240D, oil cooler or Not?
 

I have an 81 240D Euro, 4 speed that I am installing an 82 US 240D engine into. The Euro does not have an oil cooler and of course the US 240D does. Why is that? Does it really need the oil cooler? I lived in Germany for 5 years and their driving conditions are not much different than ours. Sure they "Can" drive much faster than we can on the Autobahn, but their city and town driving can be as bad or worse than ours. Also, this car was driven in Atlanta for most of its life (321,000km) before the timing chain broke and cracked the cam in half. I bought it after the engine died.

Would you, could you, just install the U.S. 240D engine without the oil cooler? I have both complete cars, just wondering about the necessity for the oil cooler in the 240D.

If you have the engine with the oil cooler, I would install the oil cooler.
With your donor engine out, I would recommend changing the gasket in between the engine and the oil filter housing. I sure wish I had.....:(:(

In the southern states where the average summer high is in the 90's, install the oil cooler. Germany's summer highs are only in the mid 70's so they can get away without a cooler.

I think they left the oil cooler out of the Euro 240D's because the Euros usually dont have air conditioning. My 240D runs just fine in Texas, even with aftermarket A/C. I would use the oil filter off the Euro on the North American engine (new gasket, of course). Undamaged oil coolers are hard to find, and the oil cooler hoses are a royal pain to replace.

Do you have a donor car? The IP linkage will be completely different on the Euro.

I have two 240Ds without oil coolers, never a problem even in very hot weather when on trips to the central valley of Ca in the summer. No oil cooler hoses means less to go wrong and its nice to have them out of the way for working on several things on that side of the engine. You really do not need them on the 616 engine.

Make sure if you decide to eliminate the oil cooler to use the oil related parts with the non oil cooler engine. There is a temperature controlled valve in the american engines to divert the oil to the cooler at a certain temperature. That said if the car was generally in great general condition otherwise I would install the oil cooler as it might extend the engine life a little. This also lessens the oxidation of the oil I think but that is not really a factor as the engines oil change frequency is so short. Also keeps the oil viscosity a little higher perhaps and contributes to cooling the engine a little. Only with rebuilt or new hoses though. So there is a cost involved.