Tiger Oil Cooler?

Forrest39

Forrest39

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I looked at the Tiger in Fresno last week and noticed a rather large oil cooler mounted to the forward side of the radiator. Seemed like a pretty poor idea to me. The car has a problem running hot which may be an indicator problem also but I'm sure that the location of the oil cooler isn't doing the radiator any favors.

So the question is: Is an oil cooler necessary on a stock Tiger and would the owner of the car that is running hot be well advised to simply remove the oil cooler?

Separately, this car had the temp sender in the intake manifold with a plug installed in the port of the front side of there thermostat housing. Is that the correct orientation?

Thanks for any advice, -Kevin
 
Original Thermostat housing did not have a fitting in them.

That is a replacement using the 1968 and later housing.

So a plug is normal there.

Stock location for the temp sending unit is in a tee fitting in the heater hoses.

The PCV spacer under the 2 barrel carb has coolant routed through it.

Any time anyone upgrades to a 4 barrel that spacer gets tossed and the temp sending unit moves to the intake manifold.
 
Erich said:
Original Thermostat housing did not have a fitting in them.

That is a replacement using the 1968 and later housing.

So a plug is normal there.

Stock location for the temp sending unit is in a tee fitting in the heater hoses.

The PCV spacer under the 2 barrel carb has coolant routed through it.

Any time anyone upgrades to a 4 barrel that spacer gets tossed and the temp sending unit moves to the intake manifold.
Click to expand...
Thank you Erich!
-Kevin
 
Hi Kevin,

According a Rootes study conducted 1964, the stock Tiger cooling for the MkI 260 was inadequate. Rootes decided not to upgrade the cooling for budgetary reasons. When Rootes switched to the 289 they added an oil cooler in front of the radiator. This was similar to the oil coolers they had been using on the Alpine. So I guess one answer to your "necessary" question was that the factory ended up deciding it was necessary to install one.

I have two street Tigers with 289s that we have here in SoCal. Both use upgraded aluminum radiators that still are challenged on a 100+ degree day when stopped in a traffic jam for any length of time (+15 minutes). I consider the stock radiator hopeless with the weather and traffic we have. Neither of our street Tigers uses an oil cooler. On the other hand, if there were no traffic concerns we could get by with a less robust radiator.

I also have a Tiger vintage race car with a 289 that makes well over 400HP. Our experience with it is that in order to get the temperatures for water and oil at what I consider optimum (200 & 230) we must use an oil cooler without which the oil will get too hot. At first we ran an oil cooler that was too small. The result was the water temp was a bit cool and oil was a bit hot. Then we doubled the size of the cooler and had oil too cool and water too hot. Now we're running one a bit larger than the original and we have the temperatures where we want them. In short, the oil cooler certainly can help put the temperatures into the sweet spot.

BTW, this oil cooler is mounted in the location you described, in front of the bottom of the radiator.

good luck,

bt
at the beach
 
Alpine

I am not sure that your Alpine has the SIV or SV style but here is a pic anyway. The MK2 one looks similar but with 2 rows.

The connection for the stock set up is a cast iron goodie that is not on my car either as as soon as the F4B went on it went bye bye. It is next to the washer pump in this pile of take off's I got from a recent pile of leftovers I purchased.

I am not sure where I read it but most that entertain oil coolers will also have a thermostat for it as well.

Fellow hunter of the same car reported the same overheating problem. Some blocks give up HUGE portions of cast iron that clog radiators, at least the ones I have had on my other Fords. Most guys do not bother to run a heater core and also most do not have it cleaned when they have the radiator rodded.

I have a stock 260 and the only time I got too hot in LA traffic as Bob suggests, I put on the heater and the fan and according to the reasonably accurate dash temp gauge came down and was tolerable. Well in reality the car was like a Sunbeam Toaster oven with a black interior and a 180lb baked potato.

I do have a pic of Chuck's MK2 oil cooler but it is too big and I do not remember how to re size pics right now. Edit Thanks Your Geekness Derek!
 
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Oil Cooler vs Radiator

My first Tiger came from the PO with a stock radiator and an oil cooler in front the radiator above the valance. It had periodic overheating problems in hot weather.

My present Tiger has a recored stock radiator and no oil cooler, but I have a smaller diameter fan pulley, a 6 bladed C9DE fan and a 12" electric pusher fan in front of the radiator. Even with a 400+ HP 331 stroker, I rarely have any overheating issues and have only needed the electric pusher fan twice - once at the autocross in Long Beach when it was 97° and the other time was driving through San Bernadino to TigersUnited in Big Bear when it was over 100°. When I turn on the electric fan I can actually watch the temperature gage move downward ~15° within about 30 seconds.

Gary
 
I have a large aluminum radiator and oil cooler and the car has never seen over 190 in the central valley heat. It may help too that I added the LAT rear scoops in the hood.

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