds like the main reason folks add the cooler is for pulling trailers. Seems like they would help cool our engines-in-a-box too.

These oil cooler setups look good.
http://www.etrailer.com/p-D15502.html
This page they say it will fit on a Chevy 250:
http://www.etrailer.com/question-33630.html

The adapter has a built-in thermostat that only opens up when the oil is above 180º. The sandwich adapter is 1.75” tall, so our oil filter would need that much more room to fit. (They make one that is only 1” thick but it has no thermostat.) There is room for the oil filter to extend 1.75” further, but on my van my heater hoses are in that space. It looks like the hoses could be routed around the thermostat instead of past the end of it, but the hoses might have to be a bit longer.

The other way to go is to relocate the filter elsewhere. This kit comes with a “passageway” that you mount where the oil filter was. It’s basically a plate on which you can attach two hoses. It comes with a mount so you can relocate the filter where there’s more room. This video shows them putting it on a truck:
https://www.etrailer.com/Engine-Oil-Coolers/Derale/D15551.html

Here’s the manufacturer’s site: http://derale.com/products/coolers/engine/series-7000-tube-fin

I thought I'd see more discussion here about adding oil coolers. Once you get your cooling system in good shape is it unnecessary? I must say, I’ve had no overheating problems with my van and I haven't gotten around to adding an electric fan or installing the belly pan! All I did was recore the radiator. (Can’t remember if I went with 2 or 3 cores. I think he said two big cores is just as good as 3 smaller ones.) I don’t drive the van much, though. Never been stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, for instance.

yes, they DO help with the "engine in a box" issue we all have. a great investment. losing as much as 40F from the engine is always a welcome thing