Oil coolers

[HenryD]

I have a 1978 camper with the 2.0 motor. I am thinking of adding an external oil cooler. Does anyone have any experience with this or can point me in the direction of an existing thread for this topic. Where is the best place to mount the oil cooler. Are there any cons to doing this?

[aeromech]

I’ve never added an external cooler to a T4 engine. I think they make a sandwich adapter that mounts where your spin on filter goes. I’ve mounted several coolers on T1 buses and I like to put them under the bus, just forward of the left rear tire.
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[airschooled]

Unless you’re loading it and flooring it all day in triple digit temps, it’s probably best if you just tune your engine properly and drive it. It won’t need the oil cooler if nothing is wrong.

An over-cooled engine dies an early death just as easily as an overheated engine.

Robbie
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[aeromech]

I found a rats nest on top of a T4 oil cooler once
_________________
Lead Mechanic: San Diego Air and Space Museum
Licensed Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic
Licensed Pilot (Single engine Land)
Boeing 727,737-200-300-400,757,767
Airbus A319,320,321
DC9/MD80
BAe146
Fokker F28/F100
VW type 1 1962,63,65,69,72
VW Type 2 1971 (3 ea.) 1978, 1969
VW Jetta
VW Passat
Capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound

[Wildthings]

[Shonandb]

I tried one for a short time before doing my engine swap. My thought was to get full cooling to the cylinders instead of dividing the air between the oil cooler and cylinders.

I found an aftermarket plate that replaces the oil cooler and I ran hoses up to the engine bay where I installed an aftermarket transmission cooler with a 12" spal fan. I had the fan controlled by a 180F sensor and the fan would cycle on and off when the engine was up to temperature. The air temps coming out of both sides of the cylinders were within a few degrees of each other instead of 50+ degrees hotter on the oil cooler side measured before installing the external oil cooler.

I mounted the oil cooler and fan on 2" blocks on the drivers side in the engine bay just under the spare tire metal visible on the DS of the engine bay.. It worked well but 1 of the main bearings was "talking to me" and a bottom end rebuild was necessary so I didn't get a chance to fully test the oil cooler set up over a longer period of time.
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76 Westy with a 2.5L Subaru SOHC + Vanagon (010) Automatic Transaxle
Build & Trip Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=758760
Previous 1973 Panel Bus:
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[SGKent]

unfortunately the problem of oil cooling has been a problem since these buses were new. My own instinct based on experience would be to add a low profile extended sump, or as Robbie suggested, just tune it right and take it easy.
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[Mr Beckstar]

This is my external oil cooler for a 2L type 4 engine. Hoses and fittings are all -5 AN fittings from Speedflow Australia. The fan controller and remote filter mount are from Aeroflow. The fan controller is not the best as its maximum oil temp set point is 100 degrees C. Also, you need to ensure the back pressure through the oil cooler circuit is not too high because the standard oil filter mount has an oil filter bypass valve built in that’s set to about 10 PSI (Note: 10 PSI differential pressure, NOT pump feed pressure!). That’s why I’ve used -5 (5/8”) everywhere.

The remote filter mount has an inbuilt thermostat that starts opening at 72 deg C and fully open at 82 degrees C. That means the remote oil cooler is not cooling any oil until the oil temp comes up to at least 72 degrees C.

My oil temp now runs normally at between 80 and 90 degrees C no matter the ambient temperature. If I plant it on the freeway or climb a really long steep hill, it can get up to 101 degrees C and then the fan cuts in, the oil cools down to 95 and then the fan cuts out. I’ve been changing the oil cooler shroud to make it cool more without the fan; it makes a big difference! I’ve now got a shroud that drops the oil temperature by 6 or 7 degrees C on the highway and I’ve never had the fan cut in on flat road or steady hills since then. But it is winter here at the moment so day time temps are peaking between 15 and 20 degrees C so it’ll be interesting to see if I still have no fan reliance when temps get up to e.g. 30-35 degrees C. My aim is that I only become reliant on the fan when it’s over 35 Degrees C or when climbing very long steep hills at low speed.

I’ve now changed from 10W-40 to 5W-30 because, with the cooler oil temperatures, the oil pressure was reaching 45 PSI at about 2,500 rpm (70km/hr) (I have an auto gearbox). 45 PSI is the pressure control valve set point, so more RPM doens’t increase oil pressure, but it does start bypassing the internal oil cooler at some point. I’m now getting 42 PSI at 3,800 rpm which is about 100 km/hr and it won’t be bypassing the internal oil cooler