I've therefore been researching into oil cooling. Initially, I was looking into fitting an efficient air cooler and locating it in front of the engine cooling radiator, in a similar fashion to the Modena performance air/oil cooler pictured here (from Enrico's Maserati pages). It's the large silver coloured one in the centre. I actually think this cooler is a bit over the top, since an efficient cooler of half this size should be sufficient, although I think this Modena prepared car is awaiting a V8 engine conversion. Also, I don't think it's very efficient mounting the cooler with such a large gap between the rear of the cooler and the front of the water radiator, since the exhaust flow from the oil cooler will not flow nicely through the radiator.
So, I was researching into fitting an sandwich adapter between the oil pump and the oil filter to facilitate fitting hoses to the front mounted oil cooler and had managed to source a second hand Maserati part with built in thermostat, pictured here. This little device only sends oil to the cooler after it has reached a certain temperature (around 80 degrees C) in order to warm the oil up to operating temperature as quickly as possible, otherwise the oil will be too cool and hence quite viscous.While discussing my options with the Bi-turbo forum on Yahoo, one of the members talked about the oil/water cooler he has fitted to his Maserati Ghibli Cup and subsequently sent some pictures of the cooler fitted to his car. After researching the cooler (it's a Mocal Laminova cooler), the benefits, particularly for my application, were clear.
A water/oil cooler does not need a thermostat and warms the oil up to operating temperature much quicker than an air/oil cooler. This is because the water/oil cooler is actually a heat exchanger and the water cooling is very effective at taking heating from the engine and therefore warms up quickly. The water/oil cooler then transfers this heat into the oil, hence warming it up quickly. I often drive drive reasonably short journeys in my car (twenty minutes) which is only just long enough to get the engine properly warmed up. Therefore, anything I can do to warm it up quicker is certainly a bonus.Although the water warms up the oil quickly, the water cooling on the Ghibli is very effective at maintaining the water temperature at around 90 degrees C, even in extreme use. The idea of the water/oil cooler is that the fluid temperatures of the oil and water remain about the same, which means that the oil temperature should be maintained around 90 degrees, which is about perfect!
In order to fit the water/oil cooler, I'll have to fit a remote oil filter and an adapter plate to the oil pump to facilitate running lines to the remote filter. The cooler itself will be mounted behind the water radiator, spliced into the line that takes cool water from the radiator back into the engine block. In the drawing, this will mean rotating part 34 clockwise about 90 degrees, fitting in the Mocal cooler, then installing a new 90 degree elbow to face upwards, then installing part 6 (will have to flip it round) up and into part 5, which will have to be rotated 90 degrees anti-clockwise.The parts are made by Think Auto in the UK, who are not proving to be the most effective with e-mail correspondence. However, I have managed to get a quote off them for the parts I require... the water Laminova is not cheap, but the other parts are pretty reasonable and Jorrit at Auto Forza can get all the hose and fittings tailor made for me.
I'm hoping to get it installed within the next couple of months.
