In-tank Oil Coolers

[R32 TT]

Hey all,

I was talking to my mechanic about getting a PWR radiator for when my new motor goes in. (If if ever gets bloody finished...! )

While on the subject, we were also talking about getting an oil-cooler when he mentioned that PWR do "in-tank" versions.

His take on it was that not only would this be a really neat solution, that the water can actually help bring the oil up to operating temperature more quickly at start up, ~and~ does a great job of keeping the oil temps down when you're into it.

Has anyone had any experience on this?

I like it just from the aspect of less crap under the bonnet to deal with as well.

[Kinks]

If you flog the car on the track then get an air cooled oil cooler, for the simple reason that although water is more conductive, cooling with 25C air is more effective than cooling with 90C water.

If you're only doing a few hard laps and then taking a break then i don't see any problem, and have wondered about oil/water heat exchangers for the same reason of bringing the oil temp up from cold and providing some cooling benefit when warm.

[Adriano]

agreed, just have to bear in mind the heat from the oil is transferred to the water, thet the radiator then has to cool, if your cooling system struggles due to big hp/ hot day this will make it worse.

[Dale FZ1]

Given that you're likely to be needing to scrub about 20 or maybe 30 deg.C out of the oil, the liquid-liquid route should be highly effective.

The trick will be to have a suitable specification for the core thickness: fin density (ie fins per cm) to allow good airflow through the core and satisfactory overall heat transfer.

Power output of the engine will have a significant bearing on how well this setup would work.

[GeeTR]

Given that you're likely to be needing to scrub about 20 or maybe 30 deg.C out of the oil, the liquid-liquid route should be highly effective.

The trick will be to have a suitable specification for the core thickness: fin density (ie fins per cm) to allow good airflow through the core and satisfactory overall heat transfer.

Power output of the engine will have a significant bearing on how well this setup would work.

Here Here - its one thing to shuffle the heat to the radiator/oil cooler, but over effectiveness depends on then getting enough air through the unit.

I think they are trick, as mounting suitably sized oil cooler in the front of a modern import like a Skyline can be difficult.

- Michael

[JCMarshall_Law]

Sounds like a good idea, most of the automatic cars I've worked on have had 'in tank' coolers for the transmission fluid from the factory. I think it would work quite well for engine oil.

[mad082]

i think it would work well too. think of all the air that goes through the radiator. you have a fan drawing plenty of air through, even at low speed.

[R32 TT]

Thanks for your thoughts guys, I got in touch with PWR to find out more.

PWR got back to me saying that in order to make a radiator for the GTR with the intank Oil cooler it would need to be a custom job with horizonal flow so that the tanks are on the side in order to accomodate the oil cooler.

The Radiator itself: $930.00inc

In-tank Engine Oil Cooler: $460.00inc

Spal 16" Thermo Fan to suit: $263.00inc

That just leaves the oil lines to be made up.

Its not 'cheap'. But then for a custom-made high performance radiator - its not bad either.

Certainly when I compare against just buying an HKS Oil Cooler and lines then it actually does look like very good value!

I think the fact that it will keep the oil-temps and water temps closer to each other is a good idea, and of course installation will be heaps neater.

Thermo fans have given me trouble in the past, but that was many years ago, and maybe that was because they were not correctly specified. Hopefully this one they are matching up will easily keep up. I won't be spending any real time in heavy traffic and anything above 30km/hr won't need it anyway - so probably a good thing.

Think I might go for it!