[SpeZ]

Since the oil gets way too hot when tracking the car I looked into oil coolers and searched for recommendations.

I ended up by building my own. The plug and play solution from mishimoto would have been enough, but it would sit in front of the intercooler.
As well I have removed the aluminium front bumper for better cooling and it actually looks awesome.
Used some glass fibre soaked with epoxy to hide the cutted bumper, when it dried, spray painted it black.


Used parts:
All fittings and hoses are PTFE version, for high temp and oil resistance.

1x Mishimoto 25 row oil cooler
1x Mishimoto Sandwichplate (M22 version)
1x Mishimoto M22 bolt to mount it
3 Metres of An10 hose
2x 45° An10 fitting
2x M20x1,5 to An10 (to install on the sandwichplate)
1x 90° An10 fitting
1x 93°C thermostat for the sandwichplate
A small bottle of fluid sealant.
Heat wrap, aluminium wrapped aramid to isolate the oil cooler next to the catalytic converter and to wrap around some intercooler hoses.

For the intercooler the following parts:
1x Big setrab cooler
2 Metres of 25 OD and 18 ID cooling hose
2x Hose connector 19mm
2x 19 mm to M22x1,5 fitting
2x 90° fitting with 19 mm OD to connect hoses

After the first test drive today, the engine oil did not exceed 93°C under similar conditions where it usually reaches 110+°C. Was happy to see nothing leaked.

With this setup, the downside seems to be oil drainback into the oilpan.
Its helpful when changing oil viscosity before going to track tho.
I am still figuring out, if the entire oil cooler empties itself, I might increase the cranking time during the engine start for safety reasons.

[SpeZ]

Small update after plenty of time in use.
Oil drain back into the pan does not happen.
When doing oil changes and you remove the oil filter, the "Siphon effect" starts and pretty much all oil in the cooler slowly drains.

[Patriot Motorsports USA]

Where in Europe are you...? I spent a lot of time there years ago working with the guys at TopGearUK after capturing photos of Gunter Schaldach's Camaro leaving the track over my head at Road America in 2011.

I applaud your efforts to keep your Camaro cool!! You have mirrored what I started with two years ago when I began chasing the fueling issues and misfires on cylinders 3 & 5... and to keep from re-writing a book of a post I made yesterday, I will just link you to the post of someone else who has bought products like you have and is not seeing the results they anticipated, as I also have had such an experience. This is where testing on the track, at the brutal limits reveals the difference between great parts for the masses who just street drive with occasional trackday jaunts.

As you have discovered, the oil cooler does not drain back into the pan as the flow path is after the oil filter which has an anti-drainback valve. Also the secondary bypass for the OEM oil cooler outlets, do not drainback into the oil filter passage... so cold starts have full oil flow to the upper areas of the engine.

Read this post thread and LMK if you have any questions.

https://www.camaro6.com/forums/showp...4&postcount=41

Here is the link to a comprehensive

[SpeZ]

I am located in germany.
Around 7 track hours in total with it.
And lots of high speed driving on the autobahn.

So far, I am very happy with the results. Next weak spot would be transmission oil temp with the A10.
After around 15 minutes it reaches 230°F.
But I usually drive just 15 minute stints anyway, so I won't touch the cooling.
I do frequent fluid changes as well, whether its the engine oil, diff oil or trans fluid.

As far as my knowledge goes. LT1 and LT4 are similiar in terms of oil flow. I mean they use the exact same oil pump from factory.
Yes, the oil flows through various valves and bypasses, but they don't actively adjust pressure. The bypass also only kicks in, in worst case scenarios like a fully clogged filter. Close before real oil starvation happens.
Not sure tho if resistance in the flow gets worse at hot weather + high oil temp. I mean it kinda compensates itself when the oil gets thinner when hot.
If it would bypass the oil filter by too much resistance, my oil cooler wouldn't be in use and it would definitely caught my attention.

Yes, the sandwich oil cooling system decreases a little oil pressure, but it is by far not enough to disrupt the lubrication of the engine.
An10 hoses are perfect fit in my mind. Common size for ages for various engine builds.
The restriction does not happen in an An10 hose. The choice of fittings are here more important. In my case, I used high flow fittings with nearly the same inner diameter than a real AN10 hose.
The main restriction will be caused and happen in the added heat exchanger with dozens of rows and small channels.

