sandwich oil cooler adapter and oil cooler questions Options

[type47]

After track sessions this past weekend, oil temps as indicated by a dipstick thermometer (Mainely Custom item) indicated temps of about 252 F after 20 minute sessions (ambient temps in the 60's). The engine is a Euro D-Jet with 20-50 Brad Penn. The engine that was in the car when I bought it (not the same engine as in the car now) has a sandwich oil cooler adapter and the oil cooler is still mounted on the car and I think I will hook it up again. Two questions; first is the indentification of the outlet and inlet on the adapter; which is which or how do I figure out which one the oil should exit from and which should the oil return. Second, on a radiator style oil cooler, do you hook it up so that oil goes in the "top" and filters/goes down the coils and exits out the bottom connection or goes in the bottom and pressure feeds up the cooler and exits out the top to return? TIA

[type47]

This morning I removed the adapter from the engine that was in the car when I bought it and identified it as (possibly) an Earls sandwich adapter with thermostat.

If you recognize it as something else, please let me know. Before I removed it, I tried to determine the tightening torque and got between 25 and 30 ft lbs. A little ball, spring and "stay" (for lack of better description) was lying in the groove and looks like it came out of the filter stand. Any ideas what caused the ball and spring to be pushed out of the stand?

I'm trying to determine the inlet and outlet connections of the oil cooler. The cooler looks like this Hayden but is about 13"x5.25"

the cooler is mounted such that the inlet and outlets are pointed upward, that is, the cooler lines are connected above the cooler (cooler is mounted inverse from as shown in pic). Best I can figure is it doesn't matter which is inlet and outlet

[ChrisFoley]

A little ball, spring and "stay" (for lack of better description) was lying in the groove and looks like it came out of the filter stand.

Without that ball check valve in place you were getting zero oil filtration.

[bdstone914]

Ok,
This is one where I have some experience. I worked for Hayden Oil Coolers for 27 years.
That probably is a Hayden or Thermal Dynamics cooler. I used an identical one on a 1.8L engine with the oil cooler mounted to the engine grill and got a 30 degree oil temp drop. Very strong copper tube coolers with the only draw back being the weight.

That spring and plunger in the adapter are a pressure relief for the oil cooler circuit, not for the filter. The filter head in a 914 engine has one built into it. Many filters also have one built into the bottom. The oil cooler needs to have a pressure relief in case of severe restriction and cold weather startup. During normal operation the pressure relief prevents a pressure drop to be no more than it's opening setting.

The oil flow is from the pump to the oil cooler and then on to the engine.

The adapters we had used a 7-10 pound relief. The cross flow cooler pictures is capable of flowing 8-10 GPM with minimal pressure drop.
More restrictive coolers have high pressure drops forcing the bypass open bypassing most of the oil around the cooler. In this situation cooling is reduced but oil pressure reduction to the engine bearings is limited.

Bruce