Engine oil cooler

I have had auto's with transmission coolers, and the theory of an engine oil cooler sounds good. My initial thoughts bring up the following issues:

1) will the std oil pump cope, sending it through the length of pipes necessary?

2) you would end up with a big latent heat source right infront of your radiator, which would severly impede the cooling of your radiator coolant (whose prime function is to cool the block(and engine oil) negating any benefits of cooling the oil itself.

Others might have some more useful thoughts.

Rev

SantaAus,

Do you know what temp the oil is running at in your engine now?
For a relatively small cost (fit a gauge) you could work out whether your oil temps need cooling at all???
I thought that my 4.2 may have been running high oil temps causing my overheating drama's but a $50 gauge and a sender $?? (can't remember) soon put pay to this idea and the oiler cooler I had in mind was scraped.
Just a thought, see if you really need the oil cooler at all, you may be surprised and not need the cooler.

Hope this helps.
Trevor.

it is not necessary to fit an oilcooler to a TD27 i have a Nissan Narvara fitted with the same motor and operating on 45 degree days the temp climbs to about 2/3rds which is still in manafactures range just as far as reducing the vehicle engine temp it doesn't already tried it all it done was increased the water temp by transfering heat to the radiator as the aircond condenser does now the biggest problem is these coolers block the radiator air flow remember being diesel you don't want it running to cold

Most oils have an optimum operating temparture , that is ,the stated lubrication qualities aren't achieved until the oil is at a certain temp. Also running oils too cool doesn't allow for the evaporation of fuels and other pollutants in the oil.

Dave L.

With my pajero it took me 2 years to find the oil cooler. It is in the block next to the oil filter, cooled by the water and radiator. The old one was up front just to the side of the radiator. Well protected from rocks and bottomingout. Have you checked to see if you do have an oil cooler which is also in the block?
Also, my old pajero had a thermostat on the oil line which opened when the oil was hot. Helps the engine heat up quicker on a cold day. Also see following note re oil temps.

If by the previous posts, oil temp isn't getting high, why put one in? I put an oil temp guage in the sump to check mine.

Now if you are talking of my old beetle, I have an external oil cooler in that, because 50 to 70% of the cooling is by the oil, the air cooling over the cylinders and heads is the rest. As long as the oil temp doesn't go over about 110 deg C for long periods, you should be OK. 130 dwg C for a short period. Good to have a high oil temp to help boil off any water and fuel in the oil. You should not run oil under 70 deg C. Multigrade oils don't start working at ful viscosity until over 70 deg. C.

Most performance vehicles are fitted with engine oil coolers. Engine oil is both a lubricant & a coolant.
As far as if one will assist your problem, unless you can get first hand advice from another Terrano owner, it will be a case of "suck it & see"!

Oil temperature gauges are certainly an asset, I have no idea why there are so few fitted, they are the most reliable first warning of engine overheating after radiator coolant loss, other than flow meters that are heaps more expensive.