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What are we to make of recent articles in Apr and May '08 club mags about oil coolers on the XJS? All rather a mystery. Are they needed or what here in UK or are they provided in case a few were sold in Arizona? The standard part which Jaguar supply to blank off the oil supply to the cooler ( EBC 4124) suggests that it should be removed for home use? Anybody any views on this? Paul E.

PaulE

Hi there and welcome to the XJS Forum BB.

Re Oil Coolers - if you have a V12 it needs its oil cooler to run at a reasonable temperature. If the system fails in any way it must be repaired. End of story.

However, if you have a six cylinder car the oil cooler system is essentially "over-specced" and surplus to requirements, (unless you intend to tow a caravan over the Alps in high summer and even then you might not need it!).
I believe the "standard part" is in fact an XJ40 part - they were never fitted with oil coolers!

If your oil cooler system is working all well and good. However if the system fails, ie springs a leak it is much easier and much more cost effective to do away with it by fitting the by-pass assembly to the engine block. (The cooler pipes seize in the cooler, writing off pipes and cooler, the rad and A/C Condenser have to be removed to replace the pipes, the parts are expensive etc. etc).
I ran a 3.6 Coupe with the by-pass fitted for three years without noticing any increase in running temperature even in the hottest weather.

The above comments on six cylinder cars assume that the water cooling system, especially the radiator is functioning properly and is not blocked in any way inside or out (with oil, road dirt, leaves and other crap), nor deteriorated phsically eg cooling gills falling out!

That's pretty much it!

Best Wishes

DH Dove

my oil cooler sprang a leak,

by that i mean it droped all its oil on the floor after having an altercation with a speed bump

all new parts sourced and fitted,

got to have it as Jaguar let it leave the factory , lol

BB

DH makes a good point v12 it is a must 6 cyl may be over engineered.

My opinion is that it is there for a reason, it may be a belt and braces approach but a bit of over engineering cant be too bad.

Personaly I cant see a good reason to remove it for the sake of it untill it fails on the premice you cant fix what is not broken.

If it is genuinely not needed then it does not need replacing and the choice is up to the individual.

But if it does fail on my car I will repair the oil cooler system as I like to keep the car exactly as it left the Jaguar factory.

Now we have started talking about these watch how many fail......

Regards Mark (4.0 with oil cooler).

Usual connection leak problem on mine 3 years ago. I decided to replace it (can't get the connections out without wrecking the cooler) as I wanted to keep it original and decided rightly or wrongly that if Jaguar thought it was worth installing, I wasn't going to try and prove them wrong! Even if it went again, I think I'd take the same course of action.

Although it may be over-engineered, it can also help compensate for problems elsewhere. The lower 1/3 of my rad has lost some of its fins (don't they all?) and in hot traffic with aircon on, the gauge can be prone to creeping up. So maybe my over-engineered oil cooler is helping to look after the engine when my poor rad is struggling!

Paul

Paul

"The above comments on six cylinder cars assume that the water cooling system, especially the radiator is functioning properly and is not blocked in any way inside or out (with oil, road dirt, leaves and other crap), nor deteriorated phsically eg cooling gills falling out!

Perhaps you should have fitted a new rad as well (or instead of)?.

Regards

DH Dove

dh,

What? New Oil Cooler & Pipes AND a new rad? If I'd had that much money I'd have bought an XJS Lister Convertible (Gorgeous!)!

Paul

Paul



DH Dove

dh,

What? New Oil Cooler & Pipes AND a new rad? If I'd had that much money I'd have bought an XJS Lister Convertible (Gorgeous!)!

Paul


its what i had to do in the end as well as an aircon rad.....

BB