[SpeZ]

Now with a stage1 cam and LS7 lifters and new valvetrain which comes with more power I plan to add a second Mishimoto 25 row cooler.
It would replace the passenger auxiliary cooler which atm just cools regular engine coolant.

Both oil coolers are connected in a parallele system using Y-pieces. All with AN10 hoses.

And as well I might install a 180°F / 82°C water thermostat which I got already here. But a little afraid of too cold heavy oil when cruising on the street.

The second oil cooler would roughly or better said at least decrease the oil temps by another 27°F / 15°C.
My estimated oil temps at track then would be 105-115 in °C or 221°-239°F.


Pros:
Less oil temp which keeps a better oil film strength for guaranteed less engine wear.
Less oil oxidation for higher interval
Overall cooler engine inclduing coolant which results into less manifold air temp and knock protection.
Less oil pressure loss by having 2 oil coolers instead of 1.
Peace of mind at WOT.

Cons:
Money and few hours of work


Let me know your thoughts and yea I do kinda regret that I installed LS7 lifters.
Should have got some Caddi racing somewhere, but I will change next year.

[bishopts]

Have you thought of doing a water to oil cooler? Similar to a water to air intercooler but for your oil cooler. They tend to be more efficient at cooling. Just kinda bulky since you would need to and an additional heat exchanger.

[Patriot Motorsports USA]

Originally Posted by SpeZ

Now with a stage1 cam and LS7 lifters and new valvetrain which comes with more power I plan to add a second Mishimoto 25 row cooler.
It would replace the passenger auxiliary cooler which atm just cools regular engine coolant.

Both oil coolers are connected in a parallele system using Y-pieces. All with AN10 hoses.

And as well I might install a 180°F / 82°C water thermostat which I got already here. But a little afraid of too cold heavy oil when cruising on the street.

The second oil cooler would roughly or better said at least decrease the oil temps by another 27°F / 15°C.
My estimated oil temps at track then would be 105-115 in °C or 221°-239°F.


Pros:
Less oil temp which keeps a better oil film strength for guaranteed less engine wear.
Less oil oxidation for higher interval
Overall cooler engine inclduing coolant which results into less manifold air temp and knock protection.
Less oil pressure loss by having 2 oil coolers instead of 1.
Peace of mind at WOT.

Cons:
Money and few hours of work


Let me know your thoughts and yea I do kinda regret that I installed LS7 lifters.
Should have got some Caddi racing somewhere, but I will change next year.

We need to talk!! I want to ship my ZLE to Germany later in the year and run some lap on the Nürburgring Nordschleife!!!

Check out my setup and I can ship you whatever you need. Send me a DM for my WhatsAPP.

[SpeZ]

@bishopts hmm, the factory oil cooler acutally is a water to oil cooler, but those are not very efficient.
Most efficients are air directly to cooling fluid, so air to oil basically.

@Patriot Motorsports USA Oh thats awesome to hear. I would really like to see some ZL1's performing on german race tracks.
The problem on parts are the import fees of about 24% and shipping rates.
And with my current setup I am required to use the same cooler again for even flow restriction in both which results into a 50/50 flow in each of them.

I don't want to spend a bargain and replace the entire cooling system again.
I put alot of money into the car in the last 3 months including cam swap, valvetrain, bigger intercooler, new rear DSSV struts, JMS, blower spacer and much more.

[SpeZ]

Now installed everything, all went good and there is barely enough room to install the necessary Y-Splitter and additional hoses.
Only way to route everything in front of the steering rack.
Barely clearance to route the hoses between sway bar and tie rod.
Used some fibre glass heatwrap with a soft silicon coating to protect the hoses from rubbing.

I also paid attention to match total hose length of each cooler (inlet and outlet) to be similiar in order to attempt a even 50/50 oil flow in both of them.

Yet it's all leak free, but I only cranked the car for a whole minute to fill all lines and build oil pressure.
Tomorrow I will change oil filter, start the engine for some minutes and do an oil change + oil cooler flush.
I notitced white stones in my oil cooler (caused by coolant in the oil after cam swap, even tho I did an oil change).
After checking again for any leaks I will re-install the fender liner, few underfloor parts but I actually like the big gaps in the aluminium skid plate for cooling purposes and inspecting.
+ Creating a fibre glass air duct to close the gaps between oil cooler and oem air duct for maximized air flow.


It really took longer than expected but definetly a good investment for track use.

