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Old 07-01-2021, 09:57 AM   #1
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Adding an extra Oil Cooler to my 3126B

I'm wondering if anyone on here has any ideas for adding another oil cooler to the 3126B. I have some other plans for the engine and want to get oil cooling improved a bit first.

The obvious answer would be a sandwich plate of some sort, but I can't find any that large given the size of the oil filter. I'm wondering if anyone has either seen a sandwich plate or if there are some other thoughts. From what I can tell, there are no good external oil lines to work from. The only potential one might be the oil supply to the turbo, although that seems to me to not be a good idea to use for several reasons.
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Old 07-01-2021, 10:18 AM   #2
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Instead of using the turbo supply you might consider using the turbo drain line.

I’m guessing that would be some of the hottest oil and it just drains back into the block
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Old 07-01-2021, 10:27 AM   #3
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Which oil pan is on your 3126 B the stamped steel 19 Q, or the finned aluminum 30 Q. ?

If your chassis has the clearances for the larger pan , perhaps increasing oil capacity, and the finned aluminum, would get the extra cooling you require.

Also , my 3126B has a "T" at the oil pressure sending unit boss ; the T services two oil lines , one goes to the air compressor , the other to a remote location for the pressure sensor .
The T is hidden behind the hydraulic pump , for the side rad cooling fan and P/S on my Newmar. on Freightliner.
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Old 07-01-2021, 10:28 AM   #4
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You may be trying to fix a NON-PROBLEM.
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Old 07-01-2021, 05:08 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JNSNWT View Post
Instead of using the turbo supply you might consider using the turbo drain line.

I’m guessing that would be some of the hottest oil and it just drains back into the block
Yes, the one issue with that is that that oil is supposed to drain more or less unrestricted. So by adding a cooler that way, I would likely flood the turbo.

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Which oil pan is on your 3126 B the stamped steel 19 Q, or the finned aluminum 30 Q. ?

If your chassis has the clearances for the larger pan , perhaps increasing oil capacity, and the finned aluminum, would get the extra cooling you require.

Also , my 3126B has a "T" at the oil pressure sending unit boss ; the T services two oil lines , one goes to the air compressor , the other to a remote location for the pressure sensor .
The T is hidden behind the hydraulic pump , for the side rad cooling fan and P/S on my Newmar. on Freightliner.
I have the 19Q pan. I thought about the larger pan, but I would be worried about clearance. However that brings up one other idea I’ve had, which is adding some heat sinks to my oil pan. I’m going to try that anyway, and that may help.

Thanks for reminding me on the Ts. You’re right on that, I now remember that from when I changed my oil pressure sensor. Need to think about that, if I just ran oil from that to the pan it would be a big oil pressure leak.

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You may be trying to fix a NON-PROBLEM.
I undoubtedly am. This is what I do, and I have other plans longer term that this is the first step in.
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Old 07-03-2021, 06:01 AM   #6
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We have had 2 motor homes with Cat engines. One had a 29/30 quart pan and the other 19 quart. We never found that volume of oil made much difference. What did, was regular cleaning of the cooling system of the CAC, transmission and radiator.

I just cleaned ours before making the trip to Gillette, WY for the FMCA Convention. Western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming have long grades. I never had to take off cruse control set at 65/67 mph. Our C-7 didn’t overheat. There was temperature rise, but didn’t exceed normal range. I do not run in Economy mode in mountainous highways.
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Old 12-08-2021, 06:51 AM   #7
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As part of my more crazy plan to convert my RV to all electric cooling I talked with a friend of mine with a CNC machine, and we put together a plan for a sandwich adapter.

The 3126/C7 doesn't have a ton of clearance around the top to the block, and being made of aluminum, we decided the best way to handle this was going to be essentially making this one custom fit. We made the outer diameter a bit thicker than the oil filter and may need to machine up at the top, but I think it will fit. If not, we'll turn it down a hair up top. The extra diameter will help with making the pipe threads seal.

I bought a Setrab oil cooler with fan setup and will have -16AN hoses going in and out of the adapter. I considered what temperature to go with, and ultimately decided 200F on 185F off. It's easy for me to change that so I may do so in the future depending on how it performs. I may also do some sort of more complex control system that lets the fan controller for the engines also turn on the fan cooler if the coolant temp gets up higher.

