DeTomaso Mailing List: June 2001, Message #49

Last time at TWS, I was running 300 degrees on my oil temp gauge 
after 10-15 minutes of hard running and shifting at 7000 rpm. If I 
short shift at 6,000, I'll see my oil temp drop slowly. All those 
rpms sure generate heat...

I figured I needed an oil cooler, since I'd seen the gauge pegged at 
300 in the past. (Jack Tunnell suggested that I should just tape over 
the gauge, since I hadn't worried about it before I got an oil temp 
gauge! :-)))) )

After discussion with Dennis Q., I ended up with a Fluidyne oil/water 
cooler (I think that's the supplier...). I added it between the swirl 
tank and the lower radiator pipe that comes over the frame rail. The 
lower pipe had to be shortened and bent to get it all to fit.

One oil line comes off the filter adapter and routes around the front 
of the engine and the other goes around the back of the oil pan. It's 
a tight fit and the cooler is a little closer to the right header 
than I'd like, but it works. At least on the highway...

I used to run 225 degrees of oil temp when cruising at 3500 rpm at 
over 80mph. Short tires and 4:22 gears... Water temp would sit nicely 
at right around 180.

Since installation of the cooler, my oil temp dropped to 200 and my 
water temp went up to 185. Same conditions on the highway. I realize 
that this is just on the street and I won't really know if it works 
on the track or not until Pocono, but I figure if it dropped that 
much on the street, I should see nearly the same amount on the track.

I like your idea, Fred. It would surely make a cleaner installation 
and reduce the length of the oil hoses.

By the way, when the thermostat in the adapter opens up, I see about 
a 4-5psi drop in my oil pressure. It used to run at 70psi when hot. 
Now it runs at around 65psi.

FWIW,

Kirby


At 9:01 -0400 2/6/01, F. & D. Terry wrote:
>To the List,
>
>As another way to utilize the oil pan for oil cooling, does it sound
>reasonable to install a heat exchanger of some type in the pan? The
>Fluidyne oil to water cooler appears to be quite compact and if the area
>devoted to oil was removed it seems the portion remaining for water
>would not be that large.
>
>I'm not suggesting the disassembly of a Fluidyne oil cooler but instead
>constructing a heat exchanger in an enlarged oil pan. The Pantera
>coolant pipes are located so their connection to the pan's exchanger
>would be easy.
>
>If there is a concern with a failure of the exchanger, how does Fluidyne
>cope with this possibility? If anyone thinks this is worth pursuing, I
>have a spare engine with a pan I could try modifying.
>
>	Fred T.


-- 


/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Kirby Schrader                   schrader@ev1.net
                                
'71 Pantera #1661            
'78 Longchamp GTS #3001 (It's for sale!)
'96 Mustang GT  The wife's
'97 Mustang Cobra   My son's
'01 Lightning

http://users.ev1.net/~schrader/