M24 Oil Cooler installation

[m3an]

Originally Posted by m3alabama

Problem is if you get the oil cooler and your engine runs cooler and you then push it even harder and maybe spend more time in 2nd than 3rd or whatever, then you are putting more strain on the tranny that otherwise would have been prevented by you being limited by engine oil temps. I think it provides a false sense of security for the other car parts since thinking engine oil is good-well all the other parts are now more stressed if you push it harder than usual.

I think there is a reason they put a certain size of cooler etc to run with all the other stock system. You cant have huge capacity in one component of the car without equal capacity in the others (tranny etc)

yes but again you're talking in extremes. We're not talking about running cold oil. Picture the oil operating over a spectrum of temps. The oil cooler is only slightly lowering that ## and in situations like road racing, then absolutely is it beneficial. On the street, not so much but it def won't hurt the car. I run in 100 deg temps all year w/ no issues but have been looking at getting a mocal cooler to run up front in place of the OE

[roycemek]

Originally Posted by m3alabama

Something is not right with your car. Many have pushed the car running temps well above 210. Basically constantly at the tick before the very last one and never heard of anyone having the idrive give a warning for overheating.

Something is off with your car that is making something too hot in the engine itself

Just for clarification the tick mark between 210 and 300 I'm assuming to be 255degs. At that point the car is running fine. Its when that point is crossed just slightly, maybe 1/8 past that the message comes up on the idrive. I'm learning that the excessive heat warning message on the idrive is common for people that track their cars in hot climates. There was one other M3 that day that got the same idrive message. There was also a post some time ago where a few others also encountered the same problem at Buttonwillow in 100+deg heat. These are all case of running the cars on the track in 100+ degree heat. I would be suprised if this came up while driving on the streets. 20-30 min sessions on the track is very different than agressive street driving.

Originally Posted by m3alabama

Problem is if you get the oil cooler and your engine runs cooler and you then push it even harder and maybe spend more time in 2nd than 3rd or whatever, then you are putting more strain on the tranny that otherwise would have been prevented by you being limited by engine oil temps. I think it provides a false sense of security for the other car parts since thinking engine oil is good-well all the other parts are now more stressed if you push it harder than usual.

I think there is a reason they put a certain size of cooler etc to run with all the other stock system. You cant have huge capacity in one component of the car without equal capacity in the others (tranny etc)

You are neglecting to consider that there are thermostatic controls on all these systems so the fact that you have a thermostat controlling when the oil is cooled through the oil cooler means that having a more effecient oil cooler just helps when oil temps rise and will not affect the low end of how cool the oil will get because the thermostat controls that and that piece is not being replaced.

[bigjae1976]

I see m3alabama's point. So you're oil will stay cooler longer which allows you to get the coolant, trans and p/s even hotter. I do agree that these cars need more cooling but that's not the point of the discussion. Its about oil cooling, not cooling as a whole.

On that...I believe TMS sells an all aluminum radiator with an integrated p/s cooler. Now, who's going to come out with an improved DCT cooler? I've been considering adding water/iso alcohol as a charge cooler as well. It helps tremendously on my E46.

Why not water/meth? Because you can get iso alcohol at Walgreens. Need to search for meth.

[m3an]

keep in mind too anyone using the stock oil gauge for "accurate" reference is foolish. It's been said before that the gauge is just a visual indicator w/ a large variance for movement. What you are seeing may not be as drastic as you think.. You really need an A/M gauge to have any reliable info