74Novaguy

Im putting a new engine in my recently acquired 88 5.7L Iroc-Z. It came factory with the Oil Cooler. The factory oil cooler has alot of corrosion on the lines and inside of the housing from the previous owner never changing coolant. Is it ok to get rid of this equipment? or Is this something that I should keep/replace? Ive had some other sbc and never ran an oil cooler. I was also thinking I should just replace it with a standard Oil cooler that uses its own little radiator. let me know what you guys think.

8t2 z-chev

Yeah,not really essential but the oil cooler is nice
additional cooling for heavy duty cooling situations and
the lower oil temps prolong the life of the oil,help keep
the oil effective during heavy duty use, and prolongs the
life of rubber and vinyl engine seals and gaskets.
The '84 vette engine i put in my z28 originally came
with a water cooled oil cooler much like that found on
some later thirdgens,but i thought the setup clumsy
and the 'vette pipes and all wouldn't fit my third easy
so i took the air-cooled oil cooler from an '83 impala
cop car and adapted it to my thirdgen,mounting the
oil radiator in the charcoal canister area with it's own
thermostat controlled 8"electric fan and -10 braided
lines leading to the cooler.setup has been in since '95
and very effective. Besides cop cars,factory air
cooled oil coolers are often found on '80s and '90s
chevy/gmc pickups and SUVs with towing package

91 1LE

iTrader: (1)

I got rid of mine and went with a bigger oil pan. The increased capacity stays cooler longer and the oil pan air cools more effectively with a greater surface area. I also installed an oil temp gauge so I know when to take it easy. Removing the cooler clears up some engine bay clutter too.

eseibel67

The factory KC4 oil-to-water engine oil cooler is a lot of plumbing, and I question it's efficiency.

A proper aftermarket air-to-oil cooler would be inexpensive and very effective.

91 1LE

iTrader: (1)

I would think the factory design is quite effective even though it is complex. The water that is routed to the sandwhich adapter cools further as it flows through all that tubing. Its other function is to bring the oil up to temp faster as the water heats faster than the oil.

UnderCover89TBI

iTrader: (25)

for the sake of flushing it. Id flush that setup and just put an aftermarket setup on it. The bigger oil pans are good for stock height cars but for lowered cars you'll hit stuff. dont want that. add the bm supercooler oil kit on the car. will work good. and will deffinately help with a new engine. You do want that new engine to stay properly lubricated correct?

74Novaguy

No i was thinking of seeing how long the new engine would last without oil... lol j/k Ya Lubrication is my friend unlike the previous owner. I took the old motor apart and it looked like in the 60k miles it had on it, it may of had one oil and coolant change.

8t2 z-chev

forgot to mention in my post above that i did some
porting on the GM oil cooler filter adaptor as i thought
it's oil flow could be improved with some porting.

UnderCover89TBI

iTrader: (25)

Did you really? That is funny.

Dyno Don

iTrader: (7)

It's really just a heat exchanger, put in a 180 stat and get rid of it.

A larger pan would be better also, if you can.

I have one that is one more qt. on mine and it doesn't hang down, but I did have to shorten the front to make room for the crossover.