• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

Oil cooler. To thermostat or not to......?

Share this page

prb51

prb51

Luke Skywalker
Country flag
Offline
Gents, Whilst looking for a crank pulley (thin belt) that will still allow use of the fan extension/fan (found one, ally @ Revington) I looked at Revington's oil coolers. They have a note/warning NOT to use a thermostat as "it is one more thing to go wrong and no engine was ever destroyed by cold oil". Now Revington has been in the TR parts business for years and is well respected. Your thoughts on this statement.
 
The purpose of the thermostat is to allow the oil to reach its PROPER operating temperature more quickly than it would do otherwise. Cold oil does not lubricate as well as warm oil and while it may not "destroy" engines it does cause wear. The colder oil is also more resistant to pumping and movement.

Think of running your car without the thermostat for the coolant- that too may be called one more thing to go wrong.

Unless you're using a small cooler the thermostat is probably a good idea even if it is one more thing to go wrong, which seems a pretty rare occurance....
 
I agree with Revington . . . keep it simple. If you drive in low temps and want to ensure the oil gets hot enough to vaporize moisture, just cover the front of the oil radiator. I cut a piece of aluminum flashing to cover mine in the late fall through early spring driving season.
 
Hi,

I feel that a stat is a very good idea, to insure engine oil reaches a proper operating temp to provide best possible lubrication *and* to boil off water vapor and other crankcase contaminants properly *and* to keep the oil cooler from possibly being subjected to higher pressures at startup with cold oil.

Yes, it's one more thing to go wrong, but a pretty well-proven system. Simplicity is why Revington offers a passive cooler (a modified oil sump with a couple air tubes passing through it), but that also requires some cutting and welding of the frame to route air properly and has no easy means of controlling the cooling effect.

Rick's method of covering the cooler will certainly work too, but you do have to pay close attention and an oil temp gauge might be a handy accessory.

Relatively new are the Mocal (maybe others) 180F oil thermostats that are combined with the sandwich/take-off plate. These take up no additional space to speak of (slightly thicker), simply use one in place of the traditional take-off sandwich plate. If interested, see part SP1T at www.racerpartswholesale.com

Using this means 4 fewer connections in the oil lines, each of which represents a possible leak or loose fitting, not to mention the cost of large AN fittings if that's what's being used, and no separately mounted thermostat to mount somewhere in the engine compartment. A spin-on oil filter adapter will be needed first, with this take-off/thermostat on top of that. And, adapter fittings are needed for whatever type of lines you are using to route the oil.

I've got one installed on my TR4 with AN10 hoses. Photos of the installation are at the link below, by my signature, if you want to take a look. If I had it to do over again, I'd probably use Earl's Pro-Lite 350 nylon braided hose, instead of stainless braided. It's lighter and less abrassive to anything the hose rubs (I ended up wrapping the S/S hose with plastic wire wrap).

Cheers!
 
Back
Top