oil cooler for fox bodies?

[03BlownSnake]

So my car is running a little hot during summer months, with the AC on and I have been wanting to see if adding an oil cooler can help reduce overall engine temps abit. I'm willing to try anything that can help cool my engine down, I'm constantly in the 220* range.
I already have a 4400 CFM puller fan, 3" 2 core aluminum radiator, highflow water pump, 180* t-stat,, but Vegas weather is above 110 and the engine underhood temps doesnt help either =(
my car is Turbocharged so I'm sure my oil temps are getting pretty hot since the turbo is using the engine oil aswell. I use Mobil1 10-30 synthetic at all times.

Has anyone had any experience adding an oil cooler to their fox body car? Any recommendations on what brand or Kit I can buy? I do have a front mounted intercooler already, AC condensor and huge aluminum radiator upfront,, just as fyi
Any help would be appreciated

 

[cobra186]

The SVO, SSP (police car) and exported foxbodys all came with factory oil coolers. The 94-95 Cobras also have a factory oil cooler.. so you might try one of them.

I would also switch to Mobil1 20w-50 Synthetic.

 

[Mike93SVT]

i've got one.... but mine's a SSP car, just sayin. i'll look. many places make an oil cooler.

 

[stangbear427]

I believe Maximum Motorsports sells a kit; and AFCO makes coolers for just about everything, if not the rest of the plumbing.

 

[04MystiCobra]

I ran a Steeda cooler. Easy to install and plenty big. Not sure if they still have it.

 

[drudis]

Here is the oil cooler I installed for my S-trim.
Links to photos of install:
http://www.dariusrudis.com/2002_Oil_Cooler

 

[93Cobra#2771]

A friend of mine added the factory style SSP version to his car, along with a little fan on top of it. It dropped his temps on average 15° (hes a mech. engineer so he documented everything on it).

You didn't mention if it is hot all the time, or simply in slow traffic. If it heats up in slow traffic, then you don't have enough fan. If it's hot all the time, then not enough rad or water pump. The intercooler and stuff isn't helping on the cooling, obviously.

A cowl hood would prob. help a lot, as it would let that hot air vent out easier. I have eq. len. shorties on my car, and it gets my underhood temps a LOT hotter than I like, but my mk8 fan takes care of me...

Good to see you over here, Darius!

 

[Goodson]

Darius, does that explorer setup work that well? I've contemplated using that because the SSP pieces are getting harder to find.

 

[03BlownSnake]

Well I dont know if its not enough fan... I mean, I'm using the DCControl 18" fan, the biggest they offer. Its not hot all the time, only in stop/go traffic, once on the highway it does cool down rather quickly.
I know that obviously having an intercooler, ac condenser and then the radiator is alot of $hit in front of the fan, so I guess that could be an issue.
As soon as I turn the AC off, the car cool down, no matter if its stop and go traffic. I just figured adding an oil cooler could help some and be benefitial to the turbo? I dont know
I have been wanting to add a cowl hood, but I want something that doesnt look to radical and has good vents behind the cowl or 03/04 heat extractor type panels on the hood (not exactly like the 03's cause I dont like the way they look on a fox) make sense?

 

[stangbear427]

Have you taped/insulated the headers?

 

[93Cobra#2771]

Well I dont know if its not enough fan... I mean, I'm using the DCControl 18" fan, the biggest they offer. Its not hot all the time, only in stop/go traffic, once on the highway it does cool down rather quickly.
I know that obviously having an intercooler, ac condenser and then the radiator is alot of $hit in front of the fan, so I guess that could be an issue.
As soon as I turn the AC off, the car cool down, no matter if its stop and go traffic. I just figured adding an oil cooler could help some and be benefitial to the turbo? I dont know
I have been wanting to add a cowl hood, but I want something that doesnt look to radical and has good vents behind the cowl or 03/04 heat extractor type panels on the hood (not exactly like the 03's cause I dont like the way they look on a fox) make sense?

1. The fan is a top notch unit - do you have enough alternator to run it when it's running wide open? Drop a voltmeter on the battery post when the car is getting hot and the fan is running wide open. You need to have about 14v to fully power the fan.

2. Oil cooler will def. help, as would the cowl hood. So much plumbing under there radiating heat and trapping it, simply not many places to go. You can piggyback a tiny fan off the dccontrol unit and let it run when the main fan runs. Use that on the oil cooler. That way, the oil will heat up faster at startup, but then will have full use of the fan when it's hot.

3. Do you have the fan sealed to the rad. tightly? I used some split vacuum hose to seal the fan right against the rad, so it wouldn't suck air through the sides instead of through the rad.

4. Any kind of heat shielding on the turbo/piping? Ceramic coating or wrapped insulation? At the least, some type of wrap around the turbo would be good.

5. I'm assuming you don't have underdrive pullies, if so you need to put some stockers on there.

That's my short list for now.

 

[LEE93COBRA]

.
As soon as I turn the AC off, the car cool down, no matter if its stop and go traffic. I just figured adding an oil cooler could help some and be benefitial to the turbo? I dont know
?

