oil cooling set up
 

this weekend i took my car out to musselman in tucson and it overheated twice!
i have plans to upgrade my fan and make a shroud for my radiator to help with the cooling but, i want more cooling!
so my question is, how does the oil cooling system work and what parts does it consist of?

It did it on the dyno, too, remember?

Shot out a puddle of coolant?

Perhaps there's a problem in your cooling system...

Roadracing in AZ:

Step 1. bigger radiator. triple core is ideal for road racing. dual core might also work. ebay has all aluminum ones for cheap
Step 2. distilled water & water wetter (one bottle) only, don't use coolant.
Step 3, oil cooler, with an fittings & line is preferred & highly recommended but not required,1/2" barb with hose clamp does work. use -8 or -10 AN line, I do not recommend pushlock.

Is your set up na? supercharged? turbo? intercooler? engine & power levels / max rpm's?
what oil are you running? synthetic will help as will thicker oil. I run 15w50 M1 in my sohc crx and will be using 20w50 amsoil in my turbo integra.
what chassis? bumper design & radiator size play a large roll in airflow & cooling.


Step 3 elaborated...
Buy this sandwich adapter:
A oil temp guage: up to you on brand, glowshift works good, autometer etc, just electrical one is highly recommended. put the bung in the oil pan.
This Oil cooler: (advantage is it will not loose pressure like many other styles, while there is still a psi loss it is minimal.
& fittings/line to make it work, ebay is almost always cheapest for those. You'll need 2 90degree fittings for the back of the block most likely.


fan shroud, slim fans, ducting, cutting holes in bumper etc all help & may be required depending on your set up as well. Accurate temps gauges revel everything.

fail should have seen it was the all motor section.

triple core rad, working thermostat & an oil cooler & you shouldn't have any issues unless your some 9k-10k rpm engine running 30min+ sessions. even then, a full size (integra/ef) triple core rad & oil cooler & you should be more than fine.

heat wrap & ducting does also help if your a b& d-series, doubt it would do much on a k, but it would help more than hurt.

He's a 230whp k20 revving to 8500ish all motor. Em1 chassis.

Has an aluminum radiator, dual core I believe. It's bigger than a half size for sure, but not quite as big as a teg full size. Tucked yo.

if your set on a tucked radiator you can get them up to like 6" thick, thicker the better. run dual slim fans on the backside too.

definitely add an oil cooler and a temp gauge. if your overheating your stock coolant gauge I don't even want to think how hot your oil is without a cooler...

an oil cooler is pretty much a required item to road race in az with reasonable temperatures. if your having problems in January, just imagine racing in summer with 130-150 degree surface temps.

still curious what oil & coolant he is currently using too.

also curious what times it ran there?

yep, what mickey said. im currently using mobile1 5w30 and honda coolant. i have a -16 tucked radiator from allinfab, and a stock bumperand the this car is currently my daily

I got an angle grinder for christmas. Let's open up the front to let it breath :)

the gauge went a little about half way, but kpro turns on the check engine light when the car overheats at a certain temp, and its probably at 235ish? thats just a guess.

on street tires with only koni and gc setup, and no other suspension work, not even sway bars in front or rear, my best was 1:07. i still have lots of room for improvement but it was only my second time ever at a track event

LOL! i would like to avoid that. cutting some holes for an oil cooler is already gonna kill me

so with the sandwich plate, ill have to buy 2 10an to 8an fittings for the -8an oil cooler?

Not bad for street tires, stock brakes, and that heavy ass coupe!

We both need sway bars and bushing kits!

I you're overheating your oil, that's the issue right there. Southern Arizona doesn't get cold enough to need a 5w-30. Hell, in the summer there's no reason to not be using a straight 50 weight. I'd try switching to a 20w-50. I'd also be weary about that Honda coolant, my guess is it's a 50/50 mix with an H printed on the jug...

You should be using 80% distilled water, 20% coolant.

What kind of fan do you have now? A fan isn't going to do much once you're up to speed on track (30+ mph), so I would shift your efforts to other mods and come back to that towards the end.

Are you running coolant or water or some sort of custom mixture. I run a 10:1 ratio of distilled water to Honda coolant. (The only reason I run the honda coolant is to prevent corrosion.)

Fabricating some ducting to increase the presure in front of the radiator would also help your cause.

Can you post a pic of your front grill for us?

Stupid question but ever think about running different temp thermostat? I did this to one of my boosted daily awhile ago having overheating issue summer time.

Hondata is set to have check engine light go off at 220. Check and see what temp your running before your fan kicks on. Hook up your laptop to the kpro. Try it out cheap way to maybe run just a few degrees cooler. But first things first if theres a leak in the cooling system fix that, can cause it not to build pressure.

Lol.
I'll let him explain his thermostat situation.
I'm still slightly puzzled by it.
My thoughts are that it has a good something to do with it.

