Will installing an oil cooler gain power?

[ragtoplvr]

About the only case where a better oil cooler added power was on the old air cooled VW, since it stopped the overheating on that side.

A water oil cooler will heat the oil faster in warm up, they can help a little in the first few minutes.

If cooler oil reduces pre-ignition then that might add power, but you have bigger problems.

Seat of pants Dyno is notoriously inaccurate. Changes that make car or bike slower but sound better are perceived as more power, but the real dyno does not lie.

Rod

 

[nyumski]

I dont think so.
my advice is just buy high quality oil that can have little effect in high engine working temperature. Actually it will be more efficient than installing oil cooler

 

[alarmguy]

Originally Posted By: Avery4
A friend of mine said that he installed an oil cooler and the car felt more responsive to throttle. Does that make sense to you? It does not to me. Will installing an oil cooler actually help gain power?


NO

 

[stchman]

Originally Posted By: Avery4
A friend of mine said that he installed an oil cooler and the car felt more responsive to throttle. Does that make sense to you? It does not to me. Will installing an oil cooler actually help gain power?


If the oil is getting that hot to rob engine power, then something is seriously wrong.

 

[DoubleWasp]

As previously stated, it can help to retain power. I've experienced oil temp initiated power cuts in several vehicles that were healthy, but operating under load in Florida heat. My HD RK is the worst with that. It feels like it's falling to pieces when the oil temp cracks 280°F. My understanding is it shuts down the rear cylinder when that happens. Running on half an engine would cost power. Adding an oil cooler put that all to bed.

Many VVT engines with hydraulic phasers get really retarded when the oil gets too hot. My Navigator sounds like it's being fed a diet of ball bearings when the oil gets too hot. Never came out until towing my largest boat in the summer. 5/20 just didn't appreciate that heat load. These engines need oil pressure to return the phasers to idle setting. The oil heat shearing down to water viscosity didn't help. I ran 5/40 until I put in an oil cooler. Shut that up fast.

Some OEMs are worse. The BMW 335 was notorious for 350°+ oil temps. Wouldn't want to be those engine bearings.

 

[Joe90_guy]

From an ergonomic point of view, an oil cooler won't give you more power.

Having said that, I've always wondered why engine designers don't link the engine coolant system (which is thermostatically controlled) to the engine oil system (which usually isn't). When the engine's cold, the coolant heats up far quicker than the oil. If you linked the two with some kind of heat exchanger, you could get the oil to heat up quicker and make the engine more efficient. The interesting thing is that on those rare occasions (when you're driving at 150 mph through Death Valley towing a caravan) when the oil might get too hot, heat would flow the other way and the coolant would maintain the oil at 100C (the coolant can't get much hotter or it would boil) which is close to it's optimum temperature.

Just a thought...

 

[Jetronic]

they do use oil/coolant heat interchangers on a lot of cars these days.

 

[Joe90_guy]

Interesting. I've never seen this here in the UK, probably because our boringly dull climate doesn't vary enough to justify a coolant/oil exchange system.

 

[Jetronic]

pretty much every direct injected diesel has them, and a lot of petrols aswell these days.

My last 3 cars had them (alfa 145 1.4 petrol, alfa 156 2.4 diesel, and now giulietta 2.0 diesel). the car before that had a proper oil cooler with thermostatic valve.

Only my first car didn't have any oil cooler. that was a 1.1 citroen AX

 

[LubeLuke]

1994 Celica GT4 had an oil/water heat exchanger. Oil temperature comes up to 80c very fast in these vehicles.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: Joe90_guy
Interesting. I've never seen this here in the UK, probably because our boringly dull climate doesn't vary enough to justify a coolant/oil exchange system.


Only just discovered that my Nissan ZD30 has a quite sophisticated oil/water set-up, jut integral and hidden in the filter housing. Pretty sure that UK got the ZD30 in a bunch of Nissand (and Renaults).

Member Gary Allan (RIP) was running a 4L Jeep on a special "0W10" prepared by member Bruce381 7 years ago or so. Had a bunch of heat exchangers, water to oil, and got quite good OAU (IIRC copper from the exchangers was up)

 

[Joe90_guy]

Interesting stuff! Think I must start paying greater attention to 'things mechanical' in future.

I put my own 0W20 together. I could have gone lower but I was too much of a scaredy cat! The oil I've always fancied playing around with is a 10W20 semi-synthetic. It would contain no VII (which is always a good idea), contain very little dispersant (to counter the VII), have ultra low volatility (great for GDI), have 'good enough' cold start and be pretty good on fuel economy. As it would in effect be just base oil with about 4% DI, it would also be dirt cheap to produce. This is the oil that the average man in the street needs. As such, the chances of it ever being made are less than zero!

PS, a bit of dissolved copper in oil can be a good thing as low levels improve the oil's oxidative stability...

 

[edhackett]

Originally Posted By: Joe90_guy


PS, a bit of dissolved copper in oil can be a good thing as low levels improve the oil's oxidative stability...


If so, why do motor oils contain copper deactivators to inhibit the catalytic effect of copper on the oxidation of the oil?

Ed

 

[CATERHAM]

As others have mentioned if the oil cooler prevents excessively high oil temp's that would otherwise trigger the electronic safety nannies that roll back the power then then yes it could in effect "add power".

Also a thermostatically controlled oil cooler may allow one to run a lighter grade of oil and that would increase an engine's responsiveness and power especially when cold on start-up.

While many if not all petformance oriented cars today come with oil/coolant heat exchangers if your car doesn't have one it would benefit in having one retrofitted. This has the dual advantage of bringing the oil up to temp' faster as well as having a limiting effect on maximum oil temp's.

 

[Joe90_guy]

In my experience, modern engine oils don't contain copper deactivators. The only place I've seen them used much is Japan. The Japanese can be a bit weird when it comes formulating oil insisting on putting stuff in that doesn't do much and banning stuff that does (eg Magnesium Sulphonate).
I seem to recall Paramins and Lz having a big legal bust-up over Cu AOs many years ago.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: Joe90_guy
The oil I've always fancied playing around with is a 10W20 semi-synthetic. It would contain no VII (which is always a good idea), contain very little dispersant (to counter the VII), have ultra low volatility (great for GDI), have 'good enough' cold start and be pretty good on fuel economy. As it would in effect be just base oil with about 4% DI, it would also be dirt cheap to produce.


With a straight weight HTHS of 2.9, I'd run that in my supercharged Buick engine.

 

[DoubleWasp]

The only problem with coolant/fluid heat exchangers is that failures of these systems can result in destruction of the component you are cooling.

I haven't run into these issues, thankfully.

 

[Festiva_Man]

Originally Posted By: geeman789
Originally Posted By: hansj3
No, just no


Careful...

Typically, an oil cooler will not increase power, and in fact may actually reduce engine power, as cooler oil is thicker oil, and thus takes MORE energy to pump etc.

However, many modern cars monitor oil temps, and if gets too hot, the computer will start to REDUCE POWER, in an effort to keep oil temps out of the danger zone ...

So, IF the car in question does reduce power when the oil gets too hot, then, YES, an oil cooler could allow the engine to make full power under extreme oil temp conditions. Note... not MORE power, just better use of the engines available max power.

Said fancy car SHOULD have appropriet measures to prevent oil overheating, like an oil to air cooler or oil to coolant heat exchanger.
Looks like the concensus is that unless he is towing near the max payload in death valley its not helping.