quote Originally posted by Fieroking: From personal experience You absolutely need an oil cooler. I lost a 4.9 to a too small of an oil cooler and a very hot day. Oil pressure dropped to zero and brand new bearing were gone before I could stop the car. So if you don't think you need an oil cooler you run the risk of having the same failure. I now have an oil cooler out of a Volvo 740, it is a wedge shaped unit that fits in my passenger side scoop. Since I installed it my oil pressure has remained above 20 psi at idle. Joe Sokol

Too small a cooler? Was it too small because it wasn't cooling enough, or do you mean it wasn't providing enough flow, or perhaps it wasn't cooling enough because it WAS the flow restriction? Not meant as criticism, genuinely want to know, since I love driving my 4.9 and would be very blue if something happened to interrupt that.
Anyone else with one of Ed Parks' conversions, please speak up if you've had an oil cooling problem...

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Ed Parks 4.9 '88 Formula
Proud member of the Lightbar Fraternity

"He who does not oppose evil, commands that it be done!" ----Leonardo da Vinci
(edit - page two, and no flames---yippee!)

[This message has been edited by Vonov (edited 11-19-2004).]

quote Originally posted by HitesFiero: Yes, but, all the heat that the aluminum shrugs off will go into the oil. The oil needs some kind of exteral system to disipate the heat.

I think it's called the radiator. Let me clarify. heat from the oil is transferrd to the block. Water conducts heat from the Aluminum block to the radiator to the air...

[This message has been edited by USFiero (edited 11-20-2004).]

I just talked to Ed last night. On none of his 4.9 installations he ever used an oil cooler. He did many conversions and they all run without cooling issues.

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'85 GT fastback w/ Artero front
'86 SE Lamborghini Countach Replica "bright yellow"
w/ 4.9

Hi to all and thought I would toss my 2 cents in. This is a great thread. I have an Ed Parks conversion and have been thinking about add an oil cooler. The biggest problem I see is how to keep the hoses away from the crossover exhaust pipe. I was looking at the B&M cooler that has its own fan with a temp switch that comes on at 160 F. For the cooling lines I was looking at Earl’s new Pro-Lite 350 braided hose and fittings. There is a good article in January 2005 Car Craft magazine. I will say that I have driven my 4.9 for hours (one time for 8 hours) at 3000 RPM (4 speed at about 75 MPH) with no problems. Also I do believe when Rockcrawl reprograms the chip he drops the set points for the cooling fan on and off to reduce the engine temperatures. When I hook up the scanner I run from 190 to 204 for coolant temp. Now after reading this thread do I want to continue with adding an oil cooler?

Jack

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If you can not run with the big dogs, stay on the porch!

Now I am even more curious about what the oil temp actually runs. In my 'Vette, you could display the oil temp and even with an oil cooler, the oil was usually 10 degrees hotter than the water.
When the weather gets warm again, I will probably add an oil cooler to the 4.5 in my wife's van because the engine runs a little warmer than I would like, hopefully the oil cooler will help with the engine's overall temp.

I saw earlier where something is being done to the bypass valve in the oil filter/cooler adapter if you are not running a cooler. Can someone please explain this to me?

There are two bypass valves in the filter housing. One activates if the filter gets plugged, the other if the cooler gets plugged. Where the cooler bypass is depends on what adapter you have. You basically just need to identify it and take it out so that you can put plugs in the cooler line fittings. On one style its in the adapter in the area the filter screws on, just like the oil filter pressure bypass, on the other it's up in the body itself and you have to remove an allen threaded plug to get it out. I like that style better, myself, but it's harder to remove.

John Stricker

quote Originally posted by Cooter: Now I am even more curious about what the oil temp actually runs. In my 'Vette, you could display the oil temp and even with an oil cooler, the oil was usually 10 degrees hotter than the water. When the weather gets warm again, I will probably add an oil cooler to the 4.5 in my wife's van because the engine runs a little warmer than I would like, hopefully the oil cooler will help with the engine's overall temp. I saw earlier where something is being done to the bypass valve in the oil filter/cooler adapter if you are not running a cooler. Can someone please explain this to me?