Laminova oil coolers, anyone got experience?


b16 mini

b16 mini

Ek9 obsession
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Mar 10, 2008
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1997 Ek9,1996 ek4 siR, 1972 b18c4 mini
I've removed the factory heat exchanger from the back of my block with the intention of using a oil radiator,
However i decided to look in to other options and came across the laminova heat exchangers,

It interests me as it can help bring the oil up to temp quicker in colder conditions and should keep the oil temp stable and closer to the coolant temp apparently, where as air to oil radiators can have issues getting up to and maintaining stable temp on the road.

The massive bonus for me is it could be mounted on the subframe so no long oil lines and can be plumbed in the heater hoses

Anybody had any experience with these?

http://www.mocal.co.uk/FAQ.html

http://speedflow.co.uk/laminova/
 
I have seen these before, would be great for people with large radiators and front mount intercoolers as there really is no space left to put a large oil cooler.

My only worry is how effective can these cool the oil on track?
Air to oil coolers are using ambient temp, fast moving air at much less than the 90-95c coolant temperature. Having said that water is a better conductor of heat than air is.
As it says it's a heat exchanger so it's going to tax the cooling system on track, bringing the water temp up and the oil temp down to meet somewhere in the middle.

I'm open to the idea but I'd need someone else to try it first lol
 
Sorry not a review but a little information all the same.
 
My thoughts and concerns are pretty similar really,
After a bit of Google image searching it seems they are quite popular with lotus guys, s2000's and single seat formula style race cars.

the oem sandwich plate heat exchanger works in a similar way, and is effective up to a point it would seem, the problem with that though is heat transfer as its bolted to the block, and according to mocal they can be restrictive which is why I removed it,

I hear what your saying about the air to oil rad working at ambient temp and it is probably a more effective cooling device, but on the other hand you don't need to cool your oil that much, you want to keep it at a stable operating temp,

Like you say it's about the conductivity and sharing the heat out!

With my full width koyo I think it should work pretty well
 
Yeah I'd definitely not want to run one on a half width rad on a turbo B series. My koyo could hardly handle the sustained load at the ring so adding oil cooling to its list of jobs wouldn't have helped.
 
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