T-Bucket Forums: cooling - T-Bucket Forums

A while back, I was looking at a new Japenese motorcycle (I think it was made by polaris) and read that it was oil cooled with a radiator just like a car. It set me to thinking,(which can be DANGEROUS because I come up with some really "scary shit"), has anybody out there ever tried replacing the water in an automotive cooling system with a lightweight oil? Like Automatic transmission oil or even inexpensive cooking oil for an experiment? Oil cools better than water (its used in tempering metals) but I don't know the boiling point of oil. It could be a solution for a hard to cool engine like the small block 400 chevy which has siamesed cylinders with no water jackets between the center two cylinders, or a t-bucket with a Pinto, Bobcat, or Jeep 4 cyl radiator. (They fit under a 'T' shell) The only drawback I can see is that if you ever developed a pinhole leak spraying an oil mist over the engine,in an enclosed engine compartment, and it ignited you'd have a bonfire on your hands, and if it had coated underneath the car I wouldn't want to be strapped in it. But in an open engine compartment like on a roadster or rat rod you would spot an oil leak immediately. I'm going to try that some day, 'cause I love to play with new ideas. Like one reader said, I come up with some "really scary shit!"
Comments?.............Chester

ChestersAlive, on 25 November 2009 - 10:23 AM, said:

There'a a mirid of engines that are cooled by oil....especially small diesels 2 and 3 cylinder motors especially in welders....compressors and tractors.....
That cooling type of system is outside my area of expertise, but I would think that s the oil can transfer heat as well as water or better....hey, why not.
Now....as far as water, you have to add a cooling agent and pressureize that system to raise the boiling point. Now oil has a substancial higher boiling point.....from what I've read about some cooling systems.
Hope this helps.........

Cooling oil will be a fail.

Just remember if you cook a steak on the bbq, the oil turns to fat, and it would do the same thing in your engine.

I actually know this because I experimented with an old lawnmower engine many years ago. Tho it did smell nice just before it expired

ChestersAlive, on 25 November 2009 - 11:23 AM, said:

I will give you the answer my surgeon gave me after I asked if I could skydive again. "Why don't you try it out and let me know how it goes."

I think the trans fluid might work as it usually puts up with some high temps or a good quality synthetic. The advantage would also be that if you sprung a intake leak you wouldn't toast your motor right off like you would with water in the oil...hmmmmm

Cooking oil would be pretty bad, as in colder temps it would not flow at all.

Maybe something along the lines of peanut oil or soybean oil. It is so thin it can be used as a fuel in diesel engines. But as was mentioned it is flammable. And hey peanut oil is cheaper than antifreeze.

IIRC, when the suzuki gsxr's first came out in the 80's they used oil cooling. But not in the same way that a car engine cools with water. They redeigned the oil system to get more oil to the hot spots of the engine, like the under side of the pistons. Using the oil to carry away the heat. And dissapate it in the cooler (radiator). Could this be what you are thinking of chester ?

How about a light mineral oil? I think that would be more compatible with a gasoline engine and it wouldn't gum up like vegie oil would.

Chester: Now you're really starting to freak me out. LOL

Machine tool cooling is done by circulating mobil oil called "DTE lite". It has the consistancy of mineral oil. And is also clear.

This post has been edited by rooster57: 26 November 2009 - 12:21 PM

Had a blown head gasget once where a little oil would get into the radiator and it wouldn't transfer the heat. It would run hotter the more oil that got into the radiator. I could flush it out and get another 200 miles before it would happen again.

austinb, on 26 November 2009 - 02:48 PM, said:

I've also run engines with blown head gaskets simply because I couldn't afford to fix them. The oil doesn't mix with the water but turns it into a frothy mixture like soap suds that couldn't cool an ice cube. In fact when shopping for a car in the 50s you pulled out the dipstick to check for this white creamy mixture indicating a cracked head, or bad block, or blown gasket. In Nevada in the winters it gets 30 below in the winter and you get a lot of cracked blocks. People may change the oil and try to peddle them quick but just idling the engine for 5 minutes would 'milk' it again. You would have to start with a new engine and new radiator, a system that had never had one drop of water in it. You would totally eliminate the rust prevalant in the automotive system, plus wouldn't have the sub-sero freeze up problem. Maybe someone in Alaska might try this idea. I was there for a while, you can have that cold-ass, moose crap covered state. I found the perfect climate.
Chester