Some of you may have been following my thread on installing an aux transmission oil cooler for the T-6 and this project was an outake of that effort. For the Trans cooler Elevate Cars provided consulting services on plumbing and testing and as an outgrowth of that they approached me about being the test bed for a crankcase oil cooler. They did the crankcase aux oil cooler install as a complete project; concept, prototyping, and finished installation. The crux of the project is the construction of the adapter plate which replaces the OEM oil cooler. The oil cooler does not retain the OEM cooler like the transmission cooler set up (I will likely eliminate the OEM trans cooler at some point soon).

The rest of the install is pretty straight forward and utilizes a Setreb cooler and high end fittings and hoses. The Setreb is mounted on a custom bracket by Elevate Cars which was necessary as I am running the do88 intercooler. Although we fitted a gauge port in one of the fittings, I do not have a gauge installed yet so I do not have any data to share. If you are interested in this mod, e-mail Elevate Cars. My setup is somewhat of a one off, but a production model is in the works. info@elevatecars.com

This is the adapter machined out of billet aluminum.

Oil cooler plate by lcfpolestar, on Flickr

In this photo you can see the trans cooler mounted at the top of the radiator and the oil cooler mounted in the center low.

IMG_20180629_183608076 by lcfpolestar, on Flickr

Thanks for the info. Already sent a message

Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

 

Nice Stuff - would to see How the Oil Mount - Fits to Motor . .

 

Its very hard to show the location where the adapter plate mounts to the oil filter area because it is hidden by the intake manifold. I never even knew the vehicle had an OEM oil cooler, which operates exactly the same as the OEM trans cooler. It is a heat exchanger, coolant passes through one side and engine oil through the other. So basically tranny fluid and engine oil temperatures are tied to coolant temperatures; for better or worse. Very good for arctic conditions, not so good for desert conditions.

 

There are some issues with external oil coolers... you want the oil to get hot quick so it actually gets into all of the nooks and crannies it is supposed to. If I were to replace the OE oil cooler I would add another one inline and have a thermostat to bypass flow above some reasonable (i.e. never reached in normal day-to-day) driving. Otherwise you will add wear and tear to your engine for the 9/10 times you cannot utilize the cooling capacity. Also has the relative heat transfer difference between the Volvo oil cooler and this one been calculated?

Moreover you may be exacerbating wear on a cold engine further because the car in an attempt to increase gearbox temperature holds gears longer to get the gear oil, engine oil, coolant up to temperature and therefore closed loop operation quicker for efficiency. So if you are taking longer to reach that setpoint you are adding more wear.

 

Hounddogger,

Thanks for sharing your observations and I find them certainly worthy of consideration and I will discuss them with Elevate. The aux trans cooler on my car is in the return line from the OE cooler, the Elevate oil cooler replaced the OE cooler.

One aspect of the issues you've raised is where the car is run. I live in Southern CA and from my experience in tracking my coolant temperatures and tranny temperatures, I am consistently running in the 195-210F range. I cannot track oil temp yet, but I do have a gauge port on one of the lines. My engine and transmission warm up very, very quickly under normal operating conditions.

Ideal operating temp of the trans is 179F (82C) per Aisin. Normal coolant temp in a stock P* is around 195F, so the trans equipped with a OE cooler is always operating above the ideal temp. The trans bypass has 85C stamped on it, I have not been able to confirm this is the "open" temp for the bypass, but my experience with my set up indicates it may be. One aggravating aspect of the trans bypass is that it will throttle back the flow if the loop is running cool.

I do not have an answer on the oil cooler calculations. It seems to me though, the heat exchanger type of coolers are more about raising the fluids to a desirable operating temperature for cold climates, then to cool the fluids in a hot one. Your in CT, if you get a cold snap and its -20F, starting and driving your car under those conditions is really different than starting my car at 60F, and diving it when its a 100F out.

Thanks again for your observations.

 

Back at the setup for the third iteration. Swapped out my original trans cooler for a Setreb, mounted everything above the bumper bar, went back to my OE IC, eliminated the OE heat exchangers for both systems and have both system controlled by bypass thermostats. So now as the fluids reach operating temperature they start flowing through the coolers and the bypass modulates the flow accordingly. I may eventually replace the OE bypass on the transmission loop with an aftermarket bypass because I can lower the temp another 10-15F doing that.

Custom oil (left) and trans (right) coolers for T-6 3L by Elevate Cars by lcfpolestar, on Flickr

Custom oil (left) and trans (right) coolers for T-6 3L by Elevate Cars by lcfpolestar, on Flickr