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So, who is running oil cooler or heat exchanger on their race car? Preferences?

On the 3.7s we have heat exchangers. On my Verde I just installed a Mocal oil cooler to get the engine temp down on the track - suggested by Andrew Garcia of Houston. I understand that even for engine power output it is advantageous to keep the oil temp at a reasonable level. For the verde I used a Mocal sandwich plate with build-in thermostat - full circulation above 180F, 10%, I think, below.

Apologies if neither car qualify to be referred here. Anyhow, I'm curious as to what other people run on their race cars.

Jes

Hate to be the language nazi but they are both heat exchangers, one uses water to cool the oil and the other air.
Oil cooler is probably a must on any racecar, I have one and it's not even varm in the summers here (ambient temp, not oil) compared to what most of you guys have.

Setrab being the obvious choise here but Mocal is often used too, I don't even know what I have, they all look the same.

Edit: I can't say I have ever seen a racecar with a water/oil exchanger...

Mats,

you could check a nice option from Sweden. How was it called......
Got it. www.laminova.se

If your cooler (water) is big enough and has some spare capacity this would be a good way to go.

Running a tuned engine on the track without an oil cooler even sounds silly. If you consider it, start by buying a oil temp gauge.

After making my bottom flat I get too hot oil even with a cooler. Have to get back to the drawing board....

Obviously I was way off..
Hmm, it would actually be nice not to have the oil cooler in the front bumper. But then again, that price is a set of Weber 45's...

Hell, don't tell me, you guys have figured out a way to cool oil with Webers?
Jim K.

Mats,

Pardon the language. Obviously, they are both heat exchanges. My poor excuse: English isn't my first language Danish is.

My impression is that a water-oil heat exchanger is actually a better choice since it will keep water and oil at same temp (more uniform temp in the engine), as opposed to have two separate cooling systems for water and oil. Anyway, probably marginal, no, yes?

Jes

Jees,

the water/oil cooler works as a built in thermostat. Additionally if you don't push the engine the water also warm the oil to working temp.

Sorry Mats,

I can't leave this one alone! While I a actually Afrikaans-speaking - Languages aside;

An oil-cooler IS NOT a heat-exchanger (by definition perhaps - yeah-yeah they both exchange heat from the cores) however, an oil cooler simply flows the engine oil through a set of cores and air passes over them to cool the oil.

Since most oil-coolers that I have seen are mounted right upfront and ahead of the car's engine coolant radiators (EG 156, 147, GTA etc), the air that passes over the oil-cooler cores passes right through to the radiator and ends up running WARM air over the coolant cores of the radiator behind it causing the upper half of the motor to not cool as well as the bottom - Very inefficient!

A true oil heat-exchanger uses the water from the engine block passed over the integrated oil-cores running within the heat-exchanger to liquid-cool the oil and equalize the temperature between the coolant and the engine oil (engine top and bottom.) The entire setup uses COOL air passed over the unit to cool both simultaneously.

The added benefits over and above higher efficiency are also more space and faster operating temperature reached…

There is a reason why this modification was made to the 3 Squadra cars at the start of the season!

Thermodynamically speaking they are both heat exchangers, thats their main goal is it not? Remove heat from the oil to another medium.

So, hot air from the oil cooler over the radiator core is worse then directly heating the water with a heat exchanger? What's the difference?
On the 75 T the oil cooler is located in front of the right front wheel, nowhere near the radiator.

My main problem with using one of these water/oil collers is that the temperature difference which is actually the driving force in the process is a little small compared to an air/oil cooler, also, another problem is that the heat actually doesn't leave the engine systems until it is removed in the water heat-exchanger (radiator), this means that you really need a larger radiator...
Talk about moving the problem.

I guess there are pros and cons with both systems.

Jes: Fohelvede man!

Fohelvede man!

Haha - Your Danish is pretty good. Jeg pratar bra svenska Grew up north of Copenhagen watching Swedish TV, though have a hard time with skaanska... no clue most of the time.

Jes

ar4me wrote: ...have a hard time with skaanska... no clue most of the time.

Pretty much like the rest of Sweden then...
ok, back on topic maybe...