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[Andy B]

Been driving it a bit now and the burning oil smell has gone and no sign of oil loss either. It is noticeable that the engine takes longer to warm up without the oil cooler and so far only seems to get to about 92 degrees on the gauge, whereas it used to run at 95 degrees and would warm up quickly.

However, it has been cold recently.

I did say as much  ie it's a heat exchanger, not just an oil cooler 

[Ricky043]

A heat exchanger it may well be, but as I could not find a new replacement (nor 2nd hand at the time), if I hadn't done the bypass, the car would still be sitting partly dismantled in my garage and undrivable, waiting for a mythical oil cooler, whereas now it's been MOT'd and is back on the road.

[Doctor Gollum]

I wonder if there's space to fit the external cooler from the Desmond?

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

I would suspect a lazy Stat for the engine temperature issues.
Can see the lack of  "oil cooler" means it will take slightly longer to get up to temp. but nothing beyond that.

[cam.in.head]

i'm thinking thermostat too .  an engine will warm up normally in under 10 minutes and i wouldn't think the oil would be warmed up in that time to affect the coolant temp .like you say it's a heat exchanger so i would think that without the oil cooler the warm up time would actually be quicker !
the thermostats on these can bleed through and not seal well as they age anyway probably not helped if it's had a load of gunge running through it !

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

True. If its had a leaky oil cooler, the Stat should be changed as a matter of course. 

[cam.in.head]

silly question also but .....
when you did the bypass you did seal the actual original oil cooler connections ? if it was leaking internally it would now be slowly pushing coolant (and old oil) out of the cooler ?

[Ricky043]

There are no oil cooler connections to seal. We detached the two oil pipes that ran from the block (by the oil filter housing) up to the cooler and back again. We replaced them with a hose that links the two outlets on the block together, so the oil just comes out of the block and back into it again.

Not really concerned about the Stat being bunged with oil. What surprised us when we removed the header tank (coolant reservoir for the pedants amongst us) was that although it was full of oil, no oil appeared to be anywhere else in the cooling system.

After fitting the bypass and running the car for about 20 mins there was a slightly oily residue in the top of the header tank, so we removed it again and cleaned it out. Upon reinstallation, no further oily residue has appeared, so I really cannot work out how so little oil managed to get circulated around the cooling system given the header tank was completely full of oil and there was oil in the valley that the oil cooler sat in. Not sure how much oil had been lost but it had been at the full mark on the dipstick when I last checked it, but was only just touching the very bottom of the dipstick after the leak was discovered. I had only done about 15 or so miles since I last checked the water and oil levels which were both normal, so it may be, as someone suggested previously, that I caught it early enough to stop it getting circulated around the cooling system.

[cam.in.head]

sorry for confusion . so is the oil cooler still in the head ?
if so . i meant have the connections been sealed with caps (or the old pipe ends ?)
if the old oil cooler is still in the head what stops water escaping from it if it's indeed leaking internallly ?

[Doctor Gollum]

The header tank is the highest point in the system so it stands to reason that the oil will float up to the top

[YZ250]

There are no oil cooler connections to seal. We detached the two oil pipes that ran from the block (by the oil filter housing) up to the cooler and back again. We replaced them with a hose that links the two outlets on the block together, so the oil just comes out of the block and back into it again.
………

sorry for confusion . so is the oil cooler still in the head ?
if so . i meant have the connections been sealed with caps (or the old pipe ends ?)
if the old oil cooler is still in the head what stops water escaping from it if it's indeed leaking internallly ?

I think the question that cam.in.head is asking is, he knows that you’ve bypassed the oil cooler pipework but is questioning whether you removed it completely and just left the gulley empty.
If you’ve removed the oil cooler completely, I believe he’s asking how you sealed the cover plate holes. You know, the holes in the cover plate where the now non-existent oil cooler pipes used to go.    That’s my interpretation of his question anyway. 

[YZ250]

I’d hazard a guess that the oil cooler was flushed out, put back in purely for the purpose of the water gulley cover plate seal and the pipework removed as it was no longer required to carry oil. This would mean that the oil cooler was just sat there doing nothing as it has been bypassed but the cover plate would still be sealed from leaking water. 

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

But if it has a hole in it (which seems to be the case as it was leaking oil into coolant) then whats to stop coolant now leaking into it and then coming out the top of it, if the inlet / outlet havent been blanked off ?

[YZ250]

But if it has a hole in it (which seems to be the case as it was leaking oil into coolant) then whats to stop coolant now leaking into it and then coming out the top of it, if the inlet / outlet havent been blanked off ?

Which is why cam.in.head asked the same question I believe. 

[cam.in.head]

yes that's it