Oil Cooler Spray

Pete_89T2 · 06-20-2011, 11:40 AM

Ok, I'd be interested to see what results you get when you test this. I would suspect you will need to spray a significant volume of water over the cooler before you see the oil temps drop a few degrees. Reason being is you need to cool off the thermal mass of the oil cooler itself before it can start to cool the oil. That's a big & hot hunk of AL.

One idea for a quick test before building anything. Pick up/borrow a tank sprayer (gardening type). Then run your car till the oil temps are heat soaked to the 200F mark, and let it idle. While idling, get an assistant to use the tank sprayer to apply a constant fine mist over the entire surface of the oil cooler. Monitor your oil temp gauge and time, record the oil temperature vs. time. You're trying to measure temp drop over time. Since you're using a tank sprayer, and if you run it till empty, you've also measured the volume of water required to obtain the temp oil drop vs. time. When the tank is empty, test is over, and you'll have a pretty good characterization of how the system would work.

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06-20-2011, 11:40 AM	#6
Pete_89T2 Lifetime Rotorhead Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Elkton, MD Posts: 874 Rep Power: 16	Ok, I'd be interested to see what results you get when you test this. I would suspect you will need to spray a significant volume of water over the cooler before you see the oil temps drop a few degrees. Reason being is you need to cool off the thermal mass of the oil cooler itself before it can start to cool the oil. That's a big & hot hunk of AL. One idea for a quick test before building anything. Pick up/borrow a tank sprayer (gardening type). Then run your car till the oil temps are heat soaked to the 200F mark, and let it idle. While idling, get an assistant to use the tank sprayer to apply a constant fine mist over the entire surface of the oil cooler. Monitor your oil temp gauge and time, record the oil temperature vs. time. You're trying to measure temp drop over time. Since you're using a tank sprayer, and if you run it till empty, you've also measured the volume of water required to obtain the temp oil drop vs. time. When the tank is empty, test is over, and you'll have a pretty good characterization of how the system would work.