Engine Water and Oil Cooling:

Prices:

        The standard radiator in perfect condition is adequate for an unmodified engine, a wider one or one with 4 core channels will be what is needed for a tuned engine

        Very expensive aluminium ones are available as they are lighter and dissipate heat better, at about £300 a piece you should ask yourself if you really need one though.

Fans:

        The standard fan provides not much cooling at low rpm when it is needed and too much at high revs when you are getting plenty of air flow naturally. The later Viscous fan is much better but is still not as good as an electric fan mounted in front of the radiator.

        The electric fan consumes much less horsepower as it is far more efficient than the mechanically driven one and is only switched on when in heavy traffic anyway.

If you don't fancy the cost, get one from virtually any modern car breakers yard and you can probably fit it.

        You should chuck the old fan away now as it blows air which interferes with the suck electric fan. That will gain you up to about 4 Bhp as the engine no longer has to drive round that old fan.

The great Oil debate:

        This is also a most contentious issue in classic car circles. On the one hand there are those who stick to 20/50 mineral oil and change it every 3000 miles and there are those who swear by modern synthetics like Mobil-1.

        I'm not by any means a Fluid Dynamics expert and most of my attempts to locate independent trials of different oils have proved for the most part inconclusive.

        One study of New York taxis over a period of several years allegedly showed no measurable difference in engine wear between traditional Mineral oils and modern Synthetics. I cannot vouch for the validity of this study or how it was conducted but it's an interesting statement.

Several things are clear:

- The mileage covered between changes has a far greater effect upon engine condition that any kind of oil or additive
- Additives should not be used in modern Synthetics as they are factory designed to be as good as they can be.
- Several manufacturers of oil additives have lawsuits and other injunctions pending against them for false advertising claims which have not been proved in any independent testing. This includes big names like PROLONG. I think they should be avoided all together.
- Most if not all modern engine manufacturers recommend Synthetic oils in their engines.

        I personally think that a good quality oil filter with an anti-drain flap valve and regular changes are the things to aim for. I shall be using Mobil-1 but as I am attempting to keep this engine trouble free wil not be doing any strip downs to check its effectiveness.

Oil coolers:

Prices:

- Oil cooler installation kit, braided hoses, filter
   sandwich plate, thermostat, brackets etc.........£70

- 13 Row thermostatic oil cooler bare,
  requires kit as above.....................................£48
  (add £10 for 16 row cooler)

- Oil > Water cooler, requires
  fitting kit...................................................£165
(£35 more for larger one)

An oil cooler is just a miniature water radiator but made much more robustly to handle the higher pressures.

        I think oil coolers are very good and should be fitted. Basically when Triumph designed the Spit engine in the dark ages people didn't go bombing down the motorway at 90 Mph all day.

        So oil getting too hot and losing its lubrication properties was not a problem, hence no oil cooler. Although it was available at some point as a factory option.

        Now I know that Mobil 1 and all the rest of the modern synthetic brigade are far more tolerant of high temperatures but if that solves the problem then WHY I ask does every single modern car I have seen have an oil cooler?

        Oil temperature is not greatly influenced (cooled) by water temperature, neither is engine temperature influenced by the presence of an oil cooler. It is simply fitted to ensure maximum oil film strength at all engine speeds no matter how arduous.

Also every racing car irrespective of vintage or capacity has one too.

A 13 row one is fine for road use and a 16 row one for racing.

        Fit it correctly, the thermostat and cooler must be mounted as per the instructions, its very easy to get the oil flowing the wrong way round the piping.

Make sure you fit a thermostatic one as over cooling the oil will do the engine no good either.

If you posses a cooler without such a feature you can purchase thermostats that plumb into the feed lines.

        Also fit a slightly stiffer oil relief valve spring (from Moss Europe) to compensate for having fitted several feet of rubber pipe into the oil system.

I strongly recommend getting stainless overbraid, I discovered my plain ones almost sawn through by chassis suspension tower rubbing.

        Oil > water coolers are available but require extra water cooling capacity to cope with the additional cooling requirements. These oil>water coolers are also more expensive but useful if space is limited as they are smaller than other types of heat exchanger.

Here are some influential facts on oil coolers from the AEROQUIP/MOCAL catalogue:

1: The cooling requirement for oil rises 300% per 1000 Rpm increase.
2: All German cars are over engineered in the oil systems due to a possibility of very high speeds on the unrestricted Autobahns there
3: Fitting spoilers and other aerodynamic aids can drastically restrict the air flow over the hot oil in the sump pan
4: Oil temperatures of over 110 degrees C must be avoided.