oil cooler

ImportConvert

No, you shouldn't.

GM used to put a plate/fin style oil cooler in the Z06. They no-longer do. The ZR1 doesn't have one, either.

Oil coolers cause problems on the street. Now GM has an oil-cooler that uses the coolant to regulate oil temp. It lives by the oil-pan and has no fins, etc. It simply moves the coolant and oil near each other to keep them roughly the same temp.

A lot of Z06 owners from previous years are only hitting 135-155* on the highway oil-temp. My car runs 185-200* on the highway, depending on ambient temp.

So MUCH BETTER for the car.

I would suggest you take a note from GM who REMOVED an oil-cooler like the one you want to install and developed a different one that won't cause as much issue.

Dark Sarcasm

your like a baseball fan in the upper deck doing "the wave". No matter how hard you try you will never be a part of the crowd.

WTF do aftermarket 370Z oil coolers have to do with factory GM oil pan fins coolant thing-a-ma-jigs?

MY 370Z runs in the 200+ temps on 90* days. 220* is not uncommon under hard driving conditions. To the OP, a properly installed oil cooler is no more detrimental to your ride than any other aftermarket part. I would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

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wax

bigZ

I agree. How did the convo turn to a Z06 vette? The Z06 is an 75k car.

BLA BLA BLA-highjacker!

ImportConvert

It turned to the corvette because the car had the exact mod (plate/fin style oil cooler up front) that people are so keen to get--and GM got rid of it. Spent a lot of money to do it, too. It is the only example I can think of regarding an oil-cooler except Nissan, whereupon Nissan refuses to install it, but that logic wasn't good enough for most people, so I went out of my way to post about a company PURPOSEFULLY getting rid of that type of oil-cooler.

Just thought there might be a reason for it and all that. 150-160* oil is bad. You want it 180-220 for normal driving, and if it spikes up to 260-280 on a track day, no big deal as long as it doesn't sit there all day. Of course, with the Z, it goes into limp mode at 260, so you are protected.

Then some people turned it into a GM vs. Nissan thing because that's what fanboi's do when someone mentions another brand.

I think there is a very logical explanation for this. Your license plate covers what, 30% of the air intake area for the radiator? Get it off there. (assuming your avatar is a picture of your car)

Kirkster

I thought of that also. Moved it over 4 inches, no change. Then took the plate off, no change...

I have one of the cars that runs hot. Nissan me, but at least I can put in an oil cooler...

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esfourteen

So your suggestion is for us to not use oil coolers because GM doesn't, and come up with a custom system similar to what GM uses. Great, we'll get right on that.

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daisuke149

Because the last 5 years have taught us that big companies will definitely spend money where they deem it necessary for the regular ol consumer.... yeah....

before your hashpoint of telling him to keep his IMO out (bolded for you), you simply stated your own opinion as well. Except for you didnt add "IMO". Otherwise as you told him, support your "tend" to statement.

Although I am sure that there are bad oil cooler setups out there. Same way there are situations where an oil cooler is also needed.

Since you seem to be so passionate and informed regarding that style cooler, why not develop it yourself? sell it to everyone and make a killing on it? That is unless, its not gonna be easy to develop, take too much time and money, isnt worth it. And so we are left with the options presented to the OP in the first place.. a 19 or 25 row with a thermostatic plate.

Yah its funny that we should follow in GM's footsteps.. since they obviously employee the best engineers in the world. Definitely better than BMW, who does use a oil cooler on their cars instead of a "lets put coolant near oil!" box.

Red__Zed

There's actually a lot about this I agree with.

A lot of Z owners jumped on the bandwagon, feeling the need to install an oil cooler on the car. It's simply not necessary for most users, and many street-driven cars won't get the oil up to proper operating temps with an oil cooler installed.

I've seen plenty of users bragging that their oil temps stay below 170 with their cooler. At that temp, most oils aren't properly protecting your engine. Ideally, you want temps of around 190 during commuting, and most synthetics these days work best between 220-250*, which is where you want to be during hardcore driving.

LunaZ

I'm one of the owners not jumping on the bandwagon.
I've spent considerable time driving at high RPMs in 90°+ temps in traffic, on the highway and driving in the mountains. I might even be one of those obnoxious drivers that downshifts for no reason... although I think that the noise produced by SRM and a FI TDX CBE is a pretty good reason.
In all of these situations, I've only once witnessed my oil temperature get up to 230°. Most of the time it's right at 220°.

I don't think an oil cooler is necessary for a street driven car that doesn't go to the track.
I also think we wouldn't be having these discussions if we didn't have oil temperature gauge. Given the varying testimonials on what oil temperatures people are experiencing, I question the gauge's accuracy to begin with.

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Dark Sarcasm

in your own words you state 185 - 200 is but then tell the OP not to get the oil cooler because GMs design didnt work? ? ? ? ? you make no sense dude, you just want to throw some knowlegde around about GM. Maybe you know your **** but you have a terrible way of getting your point across.

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wax

ImportConvert

It's not "GM's design". It's what everyone used. A plate/fin setup that uses ambient air to cool (sometimes OVER cool) the oil. Depending on the day/driving being done, it's certainly not optimal, but if you get a bypass and thermostat, I think it would be okay.