Do we actually "need" an oil cooler??

[Gloucesternige]

Hi all,

As some of you will know, I have removed the coolant hoses from my Oil cooler on my '17GT and replaced the plastic double T piece with a piece of 40mm tube.

So, I am now running with no oil cooler as such, (I will soon be removing the whole casting for the RHD Mustang and replacing it with a small take off plate to fit a remote filter and possibly a cooler). Today I went for a round town 50 mile drive with a lot of stop start and a few blasts, so pretty much an average drive for most?
The oil temp didn't even move to completely vertical on the gauge, just like before, so I ask the question.. "Do we actually need an oil cooler at all"? Not all cars have them from the factory.

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[raptor17GT]

I've had the oil cooler/ engine breaker removed for about 8 months now and oil temps are fine according to guage. Like you, needle has never moved to vertical so not even close to getting an issue. Guess being in the north helps !

 

[Gloucesternige]

I've had the oil cooler/ engine breaker removed for about 8 months now and oil temps are fine according to guage. Like you, needle has never moved to vertical so not even close to getting an issue. Guess being in the north helps !

Thanks for your reply Sir. I have always thought it a little strange when you look at the size of the coolers in the off the shelf kits for our cars.. they're huge!!

I guess ten laps of a circuit would show a different outcome, but for most of us...

The peace of mind knowing I am not going get coolant and oil mixing anywhere now is worth the work required.

 

[Gregs24]

The oil cooler will be there for the absolute extremes, which on roads in the UK will rarely be encountered. It is there for Death Valley, Australian Outback, Saharan Africa, and the odd track day!

 

[Gloucesternige]

The oil cooler will be there for the absolute extremes, which on roads in the UK will rarely be encountered. It is there for Death Valley, Australian Outback, Saharan Africa, and the odd track day!

I reckon it also serves as a heat exchanger to heat the oil quicker by transferring heat from the coolant on cold starts?
I have just ordered the Mishimoto blanking plate to be rid of the thing all together until the exchange rate is better and I can buy some gear from the US.

 

[Veteran]

The oil cooler will be there for the absolute extremes, which on roads in the UK will rarely be encountered. It is there for Death Valley, Australian Outback, Saharan Africa, and the odd track day!

You won’t find a mustang in Saharan Africa. Only donkeys.

 

[raptor17GT]

I reckon it also serves as a heat exchanger to heat the oil quicker by transferring heat from the coolant on cold starts?
I have just ordered the Mishimoto blanking plate to be rid of the thing all together until the exchange rate is better and I can buy some gear from the US.

I'm sure that's the plate fitted to mine. As you say, with the cooler removed the risk of oil and coolant mixing is removed and unless you live on the Isle of Man or do track days it's not a required item. I do think it helps warm the oil up faster like you say but we can live without it. If it is needed then a route similar to the GT350 or MACH 1 will do. The replacement radiators are huge and seem overkill not to mention I've seen folks reporting failures as the new pipe routing can cause issues which is not the intention of the OEM cooler removal mod!

 

[Gloucesternige]

I'm sure that's the plate fitted to mine. As you say, with the cooler removed the risk of oil and coolant mixing is removed and unless you live on the Isle of Man or do track days it's not a required item. I do think it helps warm the oil up faster like you say but we can live without it. If it is needed then a route similar to the GT350 or MACH 1 will do. The replacement radiators are huge and seem overkill not to mention I've seen folks reporting failures as the new pipe routing can cause issues which is not the intention of the OEM cooler removal mod!

I notice the FP oil take off plate uses -10 fittings and warns that smaller fittings may cause a restriction in the flow? I was shocked to see that a -10 hose at 4 bar pressure will flow nearly twice as much oil as a -8 hose. The internal difference in diameter is just over 3mm!! (5/8” vs 1/2”).

 

[Gregs24]

You won’t find a mustang in Saharan Africa. Only donkeys.

and Camels. You can certainly get a Mustang in Morocco which is Saharan.

 

[momalle1]

Absolutely need? No. Why would you want to remove it though? Oil is one of the most important things to your engine. Why not have every single advantage you can?

 

[raptor17GT]

Absolutely need? No. Why would you want to remove it though? Oil is one of the most important things to your engine. Why not have every single advantage you can?

Because the rhd oil cooler has a history of failure allowing oil and coolant to mix which ruins the engine. Fine while car under warranty but not so handy when owner picking up repair bill. With Ford's parts bin they managed to chose the weakest replacement for us rhd folks. Steering rack I think is the cause of the parts needing changed over lhd.

 

[Supersolo]

The oil temp didn't even move to completely vertical on the gauge, just like before, so I ask the question.

Have you installed an oil temp gauge?

 

[raptor17GT]

Have you installed an oil temp gauge?

in built gauge does a good job of displaying it. No worse than any other display in the car.

 

[Gloucesternige]

As Raptor has rightly said here, the RHD cooler is a ticking time bomb for a small percentage of owners. As I explained in my video there are two issues that I’ve heard no one else talk about.

Oil pressure is higher than coolant pressure at all times, unless you serious wear in your engine, so, if your driving along the road with a warmed up engine and the cooler fractures internally, the oil will rush into your coolant system and force the oil/ water mix out which will alarm you as there will be steam and hot oil pouring out of your coolant system. So.. you pull over and switch the engine off. Now the coolant pressure is higher than your static engines pressure, so the coolant will now rush back through the ruptured oil cooler and fill your sump with water. If you are a non mechanically minded person you may wait for everything to cool down and restart your journey, at which point you will probably destroy your engine.
The best cooler failure mode is for it to leak coolant out, you’ll just get an overheat situation. If you leak oil out you have a few seconds to stop the engine.
Either way, I’d rather be rid of it and not worry about it.
I will more than likely fit a remote cooler and will definitely fit a remote oil filter in the next few weeks.

 

[fya67k]

As Raptor has rightly said here, the RHD cooler is a ticking time bomb for a small percentage of owners. As I explained in my video there are two issues that I’ve heard no one else talk about.

Oil pressure is higher than coolant pressure at all times, unless you serious wear in your engine, so, if your driving along the road with a warmed up engine and the cooler fractures internally, the oil will rush into your coolant system and force the oil/ water mix out which will alarm you as there will be steam and hot oil pouring out of your coolant system. So.. you pull over and switch the engine off. Now the coolant pressure is higher than your static engines pressure, so the coolant will now rush back through the ruptured oil cooler and fill your sump with water. If you are a non mechanically minded person you may wait for everything to cool down and restart your journey, at which point you will probably destroy your engine.
The best cooler failure mode is for it to leak coolant out, you’ll just get an overheat situation. If you leak oil out you have a few seconds to stop the engine.
Either way, I’d rather be rid of it and not worry about it.
I will more than likely fit a remote cooler and will definitely fit a remote oil filter in the next few weeks.

This unit is in my opinion 'incorrectly named'. Its a Water to Oil Heat Exchanger wherebye the water heats the Oil. The Water will always be hotter than the oil if you think about it and its sole purpose is to raise the Oil Temp as fast as possible to reduce the wear on the engine during Cold Start-ups.
It will never work as an Oil Cooler!

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