External Oil cooler In conjunction with stock one?

[allsierra123]

Getting ready to order my oil cooler parts just curious if i should Add it on to the stock one or what?

[VW_Commuter]

My personal opinion, you shouldn't run an external oil cooler (read air cooled type) without an oilstat (oil thermostat) or you will end up over cooling the oil and can cause long term issues.  My experience with high speed steam turbines in the navy is that we maintained the oil temp to the bearings between 180F and 210F and max bearing return temp was something like 250+F.  These temps provided cooling to the bearings, proper lubrication and was at the optimal viscosity to flow and lubricate properly.

[jtanguay]

for a vanagon i would say that is a good idea.  install it somewhere that you can block off airflow in the winter time though.  make sure to get an oil temp gauge if you don't already have one and monitor the temps after installation.  as stated above, the oil must reach a certain temp to do its job properly, and as cooling is crucial, so is proper lubrication.  a good hill climb should spike the oil temps and test out your system  :wink:

[allsierra123]

Thanks, would the pancake adapter with the T stat built into it work for what I need. That way it shouldnt open unless it gets to warm and should close when it gets cooler. or am I off base here.

[jtanguay]

Thanks, would the pancake adapter with the T stat built into it work for what I need. That way it shouldnt open unless it gets to warm and should close when it gets cooler. or am I off base here.

yep thats the way they work, although i've heard that some (possibly cheap ones) leak a bit of oil no matter what...  you might be surprised to find that you need additional cooling on top of this from what i've read of some diesel vanagon conversions.

[Luckypabst]

I'm going through this now on my Westy but had other cooling issues to address first. Once I get some stone deflectors made up I'll add it to my Vanagon Progress thread.

I have the Volvo/Wahler thermostatic adapter and a large Tru-cool heat exchanger that at first will replace the OEM oil cooler. The plan was to reinstall the OEM cooler when it cooled off here but it looks like the double stack will be too much and stuff my oil filter into my lower coolant hose.

My oil hit 250 degrees pretty easily on the stock cooler and holds 180 at idle. I'm looking forward to not pushing that heat back into the coolant on a hot day but I'm curious to see how long it takes the oil to warm up and if the external cooler can handle the load on its own.

Chris

[allsierra123]

Are you mounted at the 50* setup?

[Luckypabst]

Yea but I have the "early" cooling hoses and pipes. The pipes had been monkeyed with by a PO and are now generally correct but I can't confirm that I have them in the exact right position but I think the coolant hose would interfere on the early setup no matter what.

Chris

[allsierra123]

Im not sure if mine are early or late. They are the german hoses for a TD though.

[monomer]

proper aftermarket oil coolers?


switching from N/A to TD.

[allsierra123]

Im going from gas to TD. In a Vanagon.

[madmatt]

ive done few 19td into vanagons (t3 here in europe) if your van was gas then you will not have the large tunnel and cooling fan fitted to the jx(16td)bus i would suggest you remove the water cooled oil cooler and just run a thermostatic adapter & cooler.As far as i understand the jx bus was introduced in 1985 and all run the later larger pipes