Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2011 09:40:36 -0700
Reply-To: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Extra Oil cooler?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Hi all, I'll put the question at the top of this post, then add some
details below..
It occurred to me I might use my Vanagon rear heater as an auxiliary oil
cooler. Yes/no?
the rest of the story: I'm running an inline 4 ABA 2.0 liter VW motor in
my 5sp low top van with a partial westie interior. I have the rear heater
out and sitting on my bench, with the coolant lines properly plugged and the
van has been running fine for about 20k miles.
I am running the normal VW oil/coolant heat exchanger between the block
and the oil filter.
I recently flogged my van hard on a mountain trip. Most of the time the
coolant temp stayed normal and the oil temp was OK. The Oil Pressure at
speed was fine also. On the hardest longest steepest climb that I
encountered, I hit the hill bottom at around 80mph and kept the pedal down,
just to see how it would go. This was probably around a 7-8% grade for
about 6 miles of climbing. My speed slowly declined to around 70 with the
pedal on the floor, and held at that speed...In my van, that translates to
around 4000rpm. My Oil pressure was reading about 60psi(normal for that
rpm), coolant temp climbed about one needle width to mid-way between the
'cold zone' and the LED blinker. My Oil temp went from it's normal ~210f up
to around 230f. At about mile 5 of this climb, I saw some smoke behind and
got out of the throttle. My gauges were doing nothing alarming, but the oil
temp was higher than I like, I guess. So i am going to add a real oil
cooler. I am planning on getting the oil from a thermostatically controlled
sandwich plate at the oil filter, then taking it to a remote cooler and
back.
I began by going to the BAT (British American Transfer) site where I've
sourced my previous oil cooling parts (Mocal)... I started to work up a
parts list, went onto the Samba and looked at how Tencentlife had done his,
etc. Then I recalled my rear heater unit, sitting unused in my parts
pile. I dug it out. It has the right size heat exchanger (radiator) it
will fit where I plan to put one (driver's side D-pillar) and it has a fan
already built in, should I find I need one. The plumbing connectors are
about the right diameter for the hoses, etc..
If I can use that heater set-up rather than buying a Mocal, I can save
myself about $150. What think you all? Would the VW standard Vanagon rear
heater be ok to run hot engine oil through? The oil would be in the 230-
280f temp range, max.... and I see 50-65psi at operating temp for oil
pressure.
Thanks, Don Hanson
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