Oil Cooler

AngelOfDarkness

AngelOfDarkness

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Joined
Sep 24, 2009
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Colorado
Okay so I am looking on buying a Oil Cooler for my car (probably just a fit almost all model type thing). But my friend warned me that the engine oil must be kept at a certain temp to work properly. Will getting an oil cooler be safe on my engine and if so can someone suggest one. I have a 1999 Subaru Outback Legacy, and this will be one of the fewer modifications I can do to my car (since I had $ issues and time problems)
 
Not sure about the specifics, but there are plenty of WRXs out there with after market oil coolers installed. Your outback has a very similar engine to theirs so it shouldn't be an issue.
 
The subaru oil cooler is also a oil heater. It uses the engine colant to function. As far as an external cooler, fepending upon where you live, you can get a thermostat to keep the oil from over cooling.


I wonder how many WRX's are out there with other 100,000 miles on there, as stock soobys seem to last forever.

nipper
 
Unless you have a sump guard and run at sustained high speeds over a fair while (say 150 for an hour or more), an oil cooler may not be necessary. Maybe fit a gauge to see what the temps are. In our WRX Club, only the more modified cars that go on the circuit run oil coolers, although it would not hurt more tracks cars to run them.
 
Thanks people for that, yeah Rally I am looking on insalling an oil temp gauge as it already (as well as a battery life for my lights when I get them). I don't think i would need any others
 
Not sure how you will do it. When I put one on my Falcon, I removed the sump, drilled a hole and welded a nut on the inside. Imagine my shock when it went off the scale (150 degrees C) with the sump guard on and sitting on 180 for a couple of hours. The oil cooler made a huge difference. Removing the sump guard before I could do that also made a reasonable difference.
 
Rally said:
Not sure how you will do it. When I put one on my Falcon, I removed the sump, drilled a hole and welded a nut on the inside. Imagine my shock when it went off the scale (150 degrees C) with the sump guard on and sitting on 180 for a couple of hours. The oil cooler made a huge difference. Removing the sump guard before I could do that also made a reasonable difference.
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Did you rally a falcon? :surprised:

You can get an adapter that sits between the oil filter and the block with fittings for sensors. Have a look on ebay.

There are also the two plugs pointing downwards out of the block just behind the crank pulley which I've been thinking could go to an oil cooler.

Dane.
 
Unless you are rallying the car or doing some kind of mtorsport, an oil cooler is pointless for the engine and you will get nil gains from it if you are doing mr/ms average stuff/medium offroading. Transmission coolers are a must if you are towing stuff with an auto especially(manuals tend not to get terribly hot).

You want your oil to be at its designed operating temperature - this is where cooler ISNT always better as engine oil does funky things if it is cooled too much(well below what it is supposed to be at...)and failure can occur as the oil breaks down and gunges up your fancy oil cooler. Couled to this it is just going to be another potential leak hazard...lol

Get some learned advice from a rebuilder and you will find that the oil cooler is for bling purposes or rally/motor sport of some descript. Save the dough and do some worthwhile mods to your ride...not meaning this in a facetious way...just have a bit of experience with people putting stuff on their cars and then wonder why it breaks(brothers...cant live with them!!)
 
No, but it sure did some travelling, I can tell you. Did you know that a bloke actually rallied one of only 4 Phase 4 GTHO Falcons ever built? My involvement in rallying was with WRX's.

GOD said:
Did you rally a falcon? :surprised:

You can get an adapter that sits between the oil filter and the block with fittings for sensors. Have a look on ebay.

There are also the two plugs pointing downwards out of the block just behind the crank pulley which I've been thinking could go to an oil cooler.

Dane.
Click to expand...
 
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