[SOCAL.M6.ZLE]

Love the ingenuity here... looking forward to seeing your results!

[SpeZ]

Thank you. I now did my first test drive after installing everything.
At idle I got 1.1 PSI more oil pressure, but using a different oil.

Oil temp did not exceed 203°F like I am used to even after many pulls and high speed driving on the autobahn, so I can't yet tell any difference.

After coming home I tried to feel if both oil coolers are similiar hot, but they both were not really hot.
To be fair there is a aluminium mesh to protect them so I could not directly touch them.

Now I got two worries
Either air pockets in the oil coolers since less engine oil velocity can not bleed the coolers or the engine bypasses the oilfilter/sandwichplate caused of too high resistance.

I will now make some thoughts now and tomorrow might start again and check temps at all hoses.



Edit: After lots of thoughts, I think there a big air pockets in each of the coolers. At WOT I have few PSI more oil pressure than before. (but still less than without any oil coolers. So it definetly does not bypass the entire oil filter)
After installing the oil coolers I cranked the engine to build oil pressure and to "bleed" the air out.
I disconnected the lower hose at one of the coolers, because I wanted to flush/clean it and not alot of oil came out.
So I gotta remove the upper hose on each and try to prefill with a funnel oder pump.
Will do during next days + finishing the air duct.

I will keep you updated and if all works fine and weather is good, I will be able to post log files with track use in 2 weeks.

[Patriot Motorsports USA]

Let me help you remove the air pockets and split path issues you are facing while reducing the total hose length as well.

You need to run these in a series, not a split. Doing this will reduce the pressure differential since it appears you must be using a filter adapter in order to keep the oil-to-water cooler shown to still be on the car. This will give you one supply line, one return and the crossover between the coolers. Make sure the supply (Pressure) is on the TOP of the passenger side cooler, the crossover comes from the bottom and goes to the top of the driver's side (assuming both are top & bottom fitted as your photos suggested) and then a direct return to the engine. The hotter fluid will flow faster making the longer distance to the passenger side with little restriction as well as being exposed to hotter elements (exhaust) along the way... then the cooler fluid will have the shorter return to the engine.

By running in a series, your flow will increase without restriction and the cooling will be compounded, not split. This will also decrease the chance the oil filter will go to a bypass, negating all this hard work.

I have over 30 years of designing hydraulic systems for Business Jets like Dassault Falcon, Bombardier, & Gulfstream AC as well as Military Helicopters for control hydraulics. The oil pressure increase you may have seen is from the split in the system but it could be the fresh oil as well. With using the oil filter system, your cooling is now dependent upon the filter's capability to keep the oil flowing wile also cleaning it.

[SpeZ]

At both coolers, inlet is bottom side so its got better chance to push air out.
Connecting two coolers in series would increase resistance I believe, but definetly would lower the cooling.
Pre cooled oil would oil flow in the second oil cooler and the cooling power is reduced by less Delta. (Difference between ambient and oil is less, so its cooling effect.)

I really appreciate your input and to exchange thoughts and sights.

But having in both coolers nearly no oil shows that there is really ~50% less flow and reaching pretty much laminar flow. By this reason it only flows through a few cooler rows.
But once they're pre filled I am sure the cooling benefit is massive.
The benefit of 50% less oil velocity, the oil pressure loss in hoses, full bent high flow fittings is very small.
Yes, this might also decrease cooling power inside the cooler by a little.

I will keep you all updated.

[SpeZ]

So after trying to prefill one of the oil coolers, the engine oil just came immediately out.
That means they're probably full ot the oil is too thick to fill all tiny oil cooler rows.

Anyways I started to drive around and I definetly need more time to get the engine oil warm.
When I stopped during the drive I tried to meassure the surface temp of each oil cooler, both were just at around 100°F.
Oil temp in the display was at that time at around 194°F.

After coming home I pulled off the air box too directly meassure and feel the hoses and the inlet hose was 113°F hot and the outlet hose just at 77°F.

Maximum oil temp in the display were 205°F.
My Sandwichplate uses a 200°F thermostat tho so I am confident that the thermostat just barely opens outside of the track.

What you guys use to determine the oil temps?
HPTuners -> Engine Diagn. -> General -> Oil -> Oil Temp Config.
It's set to Calc ECM & Sens Disp. Afaik the LT4 got a temp sensor somewhere near the oil filter.

Oil temp in logs is always higher than it shows in display when driving.