[DeTomaso] DeTomaso Digest, Vol 33, Issue 9- OIL COOLERS

[Mad Dog Antenucci]

6800 R's?
  That is exactly the reason Junior Wilson, Larry Stock and myself all went to a taller ring gear for ORR.  I agree that a fan isn't going to do squat on a air-to-oil cooler in either an open track or an open road race scenerio....Several of our engineer/racers went to bigger and better air-to-oil coolers and one went  as far as to duct air directly from a roof mounted intake to the oil cooler....that made no measurable improvement....not even 1 degree in a racing condition.    
   
  I also agree you also can't hope to run much above 6,000 R's in a 'sustained' endurance race even with a fluidyne heat exchanger and a big 2-pass race radiator without also adding taller gears or backing off the throttle as Bob practices  ;-]> hehe.  
   
  I remember Pete Beckham was convinced when he ran his race prepared 650HP powered Windsor  Pantera at ORR that his dry sump system alone would be enough to keep the oil under 300F without having to change his stock 4.22 ring gear. He averaged 150 MPH but he also had 300+F on oil temp at the finish line and he also toasted his main bearings!!!
  DOH!!!!
   
  I've had great luck with Fluidyne. That includes the current batch of heat exchangers. I've only had one Fluidyne heat exchanger fail in 6 years and even then all it did was mix some oil into the cooling system...A bit of a pain to purge all the oil out of the cooling system as Erik Belter and I both missed the Vegas Banquet but we were still able to drive home with oil in the cooling system....A well kept PCNC secret is my water temp dropped 15 F on the drive home!!! ;-]>
   
  Fluidyne gave me a new heat exchanger after that which has worked with no problems for 6 years or the last  30 or so open road races (no I don't use a thermostat).  The cooler thermostat is arguably a good idea but you could argue as JT pointed out the other day that it is one more (potential) failure point to worry about. 
   
  But then so is an oil cooler. ;-]>
   
  Its like how fast do you want to go and for how long!  
   
  Mad Dawg Antenucci
  Team Pantera Racing
  www.teampanteraracing.com
   
   
  RCBSONS1 at aol.com wrote:
  I have to disagree with the statement that no air flow is required
for an oil cooler to work properly... I have finally figured out that
I have no air flow (looking at the bugs collecting) at the location
of my oil cooler which is just above the rear deck on my wing mounts.
I even installed a thicker oil cooler for airplane engines and it was
worse as I think it required the prop or higher air flow speed to work
properly. 

Charile Puckett told me even a fan will not work for the task required
on a track or ORR car... the problem is not going slow but going
fast at 6,800 rpm constantly on the track.

Going to water to oil type cooler... I think a stat is a must as
several have failed (ask MD) due to the cold thick oil hitting the
cooler and rupturing it... the new ones are supposed to be OK but
why chance it... again you need to push the car hard in order to
see high oil temperatures... I just back off a lap in a higher gear
and can see the temperature go down 15 degrees. Getting tired
of driving the car this way as I am an all out type of driver. 

My personal experience

Bob Benson- Team Pantera #3




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Mad Dawg Antenucci 
Team Pantera Racing 
  The 1st & still the only vintage race team in open road racing 
www.teampanteraracing.com