Is this a water cooled oil cooler?

After dismantling the Turbo, and removing the large oil cooler, i noticed on my other B what seems to be an water cooled oil cooler. Is this standard for all the B's and how effective are they.

Some stuff from a lotus elise website that may or may not help:

Air to Oil Cooler

This uses the same principle as a car radiator and the oil is cooled by the cool air flowing throw it. Lotus fit these type of coolers at the front of the Elise which is good for airflow and cooling but requires long pipe lengths and is difficult to retro fit. This appraoch adds extra weight due to the pipes and the oil within them and makes oil changes a more complex task. Most aftermarket supliers provide kits that fit in the engine bay behind the right hand air vent. This works in the same way as the Lotus one but the oil cooler is of slightly different dimensions. This is easier to install but increases the temperature in the engine bay. These kits usually consist of a sandwich plate that fits in between the oil filter and oil filter mount, air to oil cooler, 2 pipes to connect the two together.


Water to oil cooler (Doughnut Cooler)

This type of cooler is generally less efficient. They look like a thick take off plate but they actually have the oil cooler built into themand require piping to get the coolant to/from the coller. The engine water coolant system must be capable of handling the extra heat this appraoch puts in to it and the Elise system is adequate on the standard car. higher power variants may not be. These coolers are small and but not easy to install in an Elise. Being about 60mm thick, fitting results in the oil filter being close to the standard exhaust manifold. A smaller filter would resolve this problem though. This type of cooler is the cheapest to fit.


Water to oil cooler (Laminar Flow cooler)

These are two concentric tubes with fins between them to transfer heat between the water and oil. These coolers are expensive but result in minial oil pressure drop. They can be simply fitted by replacing a section of coolant return pipe. An advantage of water to oil coolers is that the water brings the oil up to temperature quicker when the car is started from cold.

Cool! so are these water to oil coolers fitted on every B. and would one work without as i havent got one on the Blue B as of yet. Does it need it.

I've looked at the lubrication system on eper and it seems to be on there as a standard part.

I have learnt something today!!

Yep same 4 me.

See, who says, old dogs cant learn something new

Where do those pipes go then? It looks like a take off for an oil to air cooler to me, but i can't see where the pipes go, and i don't own a B to check lol

Anyone know the diameter of your oil filter? Is it the larger or smaller one that fiat use?

Just thinking this may be an option on other fiat cars....i just fitted a MOCAL sandwhich plate and cooler to my car, maybe the fiat parts would have worked out cheaper? (probs not lol)

Cheers,

Kristian

Hi, The pipes go back into the water inlet manifold, but the MOCAL sandwich oil to air cooler is better so i wouldnt worry. This type just helps a little, the oil filter is the same.

You calling me an old dog!!

Just kidding with ya.

If the shoe fits..........

Woof!