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Removing oil cooler

eagle mark

eagle mark

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The 90 Suburban I have has an oil cooler on it which I need to remove. The truck just does not warm up in cold weather. I had a 9C1 Police car that did the same thing in winter here. But that cooler was easy access and I just made a cover.

This one is to packed in so I want to remove the adapter that is conected to were the oil filter is? If I take this off am I going to be missing anything to put the filter back on?

oil cooler.jpg
 
How about?..

Cant you just "loop" the lines together??..I'd be leery of blocking the holes with plugs,it might disrupt the flow of oil somehow..I'm considering doing the same to my 6.2,its oil cooler hoses are ready to rot through pretty quick,and I only use it mostly in the winter to plow my yard..:crazy:
 
eagle mark said:
The 90 Suburban I have has an oil cooler on it which I need to remove. The truck just does not warm up in cold weather. I had a 9C1 Police car that did the same thing in winter here. But that cooler was easy access and I just made a cover.

This one is to packed in so I want to remove the adapter that is conected to were the oil filter is? If I take this off am I going to be missing anything to put the filter back on?
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I had the same issue with my rig not warming up in the winter so I installed one of the thermostats they have for this situation. I also have dual trans coolers and used the thermostat on the trans as well. It is a great way to have the extra cooling if and when you need it, towing, too much stupid pedal, or just a warm summer day.
 
go purchase an oil filter adapter from summitracing.com and it'll work fine. you unbolt the old adapter, which is 2 bolts, then bolt in the new one with the shorter 2 bolts provided. completely removes the oil cooler fittings from the block as well....a very simple swap, 5 minutes total. I purchased the mr. gasket kit due to it being a little cheaper than some of the others.
 
removing the engine oil cooler really isn't going to help your rig warm up any faster if that's what you're expecting it to do.
 
4X4HIGH said:
removing the engine oil cooler really isn't going to help your rig warm up any faster if that's what you're expecting it to do.
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Yes it will. I've been through this before.
 
If you say so.

If you want to test it out to find out put a piece of cardboard in front of the oil cooler and see what happens.
 
Just no room or I would make one for 3/4 of the year.

For anyone that has never run an oil cooler in the winter on a rig that hardly ever tows, my Chevy 9C1 police car would never hit operating temp in winter unless I was doing 70 on the freeway.

Yes thermostat is new and working correctly. These coolers are just overkill unless your towing. And how many rigs tow and don't even use a oil cooler?
 
My 88 F250 HD has the oil cooler on it, and even though the temp gauge never gets above 1/4, I still get plenty of hot air on heat/defrost.:D
 
There is no way that an oil cooler alone will make a properly operating cooling system run too cold. They are far too small to eliminate all the heat coming from a SBC, which is what you are saying is happening.

If the thermostat is shut, the ONLY cooling the engine is seeing is through radiation off the block, and the oil. It isn't cold enough anywhere to remove the cooling system from a SBC that I'm aware of. Since the fan is shut off at low engine temps anyways, the cooling from the oil cooler would then be based solely on radiation, or if moving, the air passing through.

I am one of probably thousands running a stock oil cooler, not towing, and going out in below freezing conditions. I have never had a problem with it not warming up. The ONLY time I've had a problem with an engine not warming up was when a PO had removed the thermostat.

GM simply would not have installed these things if what you describe was a function of their design. There is no way GM could ever have restricted vehicles with oil coolers to warmer climates.

As mentioned, finding a SBC with the oil filter off of it (non-cooler equipped) will net you the piece needed to replace yours.
 
Something unknown by most is that those aftermarket oil t-stats don't totally by-pass the cooler when the oil temp is low. They bleed a little oil thru them all of the time to purge any air that might get in there from an oil replacement.

It is an assumption, but it would be reasonable to assume that GM's t-stat arrangement does the same thing.

The rule of thumb is that you loose 1/3 of the heat (in the form of fuel) put into an IC thru the coolant system, 1/3 thru the lubricatiing system, and the last 1/3 is turned into power. If that is how things actually work then an oil cooler's impact could be fairly significant. I don't live where we get cold weather, so I've no direct experience with it. I do live where we get hot weather & I can say that an engine oil cooler has a large impact on hot operating temps. I also recall from my A/C & Refridge class that "the more radical the temp difference, the more radical the reaction." Given that, it seems like cold weather would make the oil cooler's efficiency better than in hot weather.
 
dyeager535 said:
I am one of probably thousands running a stock oil cooler, not towing, and going out in below freezing conditions. I have never had a problem with it not warming up. The ONLY time I've had a problem with an engine not warming up was when a PO had removed the thermostat.
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I'm another one with a stock RPO KC4 oil cooler setup, which came as part of the RPO Z82 tow package.

