Has anyone fitted an oil cooler to a 2.4 litre mk2 ,and if so was it worth it? I know that all parts are readily available but I don't want to go to fit one if of no benefit. All I am trying to do is to make the car more suitable for motorway use at a constant speed rather than the pre motorway roads of the 1960's here in Britain. Thanks in anticipation, Colin.

I have no experience with your engine, but I recently installed an oil cooler on a modified 2.0L GT6 MK2 engine. The cooler sits behind the front chassis rail so it doesn't get much direct air flow, but it doesn't impede flow to the radiator much either. Despite that, I recorded a 40+ degree temperature drop across the cooler's inlet and outlet ports. This was on a cool day. I haven't yet had a day warm enough to test summer conditions, but it does seem to make a difference.

Thanks for your information, I will lookfurther into location suitability but there seems to be ample room as that is an excellent drop in temp. Best, Colin.

Hi Colin. Yeh - I was surprised by the "Delta-T" myself and took the readings a few times to be sure. In the pic you can see that it really sits in between everything. I built a small lip into the mount that extends just a little below the cowl to catch some free air, but other than that, the cooler really does sit in the aerodynamic shadow of everything around it. Yet it does seem to make a significant difference. The radiator was reinstalled after I took the photo - it goes right up against the rear of the cooler - no more than a miniscule gap between them. Good luck with yours. - Jim

Thanks Jim, it does look neat, Colin.

First off, I have always had trouble getting my 2.4L MK2 hot.
I do understand the cooling addition an oil cooler would give....Fairbanks Morse diseasemal as backup power on Nuke Subs..."What is the primary cooling for the diesel?" The oil cooler.

Now, the TRiumph install is neat....but in a MK2 JAG where are you going to put it?
Hang it underneath and hit speed bumps, parking space curbs...or you can remove the grille and fit it in front of the radiator...so the hot air coming back out of the oil cooler makes the cooling air for the radiator maybe 40 degrees warmer?

Not a whole lot of places to put it if you have factory FogRangers. If you don't, and have the phony horn grilles below and inboard of the headlamps....LH side (to not interfere with the brake booster vacuum reservoir) cut out behind the grille, hose the air to the cooler...fit at an angle to blow across most of the cooler.

I agree that the oil cooler's heat does get transferred to the radiator, but so long as the car doesn't boil over, my next biggest concern is oil temperature. I installed a small digital temp probe in my upper hose to better assess the temps. What I found was, that when the needle is right on the red-line, the temp is still only 205F and the engine is not boiling over. This is acceptable to me on a hot highway day. So if the engine's coolant stays around that temperature, I benefit with lower oil temperature.

I agree, and my post said that. However, yours is NOT a MK2 or S type Jag. The space is horribly limited.
The oval grille is it as far as cooling air intake, and blocking that air is an issue...and adding heat is another. That is why I suggested using one of the fake horn grilles on the LH side to mount said oil cooler inside the left wing.
Mine used to run hot when I got it...as an air conditioning condensor was in front of the rad. It isn't any longer (and I know who has it). I wish there was as much room (and accessible) under the bonnet on a MK2/S as there is on a TRiumph...but there is not.
Putting it low in front of the crank pulley.....there is no place there. Sides, same, top, no way.
In fact, I would never do it unless it was in an air stream outside of the under bonnet area, to keep the heat from filling the engine compartment when exiting the cooler.
But, hey, that's just me.

It could go under the left hand front wing with some protection from debris flying from the tyre and, maybe, a fan to help the air flow.

It might also be worth including a thermostat. Oil should be hot enough not to cause excessive drag in bearings and also to boil off water. Generally, it's best to keep the maximum in the system below about 120 Celsius, certainly below 140, to avoid degrading. A sump temperature aroung 90 to 100 Celsius is probably a good target. The number that I've suggested for sump temperature is 'general' and not XK engine specific; there may be some more precise info from long distance racers.

Just for a matter of reference, my Mocal oil cooler thermostat (that I have yet to install) is supposed to open at 82C (180F).

Thanks for all the responses re an oil cooler, it has given me a cause to think that it might not be as easy as I first thought. Colin.

Yeh - When you look at all the variables and obstacles at once, it can seem daunting. But like most things, once we get a rough solution in our minds and start drilling holes and turning wrenches, we deal with those things one at a time. My project drove me nuts for a couple of years trying to solve all the problems up front. Once I actually started though, it wasn't that bad.

The other issue on a 2.4L is the coolant path in the block.
It is NOT what you would think, and since the block is so short, also NOT the same as 3.4L and 3.8L.

The output of the water pump drives into a "manifold" along the side of the upper block behind the exhaust manifold (water manifold is part of the block casting...does not come off).

Water flows through this, then into the head, across the head, into the inlet manifold water passages, then into the water manifold to the right of the inlet proper, to the thermostat, then the rad.

There.
Is.
No.
Flow.

through the block at all. Water works on convection from the head, down through the head gasket, into the "dead sea" of the block.
Seriously.

There is a tap on the left rear of the block, just above the sump rail, and since there is no flow, you need to drain the garbage out periodically or it WILL overheat.

Unless you do it regularly, you will have to drain the coolant at the rad, pull the tap out, probe the blockage with a stiff wire, then add fresh water into the rad and run the water until the block runs out clean.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-05-22 08:22 PM by Curmudgeon.