I'll post about the project itself in a different thread - but, recently, I acquired a V6 Omega having bought it blind - and it needs an Oil Cooler (Brown goo in the coolant). Thankfully, it's been caught very early, so nothing is particularly gummed up - but, it has failed nonetheless.
So I am considering my options for replacement.
1) New oil cooler.Cost of between £350 and £400. Ouch. Don't really want to - it's a project car afterall and I don't want to throw loads of money at it.
2) Used Oil cooler. Chap on the Omega Facebook page sold me used cooler for a tenner, which looks clean and I've no reason to believe it's faulty, he seems trustworthy enough. But something doesn't sit right about fitting a used cooler.
3) External cooler- Fit an external cooler behind the bumper and run oil pipes to it. Cost effective at under £100, but I share concerns others have that it may result in the oil becoming too cold, and lose efficiency / prolong warmup times, which is never great.
4) No cooler (bypass it)Someone suggested this on the parts thread. I am not sure what I think of this personally, don't think I like the idea, but throwing it out to the floor as a possible option.
5) Possible brainwave, or terrible idea (You tell me)I have a new radiator for this car in the shed (Eg, main coolant radiator). This radiator has got a built in oil - cooler which was primarily designed to be an ATF cooler for older models, however, I don't need to use it, because my Autobox has the later, external cooler.
So, could I essentially just route the engine oil through this cooler which is built into the radiator? The negative is it would need a longer pipe run, although, I wonder if I could come out from the front of the "V" and therefore not have to extend it for too long.
This also would keep SOME originality, in as much as, it's a water/oil based heat exchanger, so should function in a similar way to the factory cooler inside the engine and not cause overcooling.
It's also a nearly-FREE solution, which has much appeal, and is a "new" oil cooler, albeit located elsewhere.
I might be talking rubbish, but I'm interested in thoughts around this. I did worry it wouldn't be robust enough, but if it can take hot ATF, surely it would be OK with engine oil?
Thoughts Please
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Topic: Oil Cooler Ideas (Read 2667 times)