Does my radiator have an engine oil cooler?

Marky Dissod · Nov 7, 2024

Y'all keep calling the radiator's motor oil tank an oil 'cooler' - it's a heat exchanger.
It's actually meant to help motor oil reach minimum operating temp sooner.

However, once the motor oil reaches or exceeds minimum operating temp,
the coolant is actually warmed by the motor oil -
motor oil would be even hotter and coolant cooler if kept separate,
which can also increase oil consumption.

Sparksalot · Nov 7, 2024

Marky Dissod said:
Y'all keep calling the radiator's motor oil tank an oil 'cooler' - it's a heat exchanger.
It's actually meant to help motor oil reach minimum operating temp sooner.

However, once the motor oil reaches or exceeds minimum operating temp,
the coolant is actually warmed by the motor oil -
motor oil would be even hotter and coolant cooler if kept separate,
which can also increase oil consumption.

jared999 · Nov 7, 2024

Doubeleive said:
I have a business account on amazon so no sales tax and a lot of stuff is free shipping so amazon gets my money if the prices are close

You can do taxempt from Rockauto too if you set it up. They don't have free shipping, though.

mikez71 · Nov 7, 2024

strutaeng said:
@Doubeleive the adapter plate is part of the oil cooler lines assembly, no?

I ordered one before. The plate/block is part of the lines. The gasket and a bolt? are included too..

jared999 · Nov 7, 2024

Marky Dissod said:
Y'all keep calling the radiator's motor oil tank an oil 'cooler' - it's a heat exchanger.
It's actually meant to help motor oil reach minimum operating temp sooner.

All cooling systems are heat exchangers. I would think you can call them either or?

strutaeng · Nov 7, 2024

mikez71 said:
I ordered one before. The plate/block is part of the lines. The gasket and a bolt? are included too..

Yeah. I'm looking at the cooler lines (or whatever they are called?) and I see the same thing: gasket and even bolts are included.

I really should get these installed just to get them out of my garage TBH.

jared999 · Nov 7, 2024

Doubeleive said:
also kind of weird that a ltz doesn't have a oil cooler...

I was under the impression that the coolers (both engine and transmission cooling options) were only for the heavy duty (tow) packages. I could be wrong as I don't know what all of the standard options were on LTZ's.

Marky Dissod · Nov 8, 2024

jared999 said:
All cooling systems are heat exchangers. I would think you can call them either or?

I suppose this is true. That said:
I typically see air-to-oil / air-to-ATF as coolers because they are being cooled from the outside air.
I typically see coolant-to oil / coolant-to-ATF as exchangers because they exchange 'heats' with each other.

Typically, in the radiator's ATF heat exchanger, coolant is cooled, and ATF is heated.
This seems like a liability once the coolant exceeds 221F.
This also seems to explain why 'Tow Packages' ALSO include a separate air-to-ATF cooler.

Typically, in the radiator's motor oil heat exchanger, motor oil is cooled, and coolant is heated.
This seems to explain why some 'Police Packages' use a separate air-to-motor oil cooler vs an exchanger.

j91z28d1 · Nov 8, 2024

I can tell you from personal experience with oil cooling, the end tank oil coolers work very well. you'd need a huge front mount to match the cooling. enough that you'll end up blocking air to the radiator anyways.

nice neat package. in a high end race application the stock lines are a bit flow restricted thou. but usually there's a high pressure bypass in the block above the filter.

j91z28d1 · Nov 8, 2024

Marky Dissod said:
I suppose this is true. That said:
I typically see air-to-oil / air-to-ATF as coolers because they are being cooled from the outside air.
I typically see coolant-to oil / coolant-to-ATF as exchangers because they exchange 'heats' with each other.

Typically, in the radiator's ATF heat exchanger, coolant is cooled, and ATF is heated.
This seems like a liability once the coolant exceeds 221F.
This also seems to explain why 'Tow Packages' ALSO include a separate air-to-ATF cooler.

Typically, in the radiator's motor oil heat exchanger, motor oil is cooled, and coolant is heated.
This seems to explain why some 'Police Packages' use a separate air-to-motor oil cooler vs an exchanger.

atf is in the cooled side of the radiator, it should never hit 230deg or you'd see really high Temps in the cyl head Temps sensor.

oil is in the hot side, but 250deg oil is fine, it's actually very hot right after the pump compresses it to 60 or so psi, and then the filter and housing are right near the cats. in my ls3 car I had to put a dei heat shield on the oil filter, cat was baking the paint off it. running it thru the 200deg end tank sheds a ton of heat in my tests. and my sensor is in the pan before it goes thru hell. I've seen the difference of hitting 300deg in less then 2 laps with a front mount cooler, to run hot laps till the tires get greasy running it thru the radiator. no noticeable increase in coolent temp in the head sensor.

Does my radiator have an engine oil cooler?

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