Date: Sat, 24 Aug 2013 21:54:25 -0400
Reply-To: Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Bus Boys Oil Cooler Kit
In-Reply-To: <0F5A9776-8B3A-4C7B-AE72-FAA2A3D1B841@gmail.com>
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I for one am a fan of adding an oil cooler to the Waterboxer. However I
still ask the customer why? For moderate driving speeds and loads it should
not be necessary. If you have oil pressure or temperature problem that
probably should be fixed. A well designed and installed cooling system will
cost as much as a down payment on an engine job and if your engine is bad it
will need to be done at some point anyway. If your driving demands are such
that the oil cooling system is getting taxed that you should consider adding
additional cooling. Do keep in mind that no matter what design and quality
of components you use you are ultimately adding additional points of
failure. These failures can not only create the inconvenience of a
breakdown but hot oil flying all over the place can also be a fire hazard
and dropping oil on the road or spraying the car behind you can create some
nasty cleanup costs. As part of these considerations you want to keep the
oil lines low and as much as possible out of the engine compartment. The one
thing worse than a gasoline fire is a fire with gasoline and oil or diesel
fuel mixed in. One burns hot and fast, the other slow. Add them both and you
got a real mess. If you have a camper with propane you'll have some more
fun.
That said the most important part is determining the capacity required and
the expected usage. Do you have oil temperature and pressure gauges now?
That will tell you a lot. From experience flat plate coolers such as
http://www.holley.com/21600ERL.asp work the best. Oil is difficult to cool
as it creates a self-insulating layer. This design ensures contact without
outer stagnation and dwell time needed to give the oil time to shed the
heat. The 16 plate is my standard for the Waterboxer. You will need a
thermostat.
Next is location. Primary cooling should never rely completely on an
electric fan. The 16 or 19 plate can be fitted in front of the radiator-AC
condenser. This works best for highway travel and for low speed operation
the radiator fan will supply air flow when needed. At low engine speeds oil
cooling is usually not needed. The oil will follow the coolant temperature.
For the 2.1L engines there is also the choice of where to preserve or
discard the original oil to water heat exchanger. If using a "sandwich"
adapter there is also the choice of placing the new oil cooler before or
after the original heat exchanger. Unless you deal with really cold weather
and short trips my choice is to remove the original cooler.
Next choice is to either use a sandwich adapter with a thermostat or a
remote thermostat. I find the best control is a remote. Most of the sandwich
adapter thermostats have limited bypass so some oil always flows through the
cooler. Keep in mind that most oil cooler thermostats will start to cool as
early as 160F and are usually in full cooling mode at 180 or so. This allows
use of lighter viscosity oils in cold weather as the oil temperature is now
somewhat effected by temperature. Regardless of how much oil cooling
capacity you have the combination of flow (volume over time) and the cooler
outlet approaching ambient limit with enough speed and load you will see
time when the oil temp will still rise above the cooler thermostat setting.
Now for the oil filter placement. Some suggest that you want the filter
before the cooler as the hot oil flows better. Well if the thermostat is
working only warm oil will be coming back to the engine. Over time the
system will need to be opened for service, hoses will fail internally and
other stuff just happens. I want that filter to catch everything that might
come back to the engine. The sandwich adapter will usually work that way
anyway.
For the hoses I like the Aeroquip "Socketless". Reasonable price, easy to
work with, and proven reliability. However, I like to keep hose sections
short. I like to use 5/8 or 3/4 copper or steel tube for most of the trip.
I use 3/8 copper from the sandwich adapter to an in line thermostat mounted
to a bracket at the front of the engine. Then 2ft. hose sections to the
steel or copper tubing. Up front short hose sections from the tube to the
cooler.
Dennis
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Paul Rogers
Sent: Saturday, August 24, 2013 12:24 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Bus Boys Oil Cooler Kit
Howdy,
I'm thinking about getting one of these kits and would appreciate any
input/thoughts from the list. I'm not committed to this one yet so if there
are any suggestions on other similar products I all ears.
TIA,
Paul in Tracy
Sent from my iPlace
