Oil cooler thermostat

[Loose Cannon]

An item I've been considering for the next oil change is swapping the existing oil cooler takeoff sandwich plate for an item with thermostatic control. My warmup cycle has always felt a bit long, making me wonder about the benefits of a piddly 2 litre engine immediately pushing 7 litres of oil needlessly around a cooling system.

There are such items on well known Lotus tuning websites but they seem very expensive when comparable parts can be had for less than half the cost from the likes of Demon Tweeks. Does anyone know the flexi pipe & oil filter thread sizes so I could approach someone like Mocal directly?

[sailorbob]

Fitting one definitely improves the oil warm up time. You can get one cheaply enough from Burton Power, part no. MOCTB3. You will need to drill out the 5/8 BSP oil connectors though as they have a much smaller bore than the factory sandwich plate adapters. You can keep the oil hose orientation as per the factory positioning, don't worry about what the service manual says about the direction of oil flow through the oil coolers as it makes no difference.

Edited March 5, 2010 by sailorbob

[Loose Cannon]

Thanks, so the Lotus engine has a filter thread of 3/4" UNF and hose connectors 5/8" BSP, is that right? (thread sizes make my head spin)

Edited March 5, 2010 by LooseCannon

[sailorbob]

Yes. It needs to be that sandwich plate to suit the diameter of the filter sealing ring.

[Vulcan Grey]

I've got a MOCTB3 with the 5/8" BSP

[Loose Cannon]

Thanks, it's on the shopping list!