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De-oil coolering complete

3K views 124 replies 26 participants last post by  Gary 
#1 ·
whipped off the standard XE cooler, sandwich plate and pipes today. I’ve been studying the sandwich plate and at first glance it "appears" that oil enters the cooler pipe after being filtered and then meets a closed stat on the return run. There’s also an alternative path for oil just to return back into the system, but its very convoluted and seems a much freer process with just a filter direct to oil pump.

I'm presuming oil is pumped through the centre-threaded section of the filter and returned around the perimeter through the holes. If not, oil enters the cooler pipes un filtered.

Anyway, out on the dual carriageway temp gauge reads cooler than normal, that maybe the new oil though, goes up to same temp idling and same temp with spirited driving. The oil might suffer a bit in summer or at events, but then its changed every 3k anyway. We will see.

So, that’s cooler rad, rad bracket, pipes and unions, sandwich plate. While the front bumper was off I also ditched the 2nd horn in true tom stickland style, ditched that metal baffle that extends from the end of the radiator, few brackets I missed after ripping the pas pipes out. Nice clean air passage into the grill and air dam, and a bit of wait saving to boot. Horn sounds like a buss now with 1 tone :D
 
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#27 ·
Hmm another thread with a bit of nonsense thrown in by people.

Anyway, the oil is pumped up from the sump and goes into the filter by the small holes on the oustide and then it carries onto the engine through the hole in the middle.

The anti-drain back vale is covering the smal holes. Its a rubber flap which allows oil into the filter but not back out of it. The spring you see in the middle of the filter when you look in the big hole is the bypass spring. This opens when the filters clogged and the oil pressure is high, if it didn't the paper would rupture and clog a gallery.

Oil coolers are never needed, if they are then the engine must be putting out some effort OR there is crap bay ventilation. They are sometimes needed when towing a caravan or similar but even then the caravan has to be a biggie.

Anyway, Oddball you say the stat never opened anyway and then you say you have an 82 degree stat. Well that might be your prob. On the rens we have an 89 degree stat as standard, they never over heat (unless neglected). Oil and water temp are closely related you know. Oil is the primary coolant for any engine, the waters just there to back it up. Now if the waters cold then the oil cools down a fair bit as well which isn't to clever.

The more posts I read the more I think the XE's pretty crap.

Pugeot never had any such trouble with the MI16 and its putting out a damn sight more power per litre (84bhp as standard, early 1.9 alloy lump) than an xe and its french.

Chris
 
#28 ·
cooler

I've never had an oil cooler on my car since i out the xe in and the tb's, not had any problems from it at all, and before driving conditions are questions, this car is used everyday summer and winter motorway to track (well a trip to bruntingthorpe anyways).
It gets driven hard by me and slowly by my mum (when she drives it, not very often). Take the cooler off if you want, it was put there by vaux to help out engines which were designed to be used by people who don't change the oil, don't keep the car in good order and still thrash it, its a safety net for the ingnorant not an essential.
If you do delete it though make sure you do as oddball and myself have done and take the sandwich plate off completely, i know someone who just took the pipes off anf blanked the holes on the sandwich plate, the sweet sound off the percussion section could be heard coming from the bottom end only a day later!
 
#30 ·
Chris_H42 said:
The more posts I read the more I think the XE's pretty crap.

Pugeot never had any such trouble with the MI16 and its putting out a damn sight more power per litre (84bhp as standard, early 1.9 alloy lump) than an xe and its french.
the XE is a fine engine, i know its not a renault, but hey worlds still revolving.

I think youll find most of our "problems" are from too much human intervention and curiosity lmao

XE stat is 92 as standard. 82 stat was retro fitted by me, to try and combat a some what toasty engine in the early stages of the trottle body conversion.
 
#32 ·
Its a not bad engine for a not bad car, pretty average though.

When you look at the work that was needed to get it shifting in the BTCC cavs its not exactly amazing. I mean they swapped the inlet and exhaust about etc etc

The rens and pugs etc have the inlet at the front already, good bottom ends and as standard the ren heads crap and the pug heads not to bad btu can be made a lot better.

However the newer engines are rubbish, make a nice anchor for a boat I suppose.

I can also appreciate the curiousity comment, when I fix cars I usually put right what other peopel arse up!

OllyTB seems a sensible lad with a reliable engine.

Chris
 
#34 ·
Chris_H42 said:
Its a not bad engine for a not bad car, pretty average though.