I have had this same problem (along with a friend of mine) for the last few years. I have had electric fans and now I am back to a manual fan. I hadn't thought about doing an oil cooler to correct this

 

[VirtualSVT]

I would also switch to Mobil1 20w-50 Synthetic.

Um. Thicker oil usually increases the temps.

 

[Big Ben]

Great thread, I want an oil cooler as I open track mine every once in a while.

 

[VirtualSVT]

A friend of mine added the factory style SSP version to his car, along with a little fan on top of it. It dropped his temps on average 15° (hes a mech. engineer so he documented everything on it).

You didn't mention if it is hot all the time, or simply in slow traffic. If it heats up in slow traffic, then you don't have enough fan. If it's hot all the time, then not enough rad or water pump. The intercooler and stuff isn't helping on the cooling, obviously.

Um where did he mount the fan? there isn't an actual seperate cooler for the SSP unit. Its plumbed into the cooling system.

 

[03BlownSnake]

1. The fan is a top notch unit - do you have enough alternator to run it when it's running wide open? Drop a voltmeter on the battery post when the car is getting hot and the fan is running wide open. You need to have about 14v to fully power the fan.

2. Oil cooler will def. help, as would the cowl hood. So much plumbing under there radiating heat and trapping it, simply not many places to go. You can piggyback a tiny fan off the dccontrol unit and let it run when the main fan runs. Use that on the oil cooler. That way, the oil will heat up faster at startup, but then will have full use of the fan when it's hot.

3. Do you have the fan sealed to the rad. tightly? I used some split vacuum hose to seal the fan right against the rad, so it wouldn't suck air through the sides instead of through the rad.

4. Any kind of heat shielding on the turbo/piping? Ceramic coating or wrapped insulation? At the least, some type of wrap around the turbo would be good.

5. I'm assuming you don't have underdrive pullies, if so you need to put some stockers on there.

That's my short list for now.

I'm running a 130amp alternator so that shouldn't be a problem. 3g set up or whatever, its called. Red top Optima battery
The headers are ceramic coated from Bassani. BUT the turbo downpipe is not. the turbo housing is shielded, but its still underhood, so i know that isn't doing much.
The radiator shroud is properly sealed to the radiator aswell
I guess i could try to tape/wrap the headers up and the downpipe aswell.
I dont have underdrive pulleys at all. but didn't the Cobra pulleys came with under drive pulleys stock? my pulley does look pretty small as is, but I dont know

Only reason I havent gotten a hood is cause I really want the sleeper/stock look and painting the hood means issues with color matching with my older fenders and bumpers so it wouldn't look bad. not that my paint is that bad cause it isn't but I know I would be able to tell.

 

[stangbear427]

I don't know how many were under-driven, but I know at least the crank pully is.

 

[93Cobra#2771]

Um where did he mount the fan? there isn't an actual seperate cooler for the SSP unit. Its plumbed into the cooling system.

Perhaps I misspoke. His has a small dedicated cooler, perhaps the explorer setup? Regardless, he documented a 15° drop in oil temps with the fan run off his dcc.

If you still have the stock Cobra pullies, then the crank pulley is underdriven, wp pulley is overdriven, rest are stock.

Let's address your tune - if you are running too lean at low loads/idle, it's possible to cause a heat issue that way. To rich could also cause issues, but you would know it with a surging idle, etc. Same with timing, too little or too much can cause issues. However, I'm guessing these are moot points, as you most likely have a custom tune at the very least.

BTW, what rpm do you idle at?

Is the chin spoiler under the core support still there?

I understand completely why you don't want an aftermarket hood, I wouldn't either (and don't).

 

[VirtualSVT]

Perhaps I misspoke. His has a small dedicated cooler, perhaps the explorer setup? Regardless, he documented a 15° drop in oil temps with the fan run off his dcc.

Same deal. Ford has never put a finned oil cooler in any production car. I'm 99% sure I'm right on that.

All of their setups use the cooling system at a medium.

 

[03BlownSnake]

Perhaps I misspoke. His has a small dedicated cooler, perhaps the explorer setup? Regardless, he documented a 15° drop in oil temps with the fan run off his dcc.

If you still have the stock Cobra pullies, then the crank pulley is underdriven, wp pulley is overdriven, rest are stock.

Let's address your tune - if you are running too lean at low loads/idle, it's possible to cause a heat issue that way. To rich could also cause issues, but you would know it with a surging idle, etc. Same with timing, too little or too much can cause issues. However, I'm guessing these are moot points, as you most likely have a custom tune at the very least.

BTW, what rpm do you idle at?

Is the chin spoiler under the core support still there?

I understand completely why you don't want an aftermarket hood, I wouldn't either (and don't).

it is a custom tune done here in vegas, by Dyno Dan, of DynoJet

I idle around 900ish

the chin spiler? you mean about a 2" wide black strip that runs about 3 feet wide across the radiator support? I took that off due to the intercooler mounting points and piping