aux oil cooler install

[FORDF250HDXLT]

i had coolant temp spikes 230-240 real quick and fast on the hills and long duration time with the engines cooling fans after a front mount intercooler and a large aux trans cooler were stuffed behind my grill in July and August. (well,i solved the issue in aug.)
I got to thinking,why the fast spikes? so i thought about it,and said,ahh i betcha my oil temps are getting too high (no gauge) and transfering over to high coolant temps.so i pull over at the top of a few grades after towing and hauling heavy with my truck and dump trailer and shoot the pan with my point and shoot gun and sure enough,260+ oil temps!!! and that was just a couple medium grades.no wonder.that's too much of a job to ask from the engines cooling system alone,
so i installed an aux oil cooler and moved my aux trans cooler and it solved my coolant temp spikes and long e-fan duration times nicely back in the heat of summer.

here is my setup with part numbers:

Earl's Performance Temp-A-Cure 16 Row Oil Cooler #41610A
Mocal 200 Degree High-Temp Remote Oil Thermostat #MOC-10ANHT
Perma-Cool Spin-On Oil Filter Adapter #2840
Hy-Lube 1.5-16 Remote Oil Filter Mount
Parker 426-8 ( 1/2" ) High Temperature Hydraulic Hose w/ Jic (AN) Fittings.

i didn't want to move my oil filter for anything,but do you think i could source a basic aux oil cooler/filter sandwich for the ever so popular 7.3l? not for the life of me! i couldn't believe it!
then hy-lube remote filter head was the only oem thread size so i could keep my large filter (most run the fl1995 motorcraft.i run a larger synthetic type with same threads mobil m1601) so i had to pay big too keep that too.
i was/am totally floored at the lack of 7.3l support for aux oil cooler and remote location filter heads and goods.unreal.especially since the 94.5-97 psd share the same filter thread.
i figured for such a popular engine,i could easily choose all kinds of options.i figured id just buy a oil filter sandwich with a/n fittings complete with t-stat and all like popular gas engine choices.....oh no.that would have been too easy and too affordable.no one even makes a basic sandwich without t-stat and basic npt ports......nothing.nada.crazy! so it really costs some coin to keep things "right".aww well,like the old saying goes; if it was easy everyone would do it.


pics attached.
as you can see i mounted two coolers down below the front valance behind a sheet of 1/2 wire screen stock (or whatever it's called.found locally at hardware store.)
it sets up above the front axle and mounted above fisher plow mm push plate cross bar (i know,how convenient) it is not an off road truck (well.on grass or plowing snow,but no running through the woods or trails of course lol.)
the larger rear cooler is a tru-cool aux transmission cooler (on a 180 t-stat - not shown.)
the smaller front cooler is the aux oil cooler (on a 200 t-stat - shown in pic.)


the results were fantastic.
at first i simply did the oil cooler and that cured all that ailed her really.
then i thought well how much better if i ditch that massive aux trans cooler from in between that massive 3" thick front mount intercooler and move that right down with my aux oil cooler.
then that helped even a bit more to reduce the electric cooling fan run time without that blocking air.though that was fairly minimal compared to just the aux oil cooler.the oil temps was much more of the issue than too many coolers stacked behind the grill but both went hand in hand nicely.
no more fast high spikes when at max gross pulling grades.

 

[icanfixall]

Reading the last page somehow I knew it was from Banks. I'm really not buying all they are putting out bout oil temps and the requirement to controll them.

 

[rembrant88]

Looks good. I have been meaning to get an auxiliary oil cooler for mine. It's good to see that you are impressed with the improvements. Why the remote oil filter? I always wondered if anyone ever removed the stock oil cooler and tried to prevent the coolant temperature from interfering with oil temperature. My setup is going to have a pre luber on it so I'll have to mess with lines anyway.

 

[jaluhn83]

Sounds to me like there's something else going on there.

I see 210-220 coolant temps and ~10-20* higher oil temps under heavy load. And it never jumps up that quick. I'd guess weak fan clutch or a thermostat problem.

 

[Black dawg]

This is interesting to me, I towed with my truck recently (the overheating POS) and with coolant temps pretty mild, oil temp (according to temp gun) was breaking 240. I would have hated to have seen the oil temp when coolant temp in the past has reached 270.

My thought was to get rid of the factory oil cooler altogether, I have been wondering if it is a restriction to coolant flow,
And then to use a big external oil cooler.

What has this done to your max coolant temps?

 

[icanfixall]

To remove the oem cooler we have to make both headers. The front header is where the oil comes out of the block. The rear header is where the bypass and the flow to the engine goes. If a person had the time and the machine shop to fabricate the new headers the front one would need to send the hot oil thru the new cooler where ever thats placed. Then it needs to return to the new rear header with the filter attachemnt part. And be ported to bypass and supply the engine. These new headers can bolt up to the block just as before but the coolant passage needs to be blocked off. A simple gasket can do that easily. That rear header will need a bypass and a oil pressure regulater valve in it too. Can it be done.. Sure. I sure would use all AN fittings and stainless steel braided lines..

