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Engine Oil Cooler - Is more oil needed?

3onTree

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i have been running a Harrop engine oil cooler for a few years now and all is well (car sees a bit motorsport duties). With the installation of the additional curcuit, the oil system is theoretically now a higher overall volume (the oil in the oil cooler circuit lines plus the heat exchanger). Should i be running a bit more engine oil volume? In my recent oil change ive added a bit more oil than usual (about 4 mm above top dipstick full indicator). Ive checked for any sign of oil crank aeration and all seems normal. Lifters seem completely quiet now too. Got me thinking that maybe i should run more oil since adding the external cooler. Does anyone else run 7 plus litres of oil in their LS?
 

greenacc

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You should be going by the dipstick unless the LS is different to all other cars. There will be extra oil in the pipes and cooler but that would only need to be replaced if it gets drained out.
Surely the oil won't drain out of the cooler every time the engine is switched off, so there should be no need to run a higher level just because you have a cooler attached.
 

3onTree

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Did some more research and it turns out additional oil volume is specified by the manufacturer of the external oil cooler. This makes sense to me as the external oil cooler circuit does increase circuit volume. Its more than the lines it also includes the heat exchanger. Additonal 800ml of oil is required. Oil does all drain back to the sump however the dipstick is designed to indicate volume for standard operating volume. A thread of narrow interest I know, but an important one for people who track their cars, and do not have dry sump oiling - and would likely use an external engine oil cooler.
 

07GTS

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just dont fill up too much if ur tracking it as u will get more oil sloshing into the crank
 

3onTree

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Yeah definitely - i have a motorsport windage tray to mitigate that and oil starvation. Dry sump is the ultimate, maybe when due for a rebuild. Those high g corners at Phillip Island really challenge normal oiling systems. Good fun !
 

07GTS

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yep will help, ive got sump baffle and crank scraper/windage tray going in my new build, i also increased (doubled) the low oil warning pressure so i get an early warning as factory is quite low
 

eman1

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just dont fill up too much if ur tracking it as u will get more oil sloshing into the crank
From reading info from the states, LS owners in corvettes and camaros were told by GM to overfill engine oil by 1 US quart (just less the 1L) to prevent oil starvation during high cornering forces on track and autocross events.

I would think you would have to overfill significantly to have the crank hitting the oil and making it cavitate.
 
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