Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:03:27 -0800
Reply-To: Jake de Villiers <crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jake de Villiers <crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Mocal sandwich plate plus oil cooler equals overcooling
In-Reply-To: <6da579340902101754s1ce9d136x61dc0e2fba6eb3e1@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Hey John, back in the day we put a helicopter oil cooler on our race car.
It way waaaay too efficient so we 'tuned' it with duct tape depending on the
ambient temp.
Simple but effective.
On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 5:54 PM, John Bange <jbange@gmail.com> wrote:
> Since I've never been happy with the way my oil temps climb above
> 220degF when laboring up and over hills in my tool and part laden work
> Vanagon, I went and bought an oil cooling system. The Mocal 19 row
> cooler squeezes in nicely behind the left taillight and gets great
> airflow. Unfortunately, I'm now seeing EXCESSIVE cooling. Even after
> roaring up the mountain pass at 65mph+ with half a ton of junk in the
> back, my oil temp gauge barely manages to break 150degF. Previously,
> before the oil cooler install, I'd see almost 225degF after a run like
> that. My first notion was that perhaps the sandwich plate thermostat,
> which is supposed to close the bypass hole at 180degF, was stuck and
> was pushing oil through the cooler all the time. When I got to work
> this morning the oil cooler was hot to the touch, so it's definitely
> seeing oil flow. I'm wondering, though, if perhaps it's not the
> sandwich plate thermostat stuck shut, but that the bypass is too
> small. It's not a very big hole, and the cooler is plumbed with AN-10
> hoses (a bit under 5/8" ID) which is pretty sizable. I can imagine
> 20W50 oil being thick enough to create enough of a pressure
> differential across that bypass hole that enough oil would be pushed
> "the long way 'round" through the cooler, reducing the oil
> temperature. Am I over-imagining, or has anyone else ever run into
> something like this? I'll likely be pulling the sandwich plate off and
> stove testing it in my wife's best cooking pot this weekend to sanity
> check the thermostat, but I'm still curious... am I going to have to
> install a manually operated flap to block airflow to the cooler just
> so I can reach adequate operating temperature?
> --
> John Bange
> '90 Vanagon - "Lastwagen"
> '90 Vanagon GL - "Wiesel"
>
--
Jake
1984 Vanagon GL
1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
Crescent Beach, BC
www.crescentbeachguitar.com
http://subyjake.googlepages.com/mydixiedarlin%27
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