And, pretty pictures. More coming once I start test fitting:

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Old 12-28-2021, 05:03 PM   #8
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The system is installed and I’ve put close to 2000 miles on it. I will have to make a few tweaks, most notably adding a second cooler and running the two in parallel. This is both to reduce restriction of the system and also to increase cooling as the single cooler doesn’t add quite as much cooling capacity as I wanted.

It was a significant effort, but worth it for me.
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Old 12-28-2021, 11:52 PM   #9
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How much are you trying to lower the oil temperature? What are your oil temperatures now? You can get into trouble lowering your oil temperature too low. Safe Travels
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Old 12-29-2021, 07:26 AM   #10
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Quote:
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How much are you trying to lower the oil temperature? What are your oil temperatures now? You can get into trouble lowering your oil temperature too low. Safe Travels
Yes, I realize the potential pitfalls of getting oil temps too low. I used to be an engineer working on piston aircraft engines and we dealt with that a lot. I’m making sure the temps still stay at a point ehrtr they’ll boil the water out. Ideal for me is in the range of 185-195, as the water will still boil out when the oil hits hotter parts of the engine like the pistons from the piston oil squirters.

The goal is to keep the oil temps more in the normal range on long climbs. 230-245 is what I was seeing on extended grades on hot days, and on some hot days going down the highway I would see 215-220 before. Not too hot but it could be better. My intentions here are also to reduce the load on the coolant/radiator circuit under those long climb conditions, as I part of my conversion to electric cooling fans. So it’s a bigger systems item, not just oil temp. However I think that the engine under extended higher loads (climbing steep hills towing our toad on 90+ days), the turbo and pistons are happier with the oil being cooler.
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Old 12-29-2021, 09:07 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted DuPuis View Post
Yes, I realize the potential pitfalls of getting oil temps too low. I used to be an engineer working on piston aircraft engines and we dealt with that a lot. I’m making sure the temps still stay at a point ehrtr they’ll boil the water out. Ideal for me is in the range of 185-195, as the water will still boil out when the oil hits hotter parts of the engine like the pistons from the piston oil squirters.

The goal is to keep the oil temps more in the normal range on long climbs. 230-245 is what I was seeing on extended grades on hot days, and on some hot days going down the highway I would see 215-220 before. Not too hot but it could be better. My intentions here are also to reduce the load on the coolant/radiator circuit under those long climb conditions, as I part of my conversion to electric cooling fans. So it’s a bigger systems item, not just oil temp. However I think that the engine under extended higher loads (climbing steep hills towing our toad on 90+ days), the turbo and pistons are happier with the oil being cooler.
Ok, good luck, have fun and Safe Travels
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Old 09-21-2022, 08:45 AM   #12
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Going through and updating on a few of my oddball project...

I ended up putting on two external oil coolers run in parallel for the oil system. The highest my oil temperature gauge gets now is 205F (that's measured at the pan). Normally I see around 180-185F. I'm happy with this performance and don't consider it too cold. The engine seems happier and my EGTs stay lower, which is probably more than anything to the turbo being kept cooler with the cooler oil.
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Old 09-22-2022, 09:18 AM   #13
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I went to your YouTube channel and snagged these pictures.

The passenger side electric fan is pretty self-explanatory, but what is going on with that aluminum spacer between the oil filter and Engine?
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Old 09-22-2022, 09:54 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted DuPuis View Post
Yes, I realize the potential pitfalls of getting oil temps too low. I used to be an engineer working on piston aircraft engines and we dealt with that a lot. I’m making sure the temps still stay at a point ehrtr they’ll boil the water out. Ideal for me is in the range of 185-195, as the water will still boil out when the oil hits hotter parts of the engine like the pistons from the piston oil squirters.

The goal is to keep the oil temps more in the normal range on long climbs. 230-245 is what I was seeing on extended grades on hot days, and on some hot days going down the highway I would see 215-220 before. Not too hot but it could be better. My intentions here are also to reduce the load on the coolant/radiator circuit under those long climb conditions, as I part of my conversion to electric cooling fans. So it’s a bigger systems item, not just oil temp. However I think that the engine under extended higher loads (climbing steep hills towing our toad on 90+ days), the turbo and pistons are happier with the oil being cooler.
Well, you get an A+ for being creative.

How do you know your engine oil temps? Mine has a cooler temp and trans temp.

Riding grades clearly effects the oil temp, as reflected by my idle oil pressure.

Cruising along, stopping, idle pressure is 20 PSI or so. After grades, I can see 15psi at idle, and just sitting there over 1-2 minutes it climbs right back to 20 psi...
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