Hello! Long time lurker, first time poster!
I have a 2015 Subaru WRX and was planning on attending a few HPDE track days with it. Right now I'm considering picking up an aftermarket air-to-liquid oil cooler for the car and wanted to get a few opinions from the collective minds here on BITOG!
For reference, the car has somewhat of an OEM liquid-to-liquid oil cooler/warmer that is placed right below the oil filter. It basically just routes coolant through the "warmer/cooler" in order to both warm and cool the oil. Here's a pic for reference:
On the street, the OEM oil cooler seems to do just fine. With outside temps in the mid 80's, my oil temps stay around 200-210dF while in town and rise slightly to 205-215dF on the freeway. However, a couple of quick 3rd/4th gear pulls quickly result in oil temps jumping into the mid 220's range.
I've done a bit of searching to see what kind of oil temps people are seeing while tracking these cars. One guy claimed that while only pushing it to about 7/10ths his oil was hitting 230dF and he backed off... several have claimed their on track oil temps were in the 240-250dF range, which sounds about right to me, given what I know about the car.
The car is running Subaru recommended 5w-30 synthetic. I won't be competitively racing the car, but would like it to hopefully hold up to ~20 minute sessions on track.
There are a couple of aftermarket air-to-liquid oil cooler kits available that I'm thinking about getting and both types are direct bolt-ons:
#1. One is a kit that works in conjunction with the OEM liquid-to-liquid oil warmer/cooler- http://www.mishimoto.com/subaru-wrx-oil-cooler-kit-15.html
-On average this kit seems to run oil temperatures roughly ~25dF lower than normal.
-It keeps the OEM warmer/cooler in the loop, which could in theory help to heat cold oil a bit quicker in the winter (although this effect is diminished by the extra cooler), as well as cool it a bit more under high stress conditions.
-Although I've seen several reports of people running oil temps in the 178-190 F range with this setup on the street.
-Its slightly cheaper than the #2 option, which is a plus.
#2. This setup bypasses the OEM warmer/cooler and instead uses a thermostat to control the flow of the oil to the cooler- http://www.mishimoto.com/subaru-wrx-thermostatic-oil-cooler-kit-15.html or http://perrinperformance.com/i-13427996-oil-cooler-kit-for-fr-s-brz.html
-Both the Mishimoto and Perrin setups are very similar.
-People generally see around a ~20* F reduction in oil temps with this setup.
-They both come with a 185* F thermostat, but can be spec'd with a higher temp 200* F thermostat instead.
-Doesn't offer quite the same amount of cooling as the #1 setup (still better than stock), but it should be easier to control minimum oil temps.
^^^For reference, all of the kits listed above can easily be found for well under their MSRP prices. Also, the #1 option cannot easily be used with a thermostat (best of both worlds) due to hood clearance issues.
My questions:
1. With oil temps in the 240-250* F range (on track), would you invest in an aftermarket oil cooler for occasional track days?
2. If so, which option listed above would you go with? I'm leaning towards the #2 option, just for the ability to more easily control minimum oil temps.
3. Since some people are reporting 178-190 F oil temps for daily driving (#1 setup), are these temps too low? Any potential issues with running oil temps that low? I'm especially concerned about oil temps not even getting that high during the winter here in Denver, CO.
4. Is the extra cooling worth the slight loss in oil pressure? Oil pressure at peak seems to drop from around 90psi to around 85psi.
Thanks in advance!
-Brandon
I have a 2015 Subaru WRX and was planning on attending a few HPDE track days with it. Right now I'm considering picking up an aftermarket air-to-liquid oil cooler for the car and wanted to get a few opinions from the collective minds here on BITOG!
For reference, the car has somewhat of an OEM liquid-to-liquid oil cooler/warmer that is placed right below the oil filter. It basically just routes coolant through the "warmer/cooler" in order to both warm and cool the oil. Here's a pic for reference:
On the street, the OEM oil cooler seems to do just fine. With outside temps in the mid 80's, my oil temps stay around 200-210dF while in town and rise slightly to 205-215dF on the freeway. However, a couple of quick 3rd/4th gear pulls quickly result in oil temps jumping into the mid 220's range.
I've done a bit of searching to see what kind of oil temps people are seeing while tracking these cars. One guy claimed that while only pushing it to about 7/10ths his oil was hitting 230dF and he backed off... several have claimed their on track oil temps were in the 240-250dF range, which sounds about right to me, given what I know about the car.
The car is running Subaru recommended 5w-30 synthetic. I won't be competitively racing the car, but would like it to hopefully hold up to ~20 minute sessions on track.
There are a couple of aftermarket air-to-liquid oil cooler kits available that I'm thinking about getting and both types are direct bolt-ons:
#1. One is a kit that works in conjunction with the OEM liquid-to-liquid oil warmer/cooler- http://www.mishimoto.com/subaru-wrx-oil-cooler-kit-15.html
-On average this kit seems to run oil temperatures roughly ~25dF lower than normal.
-It keeps the OEM warmer/cooler in the loop, which could in theory help to heat cold oil a bit quicker in the winter (although this effect is diminished by the extra cooler), as well as cool it a bit more under high stress conditions.
-Although I've seen several reports of people running oil temps in the 178-190 F range with this setup on the street.
-Its slightly cheaper than the #2 option, which is a plus.
#2. This setup bypasses the OEM warmer/cooler and instead uses a thermostat to control the flow of the oil to the cooler- http://www.mishimoto.com/subaru-wrx-thermostatic-oil-cooler-kit-15.html or http://perrinperformance.com/i-13427996-oil-cooler-kit-for-fr-s-brz.html
-Both the Mishimoto and Perrin setups are very similar.
-People generally see around a ~20* F reduction in oil temps with this setup.
-They both come with a 185* F thermostat, but can be spec'd with a higher temp 200* F thermostat instead.
-Doesn't offer quite the same amount of cooling as the #1 setup (still better than stock), but it should be easier to control minimum oil temps.
^^^For reference, all of the kits listed above can easily be found for well under their MSRP prices. Also, the #1 option cannot easily be used with a thermostat (best of both worlds) due to hood clearance issues.
My questions:
1. With oil temps in the 240-250* F range (on track), would you invest in an aftermarket oil cooler for occasional track days?
2. If so, which option listed above would you go with? I'm leaning towards the #2 option, just for the ability to more easily control minimum oil temps.
3. Since some people are reporting 178-190 F oil temps for daily driving (#1 setup), are these temps too low? Any potential issues with running oil temps that low? I'm especially concerned about oil temps not even getting that high during the winter here in Denver, CO.
4. Is the extra cooling worth the slight loss in oil pressure? Oil pressure at peak seems to drop from around 90psi to around 85psi.
Thanks in advance!
-Brandon
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