Can these be retro fitted to the S2 Exige?
My car was reaching crazy [water] temps on the track at Le Mans last weekend and thought oil cooler would help. Air temp was 35-40deg and track temp unbelievably high.
Never had a temp problem before, no fluid loss etc…
Any ideas on cost and who could fit one?
Cheers
It would be difficult to fit the factory ones if your car does not already have one (all Exiges post April 05 have at least one, touring and base cars before that do not) as the oil pipes run between the chassis and the bonded in sill. I fitted a second cooler to my car built April 05. Someone on here was talking about fitting a cooler to a pre April 05 car using Mocal parts, locating the cooler in the offside engine air vent - don’t remember hearing the results.
I have an oil temp gauge in my car, and I have never seen it above 75 C in road driving, even when ragging it. On track it is up over 90 within a few laps, so I guess plenty of oil cooling has to be good thing. Anyone who knows about these things care to comment on what a safe upper temp limit is for synthetic oil?
Mark
Were you measuring oil temp or was it the coolant temp gauge on the dash you are referring to? What sort of numbers were you getting, I presume you had the AC on too.
Tarmac Terrorist has had then retrofitted by Plans. Wasn’t cheap but if you plan on doing several hot days then it may be worthwhile. Either that or do more shorter stints on track and allow it to cool down.
My max on my gauges (this is with SC) just over 7bar of pressure and 101 temp wise - these are peaks oil tends to sit in the 90s. On road I see 75-85.
yes… it is possible to fit the factory kit to non-oil cooler cars. I would say esssential for cars used on the track.
The labour is �470.00; parts �1001.10 (of which over half are the the coolers themselves at �264 each - we can do a slightly cheaper alternative using a mocal cooler but for the saving you’re better off with all OE parts which won’t distract from the resale value of the car). The installation includes an SPA programmable oil temperature / pressure gauge, 7ktrs of mobil 1 motorsport oil, filter etc etc; VAT �257
Cheaper than a new engine.
After half a dozen laps (air con on) temp on the stack was flashing at 111 deg!
Fan working OK and temp on a cooling down lap fell to 100 and fell steadily to settle in mid/high 90’s as the car idled in the pits.
Later laps (aircon off) temp was running at 105 deg.
Must stress that air temps were very high.
Oil temp in a friend’s Sport 160 was running up to 120 deg!
Graham
Very interested in that, I take it oil coolers would cause the engine to run cooler by dissipating heat other than by water cooling?
Anyone know ‘safe’ operating temps for the normal oil - I am guessing 120 anit good- Graham?
Anyone know ‘safe’ operating temps for the normal oil - I am guessing 120 anit good- Graham?
I know he does use fully synthetic Silkolene Racing spec oil…
Do a search on posts by “Oilman” (Opie Oils).
IIRC Silkolene fully synth (which I use) is good for 150C.
It was recommended and supplied by Oilman
145�C peak oil temp is about right for a modern engine running synthetic oil. Thats what I work to anyway.
It would be difficult to fit the factory ones if your car does not already have one (all Exiges post April 05 have at least one, touring and base cars before that do not) as the oil pipes run between the chassis and the bonded in sill.
Mark
Lotus Motorsport tell me that all UK spec cars had an oil cooler fitted as standard
Just given Lotus the VIN No of my car to check the build record…
Why is nothing straight forward with Lotus?
[Lotus Motorsport tell me that all UK spec cars had an oil cooler fitted as standard
Why is nothing straight forward with Lotus?
I doubt you will get better advice from anyone - Lotus included, than from the collective view on here…Lotus may build them but we use them!
Found out from the build record it is a 2005 spec car but that it was ordered by Williams - as a “special order” - without an oil cooler!
What a bunch of total clowns, I bought it from them as their ex-demo and wasn’t told that it didn’t have an oil cooler, they knew I did track days too!
Perhaps a phone call to Williams is in order…
Graham at Plans will be getting the car to fit them as soon as poss.
Cheers guys
It would be difficult to fit the factory ones if your car does not already have one (all Exiges post April 05 have at least one, touring and base cars before that do not) as the oil pipes run between the chassis and the bonded in sill.
MarkLotus Motorsport tell me that all UK spec cars had an oil cooler fitted as standard
Just given Lotus the VIN No of my car to check the build record…
Why is nothing straight forward with Lotus?
Surpisingly they are absolutely wrong I am afraid. Before April 05, UK base and Touring cars definitely did not have have front mounted oil cooler, but they did have an oil/water heat exchanger instead (which I guess does a similar job). Have a looky here to see what the coolers looks like, along with the relevant bit of the manual http://www.exiges.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=s2s&Number=55639&Forum=,,,All_Forums,,,&Words=&Searchpage=2&Limit=25&Main=55625&Search=true&where=&Name=1552&daterange=&newerval=&newertype=&olderval=&oldertype=&bodyprev=#Post55639 - you can check if your car has one just by looking in the front air vents.
Mark
Found out from the build record it is a 2005 spec car but that it was ordered by Williams - as a “special order” - without an oil cooler!
What a bunch of total clowns, I bought it from them as their ex-demo and wasn’t told that it didn’t have an oil cooler, they knew I did track days too!
Perhaps a phone call to Williams is in order…
Graham at Plans will be getting the car to fit them as soon as poss.
Cheers guys
Seems a bit odd - can’t imagine why they would have ordered it specially without a cooler. It wasn’t just built in the earlier part of 05? I believe the standard fitting a single front cooler coincided with the switch from the badge to the LOTUS lettering on the rear of the car. Sounds like Plans will get you sorted anyway.
Mark
Well she’s booked in with Graham at Plans, all the bits have arrived and I’m dropping her off on Saturday. I’ll let you know how it goes.
You do realise that with all that nice extra cooling you will need to rag the nuts of the car
Be interested to hear how the fitting goes, especially how they get the pipes through the sills. Oh, and give them a prod about an SC conversion while you are there
Mark
Booked for a day at Llandow on 8th Sept, just to give the girl a bit of a run.
Just found out she’s ready
Arranged to fly up to Plans to collect the car next Monday and so back in time for Llandow on 8th Sept