Anyone used an ATX cooler this way before?

[Eric VerValin]

I was thinking the other day... since I still have the ATX cooler bolted to my 93... (now an MTX) couldn't I pipe that to the oil cooler? How much of a benefit if any would I gain? Are those few degrees that important? Or am I just tryin too hard to come up with something to upgrade... lol

 

[Off Road SHO]

To do what? Cool the oil or cool the coolant?

Tom

 

[Eric VerValin]

Well... if you cooled the coolant that was being tossed into the cooler itself, making the oil cool...

or maybe it would work on the oil side... but I would imagine contaminants in the oil and the thickness of the oil might make that a bad idea after a little time... I dunno tho...

 

[Shoaz]

Be careful with it, since the pressure level from the ATX pump may not be as high as what it'd see with coolant or oil going through it.

I used the external ATX cooler with my MTX and an electric pump for a long time, but I've since deleted it.

If you want to cool the oil a bit better, there are adapters and purpose-built oil coolers that'll do that for you. There are a number of examples (probably in threads here) of doing that at the oil filter adapter like you're describing. Mine is set up that way.

If you used the ATX cooler to cool the coolant further, I'd be worried about leaks as well as perhaps making it harder for the t-stat to regulate the temperature, depending on how that portion of the system is plumbed (it might not matter).

I see more downsides than upsides, basically.

 

[SHOZ123]

I plumbed a Hayden oil cooler to cool the coolant before it entered the oil cooler on my '97. I laid it over the gill slits on the lower plastic air deflector. What was nice about this set up is when stopped and with the fans on the air got pulled in from the bottom through the cooler, when driving the air naturally flowed from the top down through the cooler.

 

[Off Road SHO]

I did the same thing that Paul did, but on The Other Woman; and I used a cabin heater as my heat exchanger, thereby killing two birds with one stone.

Tom

 

[SHOZ123]

I did the same thing that Paul did, but on The Other Woman; and I used a cabin heater as my heat exchanger, thereby killing two birds with one stone.

Tom

So you plumbed the oil cooler coolant through the heater core under the dash?

 

[Off Road SHO]

So you plumbed the oil cooler coolant through the heater core under the dash?

That is correct, but because I had so much more distance to cover; back of buggy to front of buggy and back, I used a coolant pump off of a Supercharged lightning to give me better flow. Works great at heating the cabin and gives my oil cooler much cooler coolant.

Tom

 

[SHOZ123]

I may try this. I have a problem with the V8. There's a thread about it called "thoughts on oil cooler". But basically with the reverse flow of the coolant the oil cooler gets the hottest water in the cooling system. And while racing I usually have the heater going full blast.

I am considering a lower radiator hose oil cooler like the Crown Vic PIs use. I would have to use a oil filter adapter though.

 

[gsilva]

I was thinking the other day... since I still have the ATX cooler bolted to my 93... (now an MTX) couldn't I pipe that to the oil cooler? How much of a benefit if any would I gain? Are those few degrees that important? Or am I just tryin too hard to come up with something to upgrade... lol

I used the ATX cooler as a power steering cooler and deleted the leaky PS cooler and saved about 6 feet of hose also. It also makes it easer to remove the starter.