Hi,

I want to add an oil cooler when I put the new engine in, but I can't believe how expensive the kits are. Have any of you guys installed an oil cooler on your trucks and which kit did you use? pro/cons?
I would like to make the system up myself but, I cant find the plate that goes between the stock oil filter and the block.
Thoughts or suggestions are always appreciated.

Thanks,
Gr8ride.

 

not sure what motor you are refering to, but the 7.3 has an oil cooler on it already

 

These motors already have a oil cooler on them. It's the tube that runs along side of the block and ends where the oil filter goes. Are you talking about replacing it all together or adding something in addition too the stock one?

 

I was thinking of removing the stock cooler and adding a larger cooler.
I talked with a Jasper engines sales guy today, he told me the reason the cylinders on the left bank cavitate is because of the stock oil cooler. The oil cooler heats up the coolant right there causing little air bubbles to form in the coolant. With the vibration of the cylinders the air bubbles can travel to a cylnder and pop, each time this happens it takes a very tiny peice of the cylinder over time causing pin holes to form in the cylinder.
He didn't talk about adding or removing the oil cooler, that was my idea. I am just trying to make this new engine last as long as possible, I want at least 300K miles out of this one instead of 175K miles.

 

The cavaitation problem can be solved by keeping the SCA levels where they should be so you wouldn't have to worry about the tiny air bubbles. I've never heard of anyone completly replacing the stock cooler so can't help you there.

 

I didn't really think it could be done either, just wanted to ask.
There have got to be kits out there for adding a cooler in addition to the stock cooler, that dont cost $800. With Texas heat and the size trailer I pull, I know it's got to be running hotter than it needs to be, thats why I want to add another cooler.

 

Hey never hurts to ask and if you can make something that works even more power to ya. Most aftermarket oil coolers I've seen all say not intended for diesels. I have heard some people running a powerstroke filler which gives more fluid capacity. That would help keep things a bit cooler just having more oil to circulate.

If it makes you feel better about when you get the new motor, my truck runs around the hot Phoenix sun and pulls a flat bed gooseneck and other trailers frequently and have never had a probelm with running hot and have close to 350K miles on it.

 

Gr8ride, it would be hard to remove the stock oil cooler. All the oil straight out of the pump goes through the oil cooler before it goes anywhere else in the engine.

The way to do this would be with a remote mount oil filter and just plumb in a cooler on the way back from the filter.

The oil in these motors does carry away a bunch of heat with the oil jets on the pistons and turbo lubrication if you have one. I also have been thinking about installing one, but the big downside is if you blew a hose, the engine would instantly loose all oil pressure. Severe engine damage would probably happen before you could shut it down even if you were watching the guage when it happened.

I am installing a new reman motor in mine as soon as it gets here. I think I am going to go with an oil temp guage in mine for now. That way if the oil temp starts to get to high I can always drop a gear and back out of it till it cools down some.

For what it is worth, this is the area that full synthetic oils shine over dino oil. High and low temps do not do near as much to synthetics as it does to dino oil.

Mobil Delvac 1 oil is 20 dollars a gallon full synthetic oil. But it is worth it.
I am going to put 2000 miles on my engine with Mobil 1300 series oil for initial break in then switch to Delvac 1 for my full time oil. The only bad thing about switching so soon is it takes about 20,000 miles to fully seat the rings.

Due to a reman sleeve problem I just took my last engine apart after 18,000 miles. The cross hatch in the cylinders is still visable.

 

Dave, I like your idea of adding an oil temp gauge. That way I can find out if I even need to go through all the trouble of installing an extra cooler.
Any ideas on were to put the temperature sending unit?

 

I stuck mine in the oil gallery next to the oil filter, I hand to put the sender in a 1/8 coppling then 1/8 by close nipple into the block So that the sender doesn’t cut off the oil supply , it sucks it that spot, the air flow across the engine cools off the sender, it only works at idle its gong to be moved into the oil pan

 

Mine is going in the oil pan, but I have the engine apart right now.