are engine coolers essential to prolong engine life? I am thinking of installing one and would appreciate any experiences and opinions.

 

I did a custom oil cooler on my Z. The tt's do have it stock but I wanted something bigger. I found a website that sells custom oil coolers. You have to get all the fittings yourself and steel braded lines yourself. Everything you order from them will be a custom job. EX, The earls oil cooler is from what I read the same thing that stealin uses on their Z's. Their price is like $255, I ended up getting mine for about $225 so I didn't save much.
I hear that if you're gonna go custom, you can buy an oil cooler through summit racing or something and just get fittings and hoses from somewhere else.
Unfortunately I haven't taken temp readings before and after but I read that the average drop will be about 20F unless someone can correct me.
(you definately want it mounted somewhere in front where it gets the most air. Unless you plan on big HP, I probably wouldn't get one)

 

No. If they were, cars would come with them.

Are you going to race/autocross/push your car extremely hard, very often? Are you going to boost? If you are not doing any of those things an oil cooler can actually decrease the life of the oil...

check here:
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....ght=oil+cooler

 

If you have a SC or Turbo, I would probably recommend SOME kind of oil cooler, hence the 300 zx TT comes w/ it stock.. NA's don't
You wouldn't necessarily need to run autocross to have an oil cooler. Most Z'ers I agree don't have an upgraded oil cooler and they can put down 400 rwhp. The thing is, atleast they HAVE an oil cooler.

 

if you have auto and tow a lot, you might want a tranny oil cooler. but if you don't have any forced induction, engine oil cooler is probably not needed.

on my wrx, there is a water-to-oil heat exchanger between the block and oil filter, so it's somewhat regulated by the coolant temp. but it doesn't have enough cooling capacity for when i do auto-x events so i'm getting an setrab cooler. you dont' have to pay that much for the cooling core, it's the lines and fittings that cost a lot because you really dont' want to run rubber lines.

bakerprecision.com is a great site for setrab and mocal products. also a lot of the price depends on the name, setrab, mocal, b&m, etc all have just about the same design, all have lots of layers of rows and fins, low pressure drops, vibration resistance, etc. make sure if you live in an area where it gets cold you will need an oil thermostat so that your oil can warm up. too cold of an oil is just as bad as too hot of an oil. most likely a cooler will be installed in the front of the radiator, but you can also mount one in the inner fender with a temperature controlled relay to power a fan.

 

I have an oil cooler on my 99 max, it is going to help you get to 4000 miles between oil changes with no breakdown. I have been running mobile 1 synthetic in mine, and the engine is smooth as a baby no matter how hard I run it. The parts are dirt cheap, the oilfilter adapter kit is about $35 shipped from summit racing (part # FLX-3965 1-800-962-9094) and I got a Ford tranny cooler from a friend at the Auto parts store for $40. It took about two hours to install. You will need a different oil filter. I got the doubleguard Fram filter that is for a Mitsubishi eclipse(I think). I don't think this will make the difference in how long the engine will last, but I plan on doing a turbo or supercharger in the future, and it doesn't hurt.