Overheating? Oil line defect?

[midnight911]

It's nice and warm in Oregon...90 degrees. Oil seems to be nice and warm, too. Temp gauge pointing 9 o'clock or close to 10 o'clock just by cruising freeway at 60mph at 4th and 5th. At the track, the temp gauge goes beyond 10 o'clock and gets real close to red. I think I have some issues in oil cooling.

data: 95 3.6 in 84 chassis. gauge and temp sender are matched. Stock carrera oil cooler + mocal 44 rows in driver fender. Brad Penn 20-50.

removed side markers left and right. removed fog lights left and right. still hitting 9 o'clock on freeway. haven't gone to track (but will next Tue) to test how much these light removals helped...but suspect temp would still go up.

there is a minor crush in oil line just by the jack point.
Someone please tell me if this amount of crush is severely restricting oil flow to the front and should i consider repairing? Or should i try oil cooler fan first?

[DRACO A5OG]

I've got similar crushed oil lines and no fan at my front cooler. She definitely gets too hot on hot days or AutoX.

Since the crushed lines will only take $5.00 and alot of care to fix per Rusty.

I am planning on bolting on an after market Fan with Thermostat $168, Elephant Racing.

My understanding is this will make a noticable improvement.

Good thing is you can place the marker back on.

Jim

[slodave]

I've got a crushed line worse than in your pic and it was a touch above the 9:00 position during the last AX with 90-100 degree outdoor temps. No fan, all side markers are in place. I don't think the issue is with the spot in your pic.

[DRACO A5OG]

Hey Davido

So do you think it may be our thermostat?

That thing is freakin expensive $350

[midnight911]

my thermo is new. i stripped the thread out when replacing oil hose when converting to 3.6 last november. didn't know there was such a thing as thread saver and i bought the thermo new then. yep 350 is steep. the thermo should be good as the oil coolers also get hot.

[slodave]

Here are a few pix of my line.




Jim: I really don't have a clue. I think you have to remove the thermo to fully test it.

[86 911 Targa]

There are lots of recents posts/suggestions on repairing your oil lines.

Check Rusty Heap

[midnight911]

I'm not worried about how to repair. I'm more interested in did those fixed the line get lower temps and if did by how much. Very helpful if I had the info up front.
Search has not been a good friend for me on this...

[911s55]

Check this thread for additional info.
Hot Hot Hot !

David

[kidrock]

Originally Posted by DRACO A5OG

Hey Davido

So do you think it may be our thermostat?

That thing is freakin expensive $350

Is it really necessary to replace the entire thermostat? Are we talking about the auxiliary thermo unit which allows oil to flow towards the front cooler?

I thought you could retain the actual "body", and just replace the "internals"...which I believe are just a piston and spring? Please enlighten me.

[jevvy]

I dont think that crush will affect flow to the extent it would be hindering cooling too much.

Could you have an airlock between the 2 front coolers - do they both get hot?

I have a 3.6 and just 1 x 3.2 cooler up front which just about copes on hotish trackdays. To try to help things I have removed the fog light and bracket from the valance and also made an under tray to force all the air through the cooler - I also removed the side markers similar to you but I think this made things worse as the air was spilling out there rather than forcing more in. I have a spal fan fitted right up behind the headlight bucket(as to not obstruct the fig light air into the cooler) but that only makes any difference in stationary traffic. Last tweak to improve the cooling was to open up the slats on the cooler guard in the wheel well - I used a large adjustable spanner closed up on the slats top open them up to just not allow any stones through but to give the air from the cooler a straighter exit path.

When pressing on during trackdays I can get it almost to the 2nd white mark at which point I do a few slower laps then build back up. I want to get a bit more cooling so I would expect your setup to cope quite well.

[DRACO A5OG]

Originally Posted by midnight911

I'm not worried about how to repair. I'm more interested in did those fixed the line get lower temps and if did by how much. Very helpful if I had the info up front.
Search has not been a good friend for me on this...

Hmm. I just ordered the aftermarket fan from Elephant Racing. I will report back if the fan helped or not.

