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Re: [T3] Engine Oil & Cooling



I am a little late in putting my five cents in but here goes,

I used to have smoke go out of my oil filler tube after extensive hard 
driving with a loaded car on hilly dirt roads and highways , oil would
boil and turn clear(almost non oily) with black chunks , yes total oil
break down. After many times of this I needed to rebuild my engine .
I added 140 plates of cooler/fans and oil filter, I found the oil to be 
so cool that after hard runs, the oil was just warm when touching the 
dipstick. I added no oil thermostat or temp sensor for the oil since living 
in San Diego , there is no cold weather to worry about sludging the oil.
I do have all of my cooling flaps installed , overcooling of cylinders 
will weare them very fast, I proved that with a terrible experiment on 
another car. It is like using cool cutting oil and a drill bit, hot
oil, hot bit and  metal makes no cut, floats on heat energy. 
You engine engineers can attest to that . When I was 12 years old I read
an engineering article on that exact subject, yes bit of a neard, got
beat up everyday after school for that .

During the rebuild I found that the oil was burned and caked into the 
compression and oil rings, probably due to overheated cylinders and oil .
I have found this burned oil and rings in big V8's that have overheated
and carbonized the oil in . In my engine the oil that was burned was on the 
3 and 4 cylinders but more on the #3 . 

I then removed the original oil cooler 
and added my large oil cooling system in it's place . I removed the original

oil cooler later when replacing one cracked head during a long list of
cracked 
heads that I have had. During that time I added head temp sensors on both
heads.

What i found is that with my head temp sensors , that extensive oil cooling 
did not affect the head temps, maybe just a tiny bit. After other melted and

cracked heads , I found that the cylinders and pistons and rings were still 
so loose and prestine that the crosshatching was still visible after 50,000
miles on the cylinders. I attribute this from the semi-synthetic oil , oil
cooling
and greater cooling by closing off the original oil cooler outlet, my
original 
cylinders were scuffed badly and the top cylinder ridge was as thick as a
fingernail
break down caused this damage in my first engine configuration.

I cannot monitor the cylinder temps , maybe on my next rebuild I will drill
holes on the 
center cylinder fins and place temp sensors there also to see at what
instance the 
temps rises and how much. The only things that affected the head temps was 
engine load and speeds of the vehicle. 

What was surprising to me was how different the temperature were on the
heads
depending on the manufacturer. I am still running the Mexican head after
20,000
miles and it is still the coldest and seems the most reliable. Cooling of
the
exhaust valve is enhanced. these are from the VW factory that still makes
the old 
beetle in Mexico.

My information aquired was from the same engine (1600 balanced efi), with 
lower end at 57,000 miles, cylinders, pistons and rings (except second total
seal ring)
at 77,000 miles. I drive between 3000 to 4000 miles a month. Head temps on
the Mexican 
head still never sees 300 degrees no matter how hard I drive. Location of
sensor
is much hotter than  the original VDO instrunctions of placing sensor under
sparkplug
instructs.
Heads from other manufacturers always saw above 350 degrees and sometimes
climbed to 450 
at the hardest ride uphill on long highways in the fastlane. The head surfce
areas 
around the exhaust springs would look golden in color, which would indicate
head
cooking oil. The only heads that did not give this cooked oil indication was
Mofoco
and the Mexican heads, too bad Mofoco macining was so bad.

So far my engine has not hiccuped at all since August 2002 considering that
I drive
alot, 4 hour drives on a whim is no problem for me.

And for you guys who are curious about my hydraulic lifters, yes they still
work,
I have not adjusted valves for almost 2 years now.

My oil light never goes on , no matter how slow my engine turns, I some
times 
think it is broke so I turn my engine off then the light turns on a second
later.
My engine starts in a half second when the key is turned and the light goes
off
immediately. This shows that bearings are still tight after all this time.

Durability is my objective but my next rebuild (after many many more miles,
knock
on wood), may be a bigger engine.

I hope my 5 cents helps.


LEON MARTINEZ

SAN DIEGO AND TIJUANA











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