Oil Coolers

What is an Oil Cooler?

Oil for an engine is like blood for animals and people. Machines won't survive without it. 

There are numerous viscosities of fluids running through the car, whether for cooling, lubrication or both. With internal combustion engines only around 33% efficient, the other 67% is generally wasted by heat and noise, all of which have to dissipate in one way or another into the surroundings. 

Without a doubt, oil is an essential fluid in the car. The sheer amount of moving parts is inevitably transferred to a ton of friction, which can be extremely worn on the components when generated from metal-on-metal contact. Therefore, oil is used to lubricate these moving parts and, in turn, it picks up a lot of heat. 

As with the vast majority of the engine's heat energy, some form of heat exchanger generally needs to be released into the surroundings. With the water-cooling system, the radiator is in place, and with the oil-cooling system, you use oil coolers.

Oil coolers are primarily responsible for cooling an automobile's oil. This helps to extend the life of both the oil and the car's engine.

Automobile engines generate a tremendous amount of heat and therefore depend on transmission fluid for cooling. The ideal temperature range for engine oil is 180 degrees through 200 degrees. As oil cycles through tube and fin style coolers, heat is drawn from the oil to the external fins, dispelled by airflow.

In performance cars – especially racers and rally cars – oil cooling is significant due to the amount of heat being transferred to the fluid from constant flat-out driving and high-powered engines. Specific heat exchangers will be placed in high airflow areas for maximum cooling to wick temperature away from systems such as steering, keeping the entire car at a temperature level.  Next time you meet a car, look for gaps in bodywork integral to designing a car, and we can guarantee that a foot or so in the duct will be a specially positioned oil cooler.

Overall, adding an oil cooler to the engine of the vehicle will help extend the life of the oil, thus prolonging the engine's life. However, adding an oil cooler will result in more oil per change of oil, as more oil is needed to fill the coil and the lines.

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