Oil Coolers and Remote Filters

[mkosem]

ok, I have a 94 Saturn SL1. The 1.9L LLO and LKO engines have the oil filter mounted in the dumbest place(above frame pieces) and when pulling the filter oil gets everywhere.

First, do remote oil coolers make any significant improvement in the temperature of the engine or the life of the oil in it?

Second, Is there any negative effect to relocating the oil filter to a different location and replacing it with a much larger one?

I would imagine that even if the bigger filter didn't make an improvement in the engint that just having more oil in the system would make a decent improvement in the wear of the engine. I'm interested in the cooler because I found a kit with the filter relocation and oil cooling and I'd like to get it.

--Matt

 

[Pablo]

I am a huge believer in more oil volume. LOGICALLY relocating the oil filter makes total sense when you have room and you have or can hire someone to engineer and install it correctly. Not rocket science but the life blood of your beast is now running through a couple exposed hoses. I have a full flow DUAL remote oil filter mount. I hang two FL-1A's from the thing.

I AM not a fan of oil coolers WITHOUT thermostats. Excessive oil cooling is dumb, dumber and dumbest.

Ah ah - a balance -

It makes no sense to force frozen morning cold oil through an oil cooler, but I'm amazed that people do it. My car came stock with an oil cooler (itza Volvo turbo), the oil thermostat is 180°F (as I recall) and sandwiched in the take off for the cooler betweem the block and the filter adapter take off. Does your cooler kit come with a 'stat?

 

[Ken2]

Engine oil needs to be normally warm. The neighborhood of 180°F is good. Any additional cooling should be regulated with a thermostatic bypass valve.

No problem I know of with remote filters, but a change of filters needs to be carefully matched for flow rate, bypass valve setting, fitration efficiency.


Ken

 

[JohnBrowning]

I am not a big fan of oil cooling. If the application must use additional oil cooling to get around design flaws or insane enviromental counditions then so be it. I consider coolers and their associated plumbing an additional leak path. It just adds to the list of possable failure items that can deadline a vechile!! If you are going to use a cooler try to plumb it with SS tubeing and no hydralic lines. If you must use Hydralic lines carry a spare set of lines in the trunk!

I also agree with Pablo's post!

 

[jsharp]

I have remote FL-1A sized filters on two of my vehicles, a Toyota and a Nissan. I put them on for a couple of reasons. They are much larger than the stock filters and they are more accessable.

The only places I've used oil coolers were air cooled motorcycle engines, and road racing cars where they are pretty much required. In every case they had thermostats set to 180 degrees. I just don't see oil coolers being useful in a street application. I agree with JB. They aren't a cure all for temperature problems that should be addressed in a different manner.

If you decide to do the remote filter spend the $$ and get the correct AN style fittings and braided stainless hose from one of the racing supply houses. Expect to spend over $100 on just the hose and fittings and and maybe $50 on the filter mount, and if you can't assemble it yourself correctly, take it to someone who can. And expect to need to do some fabrication for the remote mounting bracket etc. It's a bad place to try to save a buck so do it right.

Oh, another bonus I like is - They look cool...

[ August 02, 2003, 12:45 AM: Message edited by: jsharp ]

 

[Patman]

A recent thread on the Corvette Forum shows that a lot of the road racing C5s are seeing oil temps of 300F before the installation of a cooler! Those same cars after the cooler report drastic improvements, down to about 230F after the cooler.

On a daily driver though, oil coolers are often overkill and not needed. I still wish every car came with an accurate oil temperature gauge though. I'm thinking of installing one in my car sometime.

 

[Al]

I'm sorta with JohnBrowning. The addition of extra "stuff" could adversely affect reliability. To what degree is hard to say. More fittings more lines more opportunity of failure. It will obviously vary from application to application. Vehicles/engines are thoroughly tested to have the highest reliability. Unless there is a proven need to add extra cooling and filtering - personally I don't think its a good idea.

 

[greencrew]

Your biggest gain will be an accessable oil filter location. Make sure you find a location to mount the remote filter first as this will be an important consideration on what and chose. You will need three things

1) A location with space for a remote filter
2) Sturdy metal in that location to mount to
3) A good route for the oil lines to the filter

 

[Smoky14]

I do and don't agree with John B. The more places you break a line the more chances for a leak; that being said aircraft hoses, some carrying 3000psi have a life expectency of 10yrs without problems. Use good AN fittings and braded lines properly installed and they will out last the car without a leak.

 

[Mystic]

Where do you find space in the engine compartment of the Saturn SL1 and SL2 to locate that remote oil filter?

I agree that the oil filter on the Saturn SL1 and SL2 is located in the worst place it can be possibly located. The engineers who came up with that design should have to change oil filters on Saturn SL1s and SL2s until they realize that somebody has to get under the car and actually change that oil filter.