Air

iTrader: (12)

I have a 92 240sx with a ls1 swap.

Everything is in and running, i just have a few issues i am trying to sort out.

It has a front-sump GTO oil pan on it.

I wanted to run a oil cooler, but I read that if you run one constantly in a daily driver that the oil will not get up to operating temp and this is bad for the engine.

I bought the Earls oil cooler thermostat adapter sandwich plate. This goes between the filter and the oil pan.

Only problem with this is that now the oil filter is 1.5 or 2 inches LOWER.

The oil filter is the LOWEST point on my car. I have already scraped it on irregularities in the road here (the car is my DD). Once i even ripped the filter OFF!

I was lucky and paid attention to my oil pressure gauge. It did not mess up the threads to the adapter or to the oil pan, and i killed the engine almost instantly. Everything is fine, but i am now nervous and know i have to fix this issue.

The simple thing would be to remove the oil cooler apparatus, but i do track this car quite often and would like to keep it.

I could build a skid-plate, but this sounds like a temp fix, or some redneck-engineering to me. I would like to avoid this. If i build a under-plate for this car, it will be a chin spoiler and run all the way to the rear diffuser.


I guess my questions are:

Has anyone else run into this issue? How did you solve it?

Is there another option for a thermostatically controlled oil cooler?

If not, can can i run a oil cooler off of those fittings above the filter (the oval shaped plate with 2 bolts holding it, where f-body pans have a l shaped thing coming off that is easy to tap for a temp sender)? The GTO pan does not have the place to tap for a temp sender, but it does have the blockoff plate.

Am i overly concerned about having the oil cooler thermostatically controlled? Would it hurt to drive the car in all types of weather without this? Raleigh NC goes anywhere from 0 to 100 Fahrenheit.


Thanks,
-Chris

Bo185

What oil filter you have? I would find the shortest one and run it.

Remove the oil cooler adapter. You can run the oil cooler lines form the port above the filter this is the stock location for oil cooler lines on the stock trucks. You could modify the stock truck lines to work. Mainly you just need the mount block then cut the lines.

Heres the stock truck adapter mod. with fittings welded on.

Air

iTrader: (12)

Are all the gen III filters not the same? I usually run bosch filters from autozone, unless they have mobil 1 on sale with a filter, then i get that. Those 2 filters appear almost identical.


That adapter block you posted, it has a t-stat built in? The hard lines coming off of it usually change to soft lines which you cut and welded AN fittings?

Bo185

Several different ones long and short.

89017524 – PF48 Oil filter
89036836 – PF46 Oil filter

25329389 - UPF 44 Oil Filter
Long oil filter: ACDelco PN PF59
Short oil filter: ACDelco PN PF44


Thats not mine read this http://www.noid.org/oilcooler/

Andrew R

iTrader: (3)

There are several different themostats for the oil cooler available look for an inline type - I'm going with the canton -it allows the oil to get to about 213* then opens. and MOCAL has one as well... you want to go with the high temp version.


this is the mocal:


and the canton:




Mocal also makes one that is lsX specific.

I would run this inline style thermo and get a remote oil filter.

Old Geezer

iTrader: (3)

FWIW:
There are different filter thread dimensions.
My 07/5.3 has one size, and the 05/6.0 Hummer engine I have, is another size...
A spare LH8 pan I have, [bought over the counter], had the same as the 5.3, so I swapped them. Now they both use the same filter pt #.

garys 68

iTrader: (1)

Lose the thermostat, use a truck cooler setup. If you cant get oil up to the temp to get water out, add a remote thermostat.
I've used something similar to the mocal posted by Andrew on a boat. That BBC regularly ran 3000-5000rpm and it still managed to keep the oil up to temp with extended idling.

awd4life

i'm running into the same issue on my S14 swap and found that it's near necessary to run a remote filter setup in line with the cooler.

i feel the thermostat is necessary also as my normal driving oil temps rarely reach 180* around town but can kick up to 240* quickly at the track.

i run a spin on adapter like this


i like an inline thermostat like this


both available from here!!!
http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/home.asp

terryr

Believe me, it'll get hot. No cooler is that good. I had a few big plate coolers on cars, and grabbed one to see if was hot. OUCH!