oil cooler

Trying to lay the ground work to clean up my engine bay. Have an oil cooler on my 69 MGB. Appears to be an add-on. It is currently mounted in back of my radiator blocking some of the incoming air to the motor. A friend of mine said to pull it because the motor runs better hot. Why do some B's have it and some do not? Could you give me your take on having one or taking it out?
Thanks,
Jaws

Bud,

I'm just glomming on to your post 'cause I want to see the answer. Could it be a throw back to the 3 main engines?

Steve

The later cars were designed to run hotter for the emissions. An add on would be best if there were a temp control valve to allow the motor to warm. I give your friend a half correct response. There is a diminishing return on heat when oil is too hot to do the rest of its job. Keep in mind one of several things oil does is cool the engine so from my prospective an oil cooler is not all that bad. FWIW, it can't truly block air flow it can only be part of the air flow cooling process. Behind means the air has done its primary job of cooling the water. In front makes little difference, as the air cools the oil first which helps minimize the heat the water accepts.

Cooling two fluids is better than cooling only one and the oil is the key coolant.

It would be my understanding that an oil cooler in the hotter climates would do more good that an oil cooler say in Wyoming or Canada.

Jaws,

My 68 had an oil cooler from the factory. Most MGBs of our age did. The later models did not. My 80 parts car did not have one. The cooler was mounded in 2 different locations. Both of them being forward of the radiator. Some are directly in front of the radiator as mine on the 68 was (mounted on top of the sheet metal cross member/valance that the radiator sits on/in back of)others had them mounded below that same piece of metal. It has been a while, but I believe there are captive nuts in the valance for the factory style cooler.

Optimally, the oil and the water should be the same temperature. You don't want hot spots and cold spots in the engine. Even a few degrees different can cause problems over a prolonged period of time. If you wanted your engine to run hot, you'd put a different thermostat in it, not lose the oil cooler. Thin, hot oil doesn't absorb the impact of the connecting rod trying to slam into the crank/bearing and you'll get greater wear on the rod bearings. Keep the oil cooler. I'd move it to the stock location. Don't try to reproduce the characteristics of the weak engine the factory produced to try to meet emissions standards. Best of luck. Basil

Another way to look at it (oil coolers) is that the more horse power the engine produces,
the more heat is also a by product.
Engine power ;;Chemical/air ,,to combustion ,to mechanical force.
Later Bs didnt produce the power the earlier models did ,,so the
load on the oil was less ..Im of the minority i think that the engine
coolant thermostat should be in the 190-195 range..In my toyota AE86
installed oil temp gauge and coolant gauge (VDO) ..oil temp was always within
10 deg of coolant temp,,no oil cooler and same sump capacity as a late B..
You have to realize the Decontent of cooler saved a considerable manuf COST
which was primary concern at that time..

Moss carries an oil cooler system that is thermostatically controlled. I have on on my '67, which came from the factory with an oil cooler. The thermostat allows the oil to warm up to operating temperature much quicker. My engine now warms up to operating temperature in less that 5 minutes. RAY

Oil cooler was standard on the B, mounted in front of the radiator. Until it was dropped for one or two years in the late 70s and then, I think, it was brought back.