It can get colder than a witch's...toe...around here in the winter. It's not Barrow, Alaska, but it can get a little chilly. My coolant temp hits 200-205 and stays there, no matter if it's super cold or super hot outside. The factory HD clutch fan does a fine job. I get cab heat pretty rapidly, and the oil temp gauge stays pretty dormant until the oil cooler thermostat opens, then it starts rising slowly (we put the oil temp sender is downstream of the factory oil stat) - the oil pressure drops about 15psi at the same time the oil stat opens, another sign that it just started allowing flow to the cooler).
 
Well, the converse would then be true...if an engine gets too cold from an oil cooler being so effective (using your 1/3 figure) then the actual radiator side would be taxed an additional 1/3 if the oil cooler was removed. Like you said, that would be significant, and is so often the case in the auto realm, all the variables possible can lead to very different results. I understand the 1/3 is a rough number, but just putting it into perspective...remove part of the efficiency of the cooling system, something else has to completely absorb that impact, or the overall temp increases.

Of course, that would also assume the oil cooler is as effective as the radiator, but given it's size and location, that can't even be remotely true. Then again, oil capacity of about 5 quarts, coolant capacity what, 16 quarts or so? (pure guess on coolant capacity to include the block) Stock oil cooler is still much less than 1/3 the capacity and efficiency of a stock truck radiator I'd have to venture.

I am not aware that GM uses any sort of temperature device on the stock coolers, there is certainly nothing in the lines or cooler, and if it's inside the adapter, it would have to be pretty small. I've had multiple in my hands and never noticed anything that looked to govern flow based on temp. Never dealt with aftermarket oil cooler stuff, didn't know some used a thermostat for the oil. Makes sense though, heating the oil up to a certain extent is a good and necessary event.
 
It seems reasonable that an oil cooler would delay engine warm-up if ithe system lacks a t-stat.

I've noticed that in some cases of mild overheating where nothing else helps an otherwise sound engine that adding an engine oil cooler will make a marginal to large difference.
I don't think that 1/3 is is transfered to the coolant when w/o a cooler, but obviously some has to be. What I don't know is if the oft quoted 1/3-1/3 numbers are b4 or after adding the cooler.

The t-stat that I've used or seen used most often is the Mocal unit from BAT
thermo3.gif
 
the only thing I have to add is that my '90 sub, still had an oil cooler and even in -20F weather it still got just as hot as it did on a 95F summer day. and on a friends '87 he removed the oil cooler and that blazer didn't run any warmer.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by 4X4HIGH
removing the engine oil cooler really isn't going to help your rig warm up any faster if that's what you're expecting it to do.

Yes it will. I've been through this before.
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Sorry to bring this TTT, but I never got a chance to reply when it was on the front page.

FWIW, EVERY SINGLE TRUCK I OWN has an oil cooler system installed on it, and even at -35' Celcius(-31' Farenheit), the motor don't run cold. Even if they did, I just can't believe that a simple oil cooling system would pull enough heat out of a motor to keep it too cool.

If anything, I would suggest that running your heater fan at full blast when not on the highway would pull WAY more heat from the engine than little 1/2" cooling lines and a wee little rad.

I'm not trying to knock anyone's theory down, but I just couldn't help but share my opinion with the Brotherhood. If there's one thing I know about, it's running vehicles in REALLY cold weather. :deal:
 
Oil cooler is covered and I reach full warm up by the time I hit the freeway. 1.5 miles after a few minute warm up.

With oil cooler uncovered the day before same temp outside. Went to the freeway and back home and still not warmed up so I went back to the freeway and got on. It hit the warm up mark after about five miles.

Same scenario with the 9C1 Caprice, much faster warm up and stay there with the cooler covered.

This is from about 60 degrees down. In the summer it'll warm up fine with the cooler and idle in the parking lot with A/C on for 45 minutes fine on a 100 degree day.

Neither of mine have had a thermostat in the oil cooler.
 
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