pacotaco345

Long story short Texas is hot, really hot, and although I don't have an oil temp gauge I suspect after even just driving down the freeway for 30 mins or so the pathetic 3 qts of oil that the motor holds stock is up over 100* C.

I've already decided on running a setrab 16 row cooler with greddy thermostat but I was just wondering how everyone else flushes and fills their oil with the thermostat in the car. Do you guys remove the cooler each time then prime it or what? I just bought a moroso pan so I expect my new oil capacity to be around 5-6 qts + whatever the lines and cooler hold. Just wondering if anyone here has a trick to draining/filling the system all the way before I go do way more work than necessary lol.

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spooled240

Also curious. I know some people just leave the old oil in the oil cooler and lines and change the oil at shorter intervals.

jr_ss

Most oil coolers hold less than a quart of oil. With that said, changing your oil without draining your cooler will be sufficient. If you want to drain it. Mount cooler upside down. Put a tee on the outlet of the cooler with a valve at the bottom. That will give you the ability to drain it, but I think your be fine not changing that fluid, unless of course you have a castrophic engine failure and/or you pop a headgasket.

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My SR20VET

pacotaco345

Sounds good then, one more question... Is it typical for SRs to heat up the oil that much with the stock (3 qt) capacity? Normal city driving my oil pressure stops dropping by about 18 psi at idle once the car is warmed up. After cruising down the freeway at 75 for 30 mins or so when I come to a stop my oil pressure at idle will only be around 12-13 psi. Part of me thinks its my gauge and the other part is actually concerned a bit.

**rebuilt S13 blacktop with z maf, t28, poncams, 550 injectors, acl std size bearings, enthalpy tune**

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anti tyler

Could be the gauge, but my thoughts and readings told me that 10+ at idle is normal. anything lower should raise flags.

Are you using an aftermarket gauge? May sound stupid but make sure the sender isn't jacked up. Or even worse don't try running a BAR sending unit with a PSI gauge. You'll most definitely experience some bizzare readings.

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pacotaco345

Yeah I'm running a works engineering gauge, they had a special on here a while ago so I bought a couple to monitor boost & oil p. Everything read fine until I replaced the orings on my filter block then the oil pressure gauge went all funky. It seems to be normal now but still acts up occasionally. Could getting water in the port fuck it up?...

One thing it does that really confuses me is that it displays a higher oil pressure by about .4 bar under decel. Example, cruising @ 3200 rpm will read 3.6 bar. Coasting through 3200 rpm will read about 4 bar.

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jr_ss

12psi is the factory allowable minimum at idle(850rpms +/- 100 rpms).

I hope you have more than 3qts in your motor. Most factory SRs are around 3.375-3.5qts. It wouldn't take long for it to get hot. SRs are known to run high oil temps in stock form. Increasing your capacity and adding a cooler will help keep them in check. However, at cruising speeds, you really shouldn't have an issue.

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My SR20VET

pacotaco345

At 850 I definitely have 12 psi even when its hot, the lower end of idle though (750) my gauge reads right below 1 bar, so I'm pretty close to the minimum there though. And as far as capacity its filled to H on the dipstick and it only takes 3 when I change the oil lol. I guess I'll clean the sensor out real good when I install the cooler & thermostat and see what it reads once that's settled.

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jr_ss

What weight oil are you running?

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My SR20VET

pacotaco345

20 50 vr1 lol

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street_sleeper

Jesus why 20w 50? I saw a thread a while back where a lot of SR guys run everything but 5w and 10w 30. What's the science behind running the heavier oil ?

And as far as the cooler flush, with the Moroso pan (I have the same and love it) your total capacity is 6qts plus lines and the cooler adds less than half a qt, not flushing it is ok but doable. It's like when you drain you oil normally, there is still a small amount in the pan still that doesn't ever drain. So there is always gonna be some "dirty oil" in the system but not enough to worry about.


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Jaescrub

This is great info. I'm wanting to run an oil cooler as well.

Moore

It's not the clearest picture of the set up but I have greddy thermostat hooked up to a remote oil filter bracket. When I change the oil I can disconnect the lines and purge the cooler with fresh oil then hook them back up. Before I set it up like this I would change my oil and it would look black again after the thermostat opened for the first time. I am much happier now that I can change oil in the cooler. I think greddy makes a thermostat/remote filter brkt all in 1, I already had the thermostat so I just added a remote filter brkt.

jr_ss

The problem with trying to purge a thermostatically controlled cooler is tricking the thermo to open. If you have a simple drain valve this can be avoided. My oil cooler setup is a custom one built by me based around the Earls thermo block and oil cooler.

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My SR20VET

spooled240

^ I don't think thermostats fully close so it shouldn't be a problem draining the oil cooler.

has anyone ran an oil cooler with and without the thermostat? I've read thermostats are a bit more restrictive and have resulted in higher oil temps. I'm debating whether to run one or not since I'm in socal

jr_ss

As far as I can tell, my thermo blocks flow entirely to the cooler when not needed.

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My SR20VET

Moore

I would agree. Mine works very well, if I'm just cruising the oil temp comes up to 165 very quickly, thermo opens and then it will slowly work it's way up to 170-180 depending on how i'm driving and outside temp.

What size of line's are most of you running? 10AN seems to be what most of the parts work with but I have seen kits/parts with 8AN. Pressure vs flow ?

Moore

I just disconnect the lines after the thermo. A valve would be quicker but it only take a min to get both of those lines off.

pacotaco345

20w 50 just cuz its what all my friends run and what was recommended to me personally. I also (partially) spun a rod bearing before with 10w 30 so I'm kinda paranoid now lol. Depending on what I see with the cooler I may drop it to 15w 40 in a couple oil changes or during the winter but for now I'm keeping the 50. I also don't have an oil temp gauge.. I just kinda guess based on my pressure.

On another note, I feel like this is t he most useful thread I've made on zilvia ever haha.

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pacotaco345

Debating to run a thermostat or a cooler? My dad has a racecar in his garage and it doesn't have a thermostat, when its cold out we just tape the cooler off with duct tape though. The biggest reason I want to run one is to keep from pumping crazy thick oil through the motor for 20-30 minutes before it ever gets to the proper temp. If my car wasnt a daily driver though I'd probably rock a cooler without the thermostat.

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fliprayzin240sx

Just curious, did you slap a brand new oil pump when you rebuilt? 12 psi at idle seems low considering you're running some thick ass oil.

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pacotaco345

I got my pump from a friend, it only had about 5000 mi on it before he blew a headgasket and gave up on SRs. I really do just think its a combination of my gauge being kinda fucked and my oil temps being high. If I'm not fwy driving the car oil press at idle sits around 20 psi even after 30+ mins of driving. As soon as I'm above 3k rpm for any extended amount of time it starts dropping

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