For what it's worth, Earl's makes a nice little billet oil temp
controller--bypass type and so does Mocal, in fact they seem to specialize
in them. Don't know why I'd want one on a racing engine though. I change my
oil too frequently to worry about fuel contaminants, and even with an oil
cooler my oil gets plenty hot anyway.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-fot@Autox.Team.Net [mailto:owner-fot@Autox.Team.Net] On Behalf
Of tom strange
Sent: Monday, December 13, 2004 10:52 PM
To: Jack W. Drews; fot@Autox.Team.Net
Subject: Re: oil cooler adapter
Jack,
Right.... as usual.... I would add one comment on the sandwich adaptor...
pay attention to which way the oil is run through your adaptor. Some
adaptors run the oil from the engine to the oil cooler first, then the
filter... others (harder to find... Ken, I think yours is set up this way)
run the oil through the filter first then the cooler.
IMHO the second, (filter first) is the better. In case of making a minor
amount of metal insid the engine, the oil cooler may be salvaged. In the
case of the oil going to the cooler first.. any amount of metal produced in
the engine is going to be in the cooler, making the cooler an automatic
throw-away; at least in my shop. Re-used coolers have been the culprit for
many blown engines, just not worth the risk.
"Jack W. Drews" <vinttr4@geneseo.net> wrote:
Some time ago I spent some time researching the adapter and the thermostat.
Here's what I found, although as usual it is subject to correction from
anybody who has direct and real life knowledge of them:
The oil pumps in our engines put out oil at a quite a high volume and
pressure. If you instrument it and read the gauges, the unregulated pressure
out of our pumps is well in excess of 90 psi, which was the highest my gauge
would go. The filter adapter that bolts to the block sends ALL this oil at
this pressure through the oil cooler, and if you have a remote oil filter,
as used on some race cars, this means that the seal on that filter sees a
pressure en excess of 90 psi all the time. If that doesn't bother you,
that's okay, but it is probably the reason for the frequency of oil cooler
and oil filter failures in race cars. However, there are two other adapters
on the market that correct this. One is a proprietary product sold by Greg
Solow. The other is the round kind that is sandwiched between the oil filter
and the filter head, sold by Ken Gillanders of BFE. There may be others. The
latter two allow the pressure relief valve to do its job on the oil going
through all the external lines and then through the pressure relief valve,
so the engine oil gallery sees the pressure set by your pressure relief
valve.
The thermostat that is shaped like an "H" is indeed a bypass design. That
is, at ALL temperatures, oil flows through the thermostat center leg of the
"H" and back to the engine. At higher temperatures, the thermostat opens up
and allows oil to flow both through the "H" and through the oil cooler.
Which means, of course, that not all the oil gets cooled, but again, that
may not matter.
uncle jack
Tom
#4 white spitfire
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