 

[FORDF250HDXLT]

Why the remote oil filter?

because i couldn't find just an oil cooler sandwich plate for this engine.

Sounds to me like there's something else going on there.

I see 210-220 coolant temps and ~10-20* higher oil temps under heavy load. And it never jumps up that quick. I'd guess weak fan clutch or a thermostat problem.

i have dual electric cooling fans.the fans kept the coolant temps under control,but the oil temps still would rise too much.perhaps the intercooler is a bit too large for the small banks turbo and it's working harder than it should.temps are great now.

What has this done to your max coolant temps?

rather than spike the coolant up to the max 240F safe zone,it simply slowly climbs upwards of 230 and then much quicker drops back down with the oil being cooled more too.
(now at this time of year,im pretty much just seeing peaks of 220ish,and most often this is when idling through drive through's,but when loaded and on the hills too.e-fans just spinning on medium.)

it was possible to simply crank my fan controller on sooner to have the dual e-fans spin on high more,but i just didn't want to have to use the cooling system so much.not when a much more efficient system like an aux air cooler on a t-stat is an option.this way here,the cooling system can handle the water temps much easier.
the difference is drastic.now my e-fans just pretty much run like before the FMIC install.just medium sometimes,and on high just briefly.

 

[justinray]

An option for thise with handshaker transmissions would be to run oil through the trans cooler in the radiator. This seems to be the route I'll take. Warms oil quicker, keeps oil in that safe range, and looks oem.

 

[racer30]

MMM makes me think I might do something like your setup on my MH. I have a oil tem sender that was reading the oil temp at the return line to the pan from the midland single cylinder air compressor. I think I will leave it that way for now and watch how the temps change from when the 8.2 was running then make changes after I get a new base line temp range. I have a lot of room to do something like a remote cooler later if I need to.

 

[FORDF250HDXLT]

An option for thise with handshaker transmissions would be to run oil through the trans cooler in the radiator. This seems to be the route I'll take. Warms oil quicker, keeps oil in that safe range, and looks oem.

use caution.unlike trans lines that are 3/8,the engine oil needs more volume with 1/2 lines.
though the idea is good,the trans cooler section of the radiator is likely too restrictive.

 

[jaluhn83]

I'd bet the root problem is the electric fans not moving enough volume of air.

The stock trans cooler would be an option for an aux cooler, but it's not going to work as a full flow cooler. Look at the size of the stock cooler - it handles the entire oil flow to the engine which is something like 18 gpm IIRC. You've also got to consider the pressure - stock oil cooler is right off the main outlet and sees 60+ psi. The trans oil cooler is probably designed for 15 psi max. Stock oil cooler also includes the oil pressure regulator, filter mount and filter bypass valves.

I would run a separate aux cooler loop off the pan - that is put ports in the side of the pan and use a small electric pump to circulate the oil through an air to oil cooler. This eliminates the need to mess with an oil cooler adapter as well as not having to deal with large full flow high pressure oil lines and coolers. Also you eliminate the need for a expensive thermostatic valve - just run the electric pump off a simple temp switch.

 

[FORDF250HDXLT]

I'd bet the root problem is the electric fans not moving enough volume of air.

your not wrong.i could have made the fans spin on high and for as long as required.this would do the trick and i would have been fine.
however the energy used to spin the fans comes from the alternator.the alternator gets it's energy from the fuel that cost's us $4 per gallon.
it's not that i couldn't have let the e-fans spin on high and dropped the temps right down to t-stat 192 temps.in fact i did this several times to test and it did so effortlessly.
it's more because i didn't want to have to let the fans work that much.now they hardly need to come on going down the road just like before the FMIC and large trans cooler install.
if i let the fans just run on high early,it's more than likely the oil temps would have been just fine on the hills as well with much lower coolant temps to help cool the oil of course but try and think of this not just as what was needed,but a method to run the engine more efficiently.why use the alternator (fuel) to cool the oil,when i could just let wind help out if you will.

 

[justinray]

use caution.unlike trans lines that are 3/8,the engine oil needs more volume with 1/2 lines.
though the idea is good,the trans cooler section of the radiator is likely too restrictive.

Only if you're cooling the post-pan, pre-internal oil. If it is just pan to cooler back to pan or even turbo drain to cooler to pan, or the such, it'd be a non problem.

JM2CW

 

[jaluhn83]

I see the point about fans taking power, but I doubt the difference in fuel economy is significant enough to be noticeable.

I'd also submit that the cost of the oil cooler would buy a decent amount of fuel, even at $4/gallon....

I strongly advise against trying to run a cooler on the turbo drain - everything I've seen is that the turbo oil drain is more of a foam than liquid oil and it requires a large diameter drain with minimal backpressure.

 

[OLDBULL8]

Liquid to liquid heat transfer is 5 times more efficient than air to liquid. Oil temp up to 280* is not harmful, you can run synthetic up to 360*.