Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications General Mods Additional Oil Cooler for SVT

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The stock cooler is great to help the oil warm up in cold seasons / areas but do cause quite a pressure drope due to its plate design...

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Terry you have mentioned this before re:oil starvation.. So, do you suggest we dump the stock SVT/EuroMondeo oil cooler because it drops oil pressure. I would think that low oil pressure is a bigger deal than slow oil warm up?? Have you measured the drop? Does the oil to air cooler drop oil pressure too? Thanks ..

That's a big WERD. Changing the oil on my mom's ZX3 was a nightmare. I don't look forward to it again. Maybe next time the car won't take a big chunk of my thumb with it.

I would ditch the factory cooler. That is what I have done with all the water/oil coolers that were stock on all the late model vw's that I have owned. I have found that a good efficent cooler should work really really well. I was going to use a 16 or 19 row Setrab cooler, a Mocal sandwich plate, and the hose and connecters from keith black. A 19 row cooler on my GTI VR6 dropped the oil temps from the 260 to 270 deg. range to just above 210 @ higher rpm. the 13 row cooler on the 1.8L 16V motor in my old Rabbit dropped the temps from 240-245 to 205-215. both those applications had coolers EXACTLY like the stock cooler on the contour. I say ditch the inefficent pos factory cooler. I have everything I need for the cooler kit except for the setrab cooler because I need to wait for the motor to go back in so I can see how big of a cooler I can fit in the car.

Roger

Yes it is, you just need more rags to wipe up the oil.

Well, here's the current situation on my research. I haven't had time to get under the car and take measurements yet, since school and the in-law's car are both keeping me quite busy.

Perma-Cool has a 1" adapter that works with the M22x1.5 thread on our filters. It's shorter than the 1.75" Universal adapter that comes with their kits. It uses the Fram P/N PH8A filter (K&N HP-3001). Don't worry, I'm not about to put a Fram on there. The PH8A is MUCH longer than the FL-820 Motorcraft filter that is stock. No way that'll work. However, the PH16 (HP-2004) is the "short" version of that filter, and is about 1/2" shorter that FL-820. Meaning, as far as fitment goes, as long as I have 1/2" clearance under the current filter (not including removal clearance required for the filter) I could be OK.

I've shot an email over to K&N regarding comparisons of those filters to get the exact dimensions of them. I've got no reason to disbelieve Terry besides the fact that I am a stubborn engineer and want to convince myself before I give up on doing it without filter relocation. Probably won't happen until the next oil change in early August, so I can check removal clearance needed. If I decide that the fitment issues are OK, I'll get info on the bypass valve compatability and flow/pressure characteristics of the new filter (unless anyone has something for me here).

As far as cost goes, I can get everything from Summit (except a few parts are out of stock right now). Looks to be about $150 + shipping for everything I need. Not so bad I guess, considering I have to buy everything separate in order to get the 1" adapter.

Just figured I'd pass along what I've found so far.

Why are you leaving the stock oil cooler on there? It is a pile of junk. If it did any good at all you wouldn't be looking into an oil cooler right now. Just remove it. You can get the parts you need for that from B.A.T. Why go through the trouble of screwing with different oil filters when you don't need to. The ONLY reason Ford fitted that cooler is because it was cheap. A remote oil filter mount seems to be alot of work to go through for an inefficent pile of a stock oil cooler. Like I said before, I have had some personal experience with cars that run really really high oil temps. Leaving the stock cooler doesn't really do squat.

Roger

You live in So Cal. I live in Philadelphia. Last I checked, it gets cold here in the winter. The only reason I am considering leaving the stock "cooler" on is that it will help get the oil to operating temp more quickly. Hot oil is bad, but cold oil is bad as well. I want the best of both worlds.

I'm trying to avoid remote mounting my oil filter. If I was going to remote mount, all these filter length details would be moot. I would just throw on the big filter and call it a day.

Also, the cooler setup from BAT is $300. Saving $150 is worth my effort if I can pull it off.

I think that the pressure drop from the oil filter has nothing to do with the oil starvation. There are a number of design flaws. Who knows what the real reason could be. Poor pan design, not enough drainage in the heads, the pickup could be to high up off the bottom of the pan. I do know that the ford oil pump (I belive it's called a G-rotor) doesn't scavenge very well so if it does go dry, it takes it longer then a beveled gear style pump to get oil again. I think it's a combo of a few different things. Anyway, whenever you add a cooler/radiator like that there will be a pressure drop. The more efficent cooler, the lower the pressure drop. one more reason NOT to run 2 oil coolers inline in the oil system. Why increase the pressure drop?

Roger

Even in cold weather it's not the end of the world if it takes the oil a little longer to warm up. I'm not trying to start an argument here, just trying help out. I have had several cars with this EXACT setup. Don't assume that just because I live in So cal doesn't mean I haven't seen cold climates with my cars. My grand mother lived at the top of the highest grade on the way into Lake Tahoe for close to 10 years. Last time I checked It snows there every winter to. I just think that you are talking about alot of work for saving a few miniutes of warm up time

If you fitted an oil temp gage FIRST you could acess what you need and devise a custom set up re 'how long to warm up etc etc...the first step is to get the temp in your own area,time of year etc etc...makes sense to me!