When you look at the work that was needed to get it shifting in the BTCC cavs its not exactly amazing. I mean they swapped the inlet and exhaust about etc etc
lmao

how much do you actually know about the XE BTCC engines ? answer carefully.. I live about 15mins from the people that built them ;)
 
#36 ·
yeah missed that season. Didn't know they entered the astra in the BTCC actually.

I don't know that much about the BTCC engines, they were probably built by swindon and I could probably guess the specs, I do know the inlet and exhaust positions were reversed.

Stab in the dark guesses, maybe steel crank and rods, forged pistons with oil drain holes not slots, TB's 48's maybe 50's, dry sump, leccy water pump and the usual.

Chris:)
 
#38 ·
There may not be slots, but a lot of 16V's have them.

The slot runs behind the ring instead of many holes its a coupel of holes joined by a slot. Crap is what it is as the skirt breaks away.

The pug engine power comment wasn't about valve area or anything it was about cooling capability. They had a cooler as an option, they didn't al come with them and they are fine. The engine would be classed as a more highly stressed unit than the XE. 1905cc and 160bhp. While the XE is what 1998cc and 156bhp on the Coscast motors.

But yeah the MI16 has rather nice valves in it. Which can be made a lot bigger very easily.

Chris
 
#39 ·
ah good climbdown... fairly foolish to profess knowledge of something you don't know about eh - not only that but to also to attempt to judge it's merits on said lack of knowledge ?

glad we cleared up that you're probably not best placed to rate the XE then, exactly the same as no one here has doubted your knowledge of Renault lumps.

Now that's sorted, perhaps you could be a little less free and easy with your patronising suppositions then :)

btw, the gains of the reverse head were approx 2-3 bhp at best above 130mph - it was done to try and maintain the huge lead SRE had opened on the engines development against competitors, who took a long time to catch up - but once they had, every little tiny possibility of extra power was considered.

It was already up to 290bhp by the time they carried out the reverse head mod - not so shoddy imo.
 
#42 ·
Gary

Was that reply to my post Gary?
My post was based upon knowledge i have gained myself with regard to not using the oil cooler.
If you're doing alot of track use, prolonged high revs for prolonged times then you will get the oil temp up and will need a cooler, and should be using the correct oil,, not cheap 50p a litre stuff, but on a road car i disagree, i don't feel it's essential. What does the xe do that the same bottom end in a 2.0 8v doesn't do? yes it revs higher and has a different head but you can rev an 8v to 6500 or there abouts only 750rpm or so off the rev limit of the xe. As someone said earlier, vaux knew the cars the xe were in were sold as a sporty car and would be driven hard. Therefore the extra safety net was required. If people feel beter about having an oil cooler on there car the have one and keep one, personel preference. I still say its not essential esp on a n/a car.
If you know th eboys at swidnon so well with regard to there btcc engines etc, take a stroll in and ask em! I work with a swindon race engine engineer btw, becareful what you say in your reply ;)
 
#45 ·
Oil coolers are never needed, if they are then the engine must be putting out some effort OR there is crap bay ventilation. They are sometimes needed when towing a caravan or similar but even then the caravan has to be a biggie.
Yes, they developed the MK2 shape and got a low drag coefficient, small grille helped this but not ventilation.

Oil and water temp are closely related you know. Oil is the primary coolant for any engine, the waters just there to back it up.
I disagree. Water is the primary coolant, oil is a lubricant. I say this because in the block the cylinders are surrounded by a water jacket. It is the boiling heat transfer to the water that is the primary heat removal system.

I do agree that an oil cooler might not be necessary. It's all more tat that we could do without.
 
#46 ·
Olly, no not you.

prolonged high revs == oil cooler

exactly as per my suggestion - verified likewise from experience :) - what has confused me slightly is how, in my own words 'barking past the pitlane at castle combe' could possibly, in any stretch of anyones imagination, be possibly confused with me saying a road car needs a cooler :rolleyes:

I have had interesting conversations on the SRE XEs with Paul, former head of the parts dept (the guy who had a rather nice Lotus Cortina), who has now left, btw.

I imagine that exhaust manifold efficiency was also a (secondary) reason for the reverse head, yes - however I doubt it could significantly add to the gains as the engines were so far back and low down they had all the room they needed to make the regular front facing manifold pretty good anyway - I'm not in a position to offer facts on that particular point however, so I won't :rolleyes:
 
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