His fan is constantly on. Comes on with ignition.
Joe at Locash tuned him on Kpro.
No leak in cooling system, but pressure has built up enough when it gets hot to make the overflow, over flow. That's the only time coolant has ever leaked out.

it actually happens every time i top off my coolant. my temp sensor fluxate because its located at the highest part of my system and theres air in there. joser told me a way to get rid of the air in the system but i havnt got around to it yet

Trade me rad set ups and problem solved ;) lol

That's your overheating problem.

30 weight would be fine for daily driving. I've run 20w50 in all my cars, never had any issues daily driving with it.

Keep in mind, running a higher viscosity oil without any additional head dispersion devices can be detrimental over long time as a 50 viscosity oil can HOLD more heat in it, therefore the oil must EXCHANGE more heat someplace. Without adding an additional oil heat exchanger, the heat will eventually be dumped off in the coolant system causing more cooling issues.

Most likely your situation involves lack of surface area and airflow around the radiator, and if you have air in the system, that will also cause overheats. Be sure that there isn't air bypassing around your radiator and if it is, duct air into it.

I remember Ravi was running 300+ on his turbocharged B series with no overheating issues on 10w30 with no oil cooler, and with 20w50 he experienced HIGHER oil temperatures until he added the oil cooler.

Take josers advice and get the air all out... and look at the information JUSTIN posted as it is very well put together and useful post!

Yea that was my next advice is to bleed it. Still occurs then look into your water pump if it wasn't replaced already..and last and hope its not the problem do block test make sure you don't have hg issue.

First off, holy fuck this thread/car has a mess of heating issues lol.


you can buy 2 adapters for -8 female to -10 male, 2 90 degree -10 hose ends, 2 strait hose ends, that should be all the fittings you will need, the rest is just line.

I would never recommend strait 50 weight on any honda or near factory engine.
I would never run a super thick oil without a cooler.
I would try some 15w50 Mobile1, just make sure to let the oil & coolant warm up before beating on it or seeing excessive rpm. The thicker the oil, the harder cold starts will be, cold starts cause A LOT of bearing wear & the thicker the oil, the more that will be an issue.

I've never had an issue with distilled & water wetter corossion, however I would also never use this in a car that sees freezing tempatures, with freezing temps I would do a mixture like you have with coolant.


A properly functioning thermostat should always be required.

220 is way too hot. if water temps go to 200 I pull the fuck off track.

Try a 15w50 Mobil 1, it's cheap and a good baseline. you need an oil temp gauge & cooler set up to really tell what you need though.

leave your fans alone, at least for now, as Gabe said over 30mph they are useless, Joe turned mine off anytime over 35mph with neptune. pretty much all ebay fans use the same motor with different fins/blades/housing. ratings might not be the same from one to another but they are not that different. The spiral design ones do move more air. your fans with ignition is fine, although it will take longer to warm up.

Get a new thermostat, use Gates or oem honda. You have likely baked your current one...

YOU HAVE AIR IN THE SYSTEM!!!!??!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?
:smackself:
THIS IS YOUR PROBLEM, ANY AIR IN THE SYSTEM WILL CAUSE OVERHEATING ISSUES ON TRACK (or at a stop light or elsewhere). This is a HUGE deal! The system can not pressurize properly with air in it, and will cause your boiling point to be reached very quickly. Coolant does not cool as much as water & water boils at 212 degrees, with each psi of pressure the water increase the boiling point a few degrees.


are you running a radiator cap somewhere on the upper hose or housing? picture? what pressure rating does it have? how is your overflow hooked up? engine bay picture would go a long way here.

:you rock:



BLEED THE SYSTEM FOR SURE!

The first thing after overheating any engine I would do is a compression test to make sure the head gasket is still good. no point in throwing band aides on a bigger problem... Joser knows all about that one. You need to have a healthy motor first.

This little guy does wonders for me when adding coolant to the system, you might need to add a spout or something to make the filler neck longer but you get the ideal, basically making that the highest point in your cooling system, fill with water/coolant/whatever the hell, and start it, let it bubble everything out & open the tstat a few times/cycle, then once no more bubbles your done!



once you get the cooling system in order that thing should be a beast on track.

Cool, i really appreciate the help guys! hopefully I'll have the car ready for next month's proautosport event.

Is there not a bleeder valve on the water neck on a k like on the b?

As far as thick oil goes, never not ran anything but 15w50 in my Hondas, never had an oil cooler, never had any issues. My last car ran to the RPM displayed in my avatar all night and during gymkhana events, all day. When doing runs to the Northern part of the island sometimes the car would be above 6k rpm for 30 minutes or more. Hell, I pegged 3rd gear while towing a Subaru WRX STI Type 4. I never suffered a break down in my oil and water temps never exceeded 95 celcius.

I feel comfortable with running a straight 50 weight in the Arizona summer in my next "race" car. I'll let you know how that goes assuming the car ever gets off jack stands and runs under its own power.

He has a tucked radiator, so he basically has an AN fitting welded to the coolant inlet with a rad cap.

What motor? Cause most jdm b series vtec blocks come with a stock oil cooler

Before you spend another minute of your time troubleshooting the overheating, I would bleed the cooling system like Agent Smith said. Take it for a spin around town after that and see if that fixes your problem. I give it an 80% chance that it does.