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Reply to "Need input from IM owners"

Bob:  See my post immediately above yours.   We’re all ingesting a lot.  And your forward coolers are each a bit bigger than my one, puny DeRale way out back.  And they’re “cooler looking”, too.   

BTW, I think we can apply a rule of thumb here for the use of MoCal fluid valves.   Yes, they’re great, but mainly for managing the warm-up process, mostly when the outside temps are below, say, 40°.  I installed one because, here in the Northeast and because I’m a wild and crazy guy, I do a lot of driving when the outside temp is way down below 40° and wanted to get the temp gauge up off the bottom peg.  For that, the MoCal Sandwich valve and the fan shroud vanes and thermostat do a nice job of keeping the oil temp around 180°, right down into the low 30’s outside. 

That said, if you’re never going to be driving your summer Speedster when the outside temps are below, say, 50°, do you really need a MoCal sandwich valve?   (Marc:  It’s called a “sandwich” valve because it is installed between the spin-on oil filter and the usual mount that the filter spins on to, hence a “sandwich”).  
I would say, no.  I drove for a lot of years without one and never had problems, but I never drove below 40°.  Once I had decent heat In the car and took it out in much colder temps, the MoCal made a lot more sense.

Back to Dr. Bob:   180° isn’t what you’re trying to achieve.  What you really want is anything over 170°.  Why?  Because 170° is where water condensed in the oil/crankcase/system begins to evaporate and leave the system.  Sometimes in cold weather it is not uncommon to find a beige-colored scum on the underside of the oil filler cap.  That is coagulated water and oil that hasn’t seen conditions warm enough to evaporate or boil off the water content.  Run the engine for a while up over 180° and it all magically goes away, just like Trump’s Covid.  That is why 180° is a magic number.  Kinda like “42”.

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