zjbarra

iTrader: (2)

I just did a bit of work on my car and in the time I did this work, I had the oil cooler out and drained. I put everything back together and started the car up and have since ran it and it doesn't look like the oil level has dropped a notable amount. I did not take the car for any long drives or anything of the sort but warmed up. My question is if the bypass is not opening, will it prevent the oil cooler from being filled up? I'm assuming that even with the bypass closed it should allow some of the oil to make it's way into the cooler? From what I have heard this part does not fail very frequently and I figure I just wanted to see if anyone has seen a similar problem. I've been doing a bunch with the car so it's possible that for whatever reason it filled the cooler one of the times but I figured I'd just throw it on the table before I yank the bypass and screw with it. The oil cooler should take something in the ball park of 1-1.5 quarts after it has been emptied correct?

Added side note: Oil pressure is fine but the coolant temp is a little on the high side which is why I figured I'd take a look into this. This could also be due to the fact that the car has not been fully tuned yet.

Icemark

is the oil cooler getting warm at operating temps... go ahead touch it. are the fins warm? If so the thermo valve is working.

The oil cooler thermo valve seldom if ever fails. perhaps you are confusing that with the E-shaft thermo valve.

And unless the oil cooler was warm, and you removed the thermo valve in it, you did not drain the oil out of it, but rather just the oil in the side tank of it.

zjbarra

iTrader: (2)

Ah I didn't think about that. So even if you remove the cooler completely and take off the lines etc, the cooler should still retain oil in the fins? I didn't think about the e-shaft valve but I guess that'd be something else to be considered. If the oil cooler does not drain it's oil no matter what the case until you pull that thermal sensor though, I highly doubt this is the cause of the problem. I'm using a thermostat that is not a mazda factory stat which I intend to repace along with a few other things and a small coolant leak to boot so it isn't unreasonable to assume these things are just stacking up I suppose. You are certain though that the oil cooler will retain oil no matter what as long as you don't pull the valve?

Icemark

Yep, unless you let it drain by itself for a couple of days or have it power cleaned.