Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Personally i don't like the Rube Goldberg complexity of the thing with multiple points of failure added to BOTH the cooling system and the oiling system.
A nice flat plate cooler up front and a sandwich adapter is very simple to install.
I think the factory likes the oil-to-water heat exchange because the water actually heats the oil under mild driving conditions, helping to make the engine temp more uniform and get the oil up to working temp more quickly. Reverse-flow cooling ala GM LSx engines evens the block/head temperature, so does use of a return-side thermostat and high bypass flow rate that Ford and Chrysler both use now. But neither of those alone gets the oil up to operating temp quickly under light loading. An oil-to-coolant heat exchanger lets the coolant heat the oil under light loading, and lets the oil shed heat to the coolant under heavy loading. The things that struck me most about my SRT-8 oil temp when I first got the are are: a) its pretty high all the time- always over 220F, and b) its very constant, rarely swinging more than 10 degrees F between light cruising in cold weather to hard driving in hot weather. The highest I've seen for more than a few minutes at a time is 235F (but I haven't tracked the car yet ;-). The lowest I've ever seen sustained is about 215F in moderate cruising last winter.
IMO the factory cooler design does a decent job of minimizing failure points for the oil side by not routing any oil through flexible hoses. The coolant comes to the "sandwich" heat exchanger at the oil filter base, the oil never leaves it. In contrast, a plate cooler runs high pressure oil through flexible hoses out to the front of the car and back.
The factory layout does add complexity for the coolant- two more rubber hoses to bring coolant over to the oil filter base and then return it to the water pump. And there's the (unlikely) possibility of cross-contamination if the cooler fails.
love having access to DealerConnect