My understanding is that it flows twice as much air as the OEM fan and the auto switch is adjustable to switch at lower temps or higher.

I shall see.

over,

[midnight911]

Originally Posted by DRACO A5OG

Hmm. I just ordered the aftermarket fan from Elephant Racing. I will report back if the fan helped or not.

My understanding is that it flows twice as much air as the OEM fan and the auto switch is adjustable to switch at lower temps or higher.

I shall see.

over,

Jim,
that would be extremely helpful. search hit few posts saying don't waste time messing with air flow to the cooler, just get the fan and you are set. Your data point would substantiate...

[jevvy]

I think you have it the wrong way round - fans only really help when stationary/going very slow and unless you mount then up behind the headlight bowl then they just make things worse when on the move by blocking some air from going through the cooler. This is my Spal fan:

[DRACO A5OG]

Jevvy,

Very interesting, is there a reason why you placed yours up behind the tub?

Elephant Racing seems to have their unit at the bottom portion:
http://www.elephantracing.com/images/oillines/fan/aftermarketfanoncooler.gif

The OEM also appears to be at the bottom portion:

[slodave]

I have to agree with jevvy. The fan was supposed to kick on when the car is stationary (or in traffic).

I also have to agree, again, that the OP's oil line is not causing the problem. Per the thread that was listed, do your lines get HOT (careful when touching them!!!!) or just warm?

[jevvy]

Originally Posted by DRACO A5OG

Jevvy,

Very interesting, is there a reason why you placed yours up behind the tub?

Yes I put it there to keep the flow from the foglight hole to the oil cooler as clear as possible, just needed 1 spacer at the top and a small dent in the back of the headlight bowl to get it all to fit.

I have only ever used it 2 or 3 times when stuck in traffic and it manages to stop temps rising when standing still/hardly moving but it wont bring the temp down by much at all.

Sod all use on track as there is more air going through the cooler after all the ducting/sealing mods than the fan could ever generate.

I'd deffo be checking your 2nd cooler is getting as hot as the primary one and are you sure you got matched gauge and sender - worth a double check with an infra red thermometer as you might be chasing a problem that doesn't exist.

[175K911]

midnight-
My BIL has a 3.6 built to 3.8 in his SC, car sees lots of track time with both he and my sister driving it. Same combination of oil coolers as your car- factory Carrera cooler in the right front, Instant-g conversion mounting another Carrera cooler in the left front. No fans. He ran fairly hot but rarely over 225 when he first installed the engine and the second cooler. Then he pulled his headlights out, punched holes in the buckets, and it's rare he ever sees much over 200 on even the hottest track day, usually 190'ish. He'd tried removing the blinkers, but saw no difference in temp. So your cooler setup should be just fine for your stock 3.6 if it's good enough for a 300+hp 3.8.

I don't think your oil line kink is causing the problem. Mine was kinked worse than yours. Replaced the line with an Elephant finned line and made no difference on the track. (Didn't want to repair the line- a failure could be catastrophic on the track.) Tried pulling my right front blinker and marker out, again no difference on the track.

Can you find/borrow a temp probe? Check the oil temps on the lines going into and out of the thermostat. Do you have any kinks in any of the lines going across the front of the car? Any restriction in the lines will cause enough pressure buildup that the thermostat will not open to allow oil to the coolers. Also, check the temps on the inlet and outlet of the left cooler. Basically check the temps throughout the entire oil loop. Your setup should have sufficient capacity to keep the engine in an acceptable range.

[DRACO A5OG]

Hey Dave & Jevvy,

My lines get extremely hot, and will measure the heat today. I can alos hear the oil sloshing around when it is hits 9:00 ish on th etemp guage.

175K911 made a good observation, he opened up the tub and it dropped the temp. Then it would make sense to place the fan on the upper portion of the cooler. Very interesting, I wonder why ER and PAG both have it the bottom portion.

Dent the tub? I think ER's fan is slimmer so Maybe no need to dent the tub, will certainly see and report.

[FPB111]

The crushed oil line is restricting flow.