Hi all,

A few things to set the scene. Electric water pump, good aftermarket radiator. Did not have any overheating issues until I started running the A/C and driving at highway speeds. Then the thermostat would start creeping up. Being paranoid and not entirely trusting of the temp gauge in the car (which I think is displaying about 10-15 degrees cooler than it actually is), I would kill the A/C when it got to 210 (heading north at the same rate). Car already has a remote oil filter. The engine is a Gen 1 SBC block.

I'm sure part of it is that the electric water pump is moving the water too quickly through the radiator for it to do a good job, I'm working to try to improve how efficient the radiator is (better shroud and fans), but thought I would go the extra step and put an engine oil cooler in.

So I'm looking at engine oil coolers. Here's the kicker/question. I already use a remote oil filter kit. I see some EOC kits come with their own remote oil filter adapter, but do I need to buy the kit? Or would I just buy extra hoses to plumb the EOC before (or after?) the filter?

I've read some older threads from people seeing pressure drops, but these appeared to be from people adapting Transmission coolers for oil cooling. Do I need to be concerned about this, or just buy hose that has the same I.D. as the hoses my remote kit is already using?

Any input or experienced suggestions welcome!

 

The faster the coolant flows through the radiator the more heat / energy will be rejected by the radiator.

The performance of a radiator increases in logarithmic way as the difference in average coolant temperature versus air temperature onto the radiator increases.

Average Coolant Temp = (Temp into Rad - Temp out of Rad) / 2 + Temp out of Rad.

As coolant flows quicker through the radiator, the temperature out of the radiator increases. Therefore the Average Coolant Temp increases and the difference between the cooling air temperature also increases. Therefore radiator performance increases.

In summary, faster coolant flow through the radiator is always better for thermal performance than lower coolant flow.

I know that this sounds a bit counter intuitive, but it is correct.

 

What engine are you running? The factory pump and radiator are decent and can keep a 350 cool with ac without issue. I want to make sure ytou are not using another cooler as a bandaid to cover up the real issue

 

Right: that's why we all put the lowest efficiency water pumps on our cars we can possibly find.

Why will these Friday night McDonalds parking lot monkey-spank myths JUST NOT DIE???? This is some of the stupidest bull dung that ever runs around about cars. It's just WRONG. Period. Always has been, always will be. No ifs ands buts maybes sometimeses or anything else. WRONG.

What your problem REALLY is, is too little fan, not moving enough air through the rad. And/or, your lower air dam is missing; which ultimately, is kinda the same thing... since the job of the air dam is to create a low-pressure zone UNDER the car and BEHIND the rad, to add some "suction" in the rear of it, to the "pressure" from the front that's trying to force air to flow through the rad as you drive down the road.

An engine oil cooler, while it gives you endless opportunities to bling up your car with nice high-$$$ stainless braided hose, won't materially affect your block temp.

Start with the air dam. You can make one out of a truck mud flap (just buy a cheeeeeeepie of that at a truck stop) and a piece of aluminum angle from yer local home improvement palace. Cut a strip of the mud flap long enough to go across the bottom of the rad core support and wide enough to come within 2" or so of the ground, cut the angle to the same length and drill it to match the factory air dam holes, bolt the rubber strip to the angle with about 7 bolts, bolt the angle to the air dam holes.

 

It's a 350, bored over to 355, running AFR 195cc heads.
The air dam is in tact, the radiator is a champion 3 core radiator (I don't have the part number handy right now), the fan is an aftermarket Perma-cool fan that was pushing more CFM than the original fan, and the shroud of that fits well against the radiator.

I'd rather avoid the discussion and driver for more insults around the water-pump flow issue, sorry I brought it up.
Can I ask that someone chime in on my question about where/how best to plumb in the engine oil cooler?

 

Easiest way to install one is use one of the adapters that goes between the oil filter and the engine. Although nothing about your combo should be overheating even with the stock system and the AC running. I would be more inclined to put effort into figuring out what is not right than to try to cover it up with an oil cooler.

 

Thanks Midias,

Given that I have a remote oil filter kit already, your recommendation would be to ditch that adapter and get one of the sandwich units, and put the filter back at it's stock location? Versus trying to put the oil cooler in-line somewhere in the chain before or after the remote oil filter?

Thanks again!

 

I would get a sandwich unit very similar to the stock style. Keep the filter in the factory place

https://www.ebay.com/itm/87-92-Camaro-IROC-Z-Z28-Firebird-Trans-Am-GTA-5-0-5-7-350-TPI-Engine-Oil-Cooler/362434415247?hash=item5462c64a8f:g:32gAAOSwqWNbOUBw

 

Nice! Thank you for the suggestion and the link!

 

What is the condition of the air dam? Is your fan in front of the radiator or in the stock location? Is it a single fan or dual? Can you post pictures of yourt entire system so we can gauge the issue? An oil cooler will not drop your engine temps you have another problem going on and it has to do with your cooling system.