How much oil when you have an oil cooler?

[brent615]

My 6 came with an oil cooler from the previous owner. I am assuming this means I need to add more oil than the Bentley book suggests when I change the oil??? Anyone know how much more?

 

[roofman]

Unless someone has exact expierience, I would put the regular amount, check it, and add more as needed. May take as much as a quart more?

 

[Guest]

My 16 row cooler + the hoses to and from it takes an additional quart of oil. The thing about an oil cooler is when you change your oil, you never really change all your oil because the cooler doesn't drain, without disconnecting the hoses, which ain't gonna happen. That is why I change my oil every 2000 miles, more rotating my stock than actually changing my oil.

 

[Alan_Myers]

Hi,

It depends on how the oil cooler hoses are routed. There is a good chance oil is trapped in there and you'll never get a complete drain out through the sump. In that case, just drain as much as you can and top it up with fresh oil, as per the manual, and check with the dipstick. Start the car briefly, then recheck with the dipstick.

Even if you could get a complete drain of all the oil out of the cooler, the exact volume would differ from car to car depending upon how long the hoses are (i.e. exactly where the oil cooler is mounted) and the size of the cooler itself.

 

[tomshobby]

I hope this is not off topic. I had a '81 Bonneville and installed a '72 olds 350 that I did some work on. The engine had over 100k when I worked on it and I left the bottom end untouched.

I did use an oil pan and pump from an Olds 350 diesel and the oil filter adapter with the oil cooler/radiator.

It did not seem to drain the hoses and cooler and I confess to not changing oil as regular as I should have.

When I took the car to salvage it had over 450k and the engine was still strong and did not use oil.

From that experience I personally would not worry about it much and would feel the cooler would would provide much more benefit than harm.