Oil cooler lines?

[michael hurd]

Some trucks like mine have the engine oil cooler in the rad, it was also a stand alone cooler on some models in front of the radiator... I know the diesels got it for sure, but never paid attention to gas models.

 

[454cid]

Some trucks like mine have the engine oil cooler in the rad, it was also a stand alone cooler on some models in front of the radiator... I know the diesels got it for sure, but never paid attention to gas models.

Outside of the 6.5, I think the standalone oil cooler was on earlier trucks, but I don't have anything to back that up. Mine is in the radaitor, and while it probably does warm the oil in the winter, it's still going to dump excess heat, once up to temperature. It won't get rid of as much heat as an external cooler, but we probably don't need it, either. The oil cooler ports in the block (or adapter) aren't that big. If we needed bigger oil cooling systems we'd probably have it, like marine engines do. Reading BBC Gen VI threads on some of the marin forums, they don't use the GM ports, but rather oil filter adapters with much larger ports.

I've comteplated blocking the oil cooler ports, and removing the leaky lines. I'm dripping oil all over the place right now, and am already putting money into the front end.

 

[TerryD]

Engine oils run at a much higher temperature than the coolant on the hot side of the radiator. It does help raise the oil temperature when the engine is cold which on theory brings the oil up to its rated temperature where it lubricated best, but once there, the oil cooler helps maintain a steady oil temperature and should, in theory at least, help increase oil life.

 

[great white]

Is this for an actual "oil cooler " or for the oil lines that go into the rad? Im deleting my lines after talking to some GM tech's on my next oil change..... Not leaking but not doing me any good either.....

I don't need my oil heated, im in hell already...

You may want to consider not listening to those "gm techs" anymore. I'm not going to type it all out, but I'll just drop this here: http://www.hotrod.com/feature_stories/1310_engine_oil_temperature/

That's short, but its the meat of it.

Sharp eyes will pick up oil temps of 212-ish is considered optimal and the rad runs around 195-200. The oil "overheat" range is also above 195-200. Hmmmmmm.......that's interesting, isn't it?

This all makes more sense if we call it what it really is: a heat exchanger.

But at the end of the day, do as you wish.

 

[TerryD]

The Delco lines arrived and they are nice. My K2500 has a set of Dorman lines on it and the Delco is a much more pliable house and better looking all together. Glad I went with them.

Almost had the oil pan on and realized I hadn't bought any sealant for the ends yet. So I abandoned that, pulled the top off the K5 for the summer and took the kids and dog to play in the creek. Going to have it ready to install next weekend and get it going soon. I want plenty of mileage on it before our beach trip in July.