Oil Cooler Bypass Valve- Cause of low oil pressure when car is warm?

[Innovator]

I gutted my oil cooler bypass valve and gained 10 psi across the board.

[SHiVeR-91VR4]

OK guys, bringing this thread back from the dead.

Here's my story:
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Hey guys, getting the car out this year and after finishing up a radiator cowel to improve flow I felt the rad and very hot...like usual.

Then I figured I'd feel the oil cooler (after it sat for a while, oil temps 85 deg C). And it's at ambient?

The front line off the engine is the feed correct? It's warm, but not too hot. The return line should be the rear one on the oil neck and it's hot as hell.

Is my valve stuck or something? Is my flow reversed? I do have a check valve and my accusump in there, but it should go.

Eng oil feed hose (I'm assuming this is feed to oil cooler) -> one way valve -> setrab oil cooler -> T-valve (accusump) -> rear fitting on oil neck.

Is this right? I'm wondering if my one way is broken or if they have the feed/return backwards in the manuals or if I'm just completely messed up.

But all the way up to the T valve (the return side from the rear fitting) the line is hot as hell, but then the whole oil cooler and feed side is just warm.
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So what I'm seeing is that there is no oil normally flowing through the oil cooler, can anyone confirm this on their cars?

I looked at cbatters drawing, but I have no clue where he got it. It definitely doesn't look from a 3000GT because we do not have a oil level sensor in the oil pan...so that doesn't make sense. Now looking through the engine overhaul manuals I've come across this picture (attached below).

In the picture you can see the valve, but it has already shut. In normal operation (oil temp low, valve arm pulled back) all of the oil would seem to flow from the pump to the filter and then to the engine...this makes sense.

In hot oil mode (from the manual it looks like it happens from 97C - 103C) the valve extends to a certain length and blocks the flow off to the filter. This redirects all oil flow to the oil cooler which then loops back around to the filter (through the notch in the valve) and then back to the engine.

This extending operation can be seen in the manual from this exerpt:
Ensure that the dimension L measures the standard value
under normal temperature and humidity.
Dimension L: 34.5 mm (1.358 in.)
(3) The dimension must be the standard value when measured
after the valve has been dipped in 100°C (212°F) oil.
Dimension L: 40 mm (1.57 in.) or more


The other thing that's funny about the image 2 pages back is that we all know that when a bearing goes all of the material is sitting all over the oil cooler. From my new picture we can see why. In the previous picture it looks as if the oil filter is ALWAYS filtering the oil, but this is not the case. The oil bypasses the filter and goes to the cooler first when the oil is hot.

This would also explain my condition where the oil return hose is very hot, but the supply is almost ambient. Oil is NOT flowing normally through the oil cooler, and is only going through the engine. But since there is not a valve on the return side, that oil is subject to the hot oil passing by as it goes towards the engine, thus heating the return side oil up a bit. Unless the valve extends and diverts flow to the cooler, this will happen.

So I assume I didn't let my oil get hot enough, because the valve should open at 212 deg F, which seems kind of hot in my opinion.

So anyway....if you GUT your valve and basically remove it, you're going to force oil through the filter and basically a very small amount through the cooler since the pressure on either side of the cooler would be almost zero (there would be some pressure differential due to the oil filter causing a slight pressure drop). This would not be good.