how important is a oil thermistat? ( adding oil cooler )

[forey]

currently with my 1jz i have a 52mm alloy rad, but the water temps suffer by the oil temps getting up there... the car is primarily a street car but will enter practice drift days & occasional drag day

i have an greddy oil filter relocation kit, was thinking it would be easy to redirect the outlet of the filter housing to a cooler and then back to the engine as so:


anything wrong with this?
cheers

[Norbie]

The oil will take longer to get up to temperature but if it's anything like my Supra it won't take too long. If you have an oil temp gauge so you know when it's safe to give the engine a flogging you shouldn't have any problems.

Having said that, a thermostat is a good thing to have.

[YLD-16L]

My car sans oil thermostat will not reach a normal operating temp for the oil so it's a must have for me.

Some cars with smaller cores and less exposed filters can get away with not haing one though.

As Norbie pointed out though just keep an eye on the temp and don't thrash it until it's warmed up.

[forey]

yeah i have both oil temp and pressure gauges, how many row cooler would you recommend?
cheers

[YLD-16L]

Check specifically with people who track JZ powered cars (I don't). Also make sure you note where they have the core mounted as it has a massive effect on the efficiency of the core.

[oldcorollas]

or add a water-oil heat exchanger before the oil goes back into the block, as on 3S and wrx's and the like...
that way if the oil is too cold, it just pulls heat from the water, which already has a thermostat

[parrot]

If you go here

you can download a great catalogue from the UK Mocal distributors with every possible cooler related component you can think of. Ignore the mail request bit, and just download the pdf from this page.

It also has a useful tech section that amongst other things, makes recommendations regarding how many rows you need.

[Norbie]

or add a water-oil heat exchanger before the oil goes back into the block, as on 3S and wrx's and the like...
that way if the oil is too cold, it just pulls heat from the water, which already has a thermostat

A 1JZ already has one of these, and if you read the original post you'll note he's concerned about coolant temps hence the use of an oil cooler to begin with. This is the reason I installed one on my 2JZ, not so much to keep oil temps down but to reduce the stress on the cooling system.

Anyway in my case I used a small-ish cooler, 13 row I think? This seems to work well, it keeps the oil temperature in check but allows it to warm up in a reasonable amount of time. I mounted it directly behind the grille so it gets excellent airflow.

[oldcorollas]

oil cooler with no thermostat usually means cold oil, not hot oil...

so rather than having oil thermostat to recirculate the oil and bypass the cooler when cold, you let it go through the cooler, and then through the water/oil heat exchanger... which will cool the water when the oil is colder.

so in effect, you are adding an extra radiator to cool the water (in place of using an oil thermostat when the oil is colder), or.. and extra heater to get the oil up to temp quicker..

since the 1J already has the oil/water exchanger.. is an oil thermostat actually that effective?

[forey]

A 1JZ already has one of these, and if you read the original post you'll note he's concerned about coolant temps hence the use of an oil cooler to begin with. This is the reason I installed one on my 2JZ, not so much to keep oil temps down but to reduce the stress on the cooling system.

Anyway in my case I used a small-ish cooler, 13 row I think? This seems to work well, it keeps the oil temperature in check but allows it to warm up in a reasonable amount of time. I mounted it directly behind the grille so it gets excellent airflow.

hey dude, as in my picture. is it a bad idea to set it up like that? as its not designed ( as in will it have excessive oil pressure VS two inlets and outlets at the filter ). im doing it to save $$ and keep the parts i allready have and just adding to it..

many thanks again!.

[TRDcelica90]

it can get really bloody expensive mate. try get the whole set up as its not fun to track down everything like i did.

im currently doing this on my car, i will be getting an oil thermo but when ive got more money. luckily its summer atm so im not too worried.

oil thermos are $100+ for a used one..

[takai]

If a group of your mates want them, then just get it from the US. $41 from over there: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/PRM-1070/

[the_random_hero]

Grab one of the Earls spin-on adaptors with a built in thermostat. They are cheap as chips.