240z Oil Cooler Questions

[spawpoet]

Ok, I have some more newbie questions. Our car came without an oil cooler, and at our track days water temps have gotten a little higher than we would like(220), so we are going to add an oil cooler to the car. I don't have any idea what size cooler to go with though. I'm looking at the products at Pegasus. Do the half width units provide enough cooling, or do I need the full width unit, and how many rows are necessary? Looking at past threads it looks like I should run -10 lines, but instead of going aeroquip I was just going to have a local hose shop make up some regular hydraulic lines to try and save some money. Should I not cut this corner? Lastly and on another note where does everybody vent the SU float bowl overflows? Do you just vent them out the fenderwell, or does this require a catch tank? Any help you can provide me is greatly appreciated.

[seckerich]

First get an oil temp guage and see what you are running. I would guess they would scare you. A cooler is a must have for racing. Look at the ducting to the radiator and see if you can force more air through to help cooling. Do your best to not have the air from your newly mounted oil cooler go back through the radiator and make water temps worse. I will let the Z guys weigh in on specific mounting. Spend the money on good hose, cheaper than a motor. Good luck.

[dickita15]

I will comment on the hose thing. You need to check temperature and pressure ratings. I was surprised that my hose dealer did not have anything over 150 degree rated.
I used to have a friend that worked on garbage trucks though and they had 300 degree hose rated at a gizzilion pounds and a big hydraulic machine for installing the ends. Those worked great.

[Parrish57]

My oil cooler is a single row 10 inch by 7. While I agree with Steve that ideally you shouldn't mount your cooler in front of the radiator, the grill opening doesn't really give you an "ideal" location. Mine is mounted as far to the right as possible. I've been running regular hydraulic hose for years with no problems. The added weight of Aeroquip is unnecessary, IMHO.

[Ron Earp]

I'll get flamed up for this one.....but, when Jeff and I first got the 260Z it didn't have an oil cooler. None, nada. And, we raced it - water temps never went above 180F. Even in hot VIR and CMP weather. So I'd suggest that your high water temps are coming from something else not being up to snuff.

Within a few months of owning the Z I added an oil cooler using AN-10 lines and fittings, mostly, but you can do it with good hose an no AN stuff too. The oil temps in the pan were very scary, -240-250F+, although the water temp was still nice and steady at 180F when the car was moving. Now since the cooler I have not been able to check the oil temp but I'm sure it is lower.

Definitely add one, but have a look at your cooling system too.

Ron

[spawpoet]

We just have a stock radiator at this point, so it needs to be upgraded as well. Or maybe not. As we got the car there is just an big airgap between the trailing edge of the front airdam and the front crossmember, so alot of air just goes through the airdam aperture and down through this gap (instead of through the radiator. We are going to bridge and seal this when we install the oil cooler so that should help a great deal. Another question I have after researching threads on the subject is are the sandwich plates suitable for the plumbing, or are they a liability as I've seen suggested that some have problems with them blowing off oil filters? Boiling it down is it better to go with a remote filter style system, or the sandwich plate system?

[Dave Burchfield]

I used a Howe radiator and a 2nd Gen RX7 oil cooler with the thermostat on my Z. Never saw more than 180 water and 220 oil. Cheap and effective.

[kthomas]

You need more radiator, and an oil temp gauge. Water should be 195, oil should be 180 minimum and 195 or above for most hp. We had an oil cooler but it was taped up most of the time or the oil would be too cold.