Oil cooler is cold?

[Rob_Jennings]

Lizzy has a 1275 Marina engine, and has in the past been fitted with an oil cooler (looks like a metro one? take off is sandwiched under spin on filter and small'ish cooler sit in front of the rad). This was fitted as the previous owners towed and were advised to add the extra cooling.

I have recently noticed that after running the car for a short while (easily normal running temperature) the oil cooler is still cold. Now some might see this as a good thing, but it should at least be warm after running the engine for a while?

I though these were just added to the oil circuit or do they have some sort of thermostat?

Should I be worried and how would I check and repair it?

[Willie]

I should imagine that 'cold' is not desireable so have you checked that the oil is actually pumping through the cooler matrix? You should get a rapid build up of condensation and emulsion if the oil is that cold. (In my
ignorance I thought that it was the gearbox which needed an oil cooler when towing.)??

[Onne]

I know automatic gearboxes need extra cooling when under heavy load, I don't know about the manual ones

[picky]

Onne, if the oil cooler is connected to the engine oil then it will not cool the oil in the gearbox anyway.

Rob, I would unscrew the adapter on the oil filter, and look inside. if there is some kind of thermostat in there it should be obvious, as the oil will need to bypass the cooler when the thermostat is "off"

With modern oils i think you only need a cooler if you push the engine really hard such as in a rally/race situation, so the chances are you are over cooling the oil, if it has no thermostat. you would be better off fitting a thermostat or removing the cooler altogether.

[Onne]

My comment was not related to the query, just to answer Willies question.

I used to work in oil coolers/radiators, but can't answer this question sadly