Covering Durango grille in winter to raise engine oil temperature
- Thread starter wwillson
- Start date
The Durango has an engine oil cooler with a good supply of coolant coming right from the radiator. Unfortunately, no oil cooler thermostat. To me, this is a design flaw. Why run around all winter with the oil pump in high pressure mode?
So it is fluid/fluid oil cooler (heat exchanger), not air/fluid oil radiator?
I guess they did not think this through all the way.
Mr. W, do you tow anything with said truck? And, if so, do you still block the air from entering thru the grill?
No, the Durango is my car.
Fluid/Fluid
I always thought the Durango was more of a truck/SUV than a car.
Oil temp was nearly always lower than the coolant temp in my 04 F150 with the 5.4 when temps were cool - like below freezing. I always attributed that to the relatively large sump (for the time) that was very exposed to airflow under the truck. Also seemed that the typically lower oil temps meshed with the 5w20 oil it used...
In temps like we have now, (below zero), I could drive for 2+ hours and the oil.temp might break 170. Coolant temp was 190-195.
The 4.6 3v in our explorer is similar - a bit higher temps since the sump is 1 quart smaller...
It is a SUV, but I use it like a car, as I don't pull anything.
Yeah, design flaw. BMW has it on X5 and X3 with N52 engines. But, it is DME controlled thermostat and water pump ( 4 different temperature settings, 110c for cruising, 80c for hard operations and some in between). They should go with regular oil radiator and thermostat.
It is cost savings. I have almost 8qt in 3ltr engine sump, but there is no way while cruising that oil temperature drops below 100c, and I just got back from skiing. Driving downhill, stick shift, braking with engine, temperature around 5 degrees, stubbornly set at 100-105c.
It’s designed to also help heat up the oil for improved fuel economy. But yeah, my 300 never really got above 160F-170F either, didn’t seem to bother it though and it would switch over and run at ~30psi.
Absolutely. It is primary reason why they install that. But, they didn’t think through cooling part. IMO, some kind of thermostat control should be there, mechanical or electric.
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Works fine on the larger 5.7L and 6.4L engines, per the pic I posted earlier in the thread. I suspect the smaller engine just doesn't make enough heat, in which case the OP's workaround is appropriate.
I had a similar situation with my M5 during the winter months, even with a thermostatically controlled oil cooler, the oil would not get up to operating temp. The engine was of course all aluminum and had a cooling system sized for track use.
Understand. It is just applying same components across the line up.
i am not questioning solution, it is tried and proven. I am not sure whether bumping viscosity would creat bit more heat, just to go over that threshold when pump is under stress.
Most heat exchangers run hot coolant through them, to keep the oil and coolant temps more equal. In case of the Durango it's strictly a cooler it seems
Yes, but, coolant will warm up much faster, so it will help getting oil to certain temperature even in really low ambient temperature. But, IMO they overdid it, or just wanted to use same parts that are made to fit largest engine they will but in vehicle. IMO this system is really good if there is some thermostatic control. In BMW this works really good, but than people are not happy bcs. it is more complex.
I agree, maybe a thermostatic valve can be added if desired though.
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