No they are not.
If your tiny mind bothers to Google Austin Allegro or Austin Maxi, you will triple your scant knowledge.

Still waiting for you to email me so you can get your FREE electronic dizzy posted to you.
I'm not going to hold my breath.

OK. MY turn.

Until you've driven a Mini in cold weather - REALLY cold weather - your "opinion" much less your "facts" have no vaildity.

To start with "freezing" isn't cold. 32 deg F or 0 deg. C is nothing. As Dogscarf explained Minis can run very happily in -26 deg. F weather. I can vouch for that too: my first two cars were Minis - the first one an 850cc 1968 Coutnryman and the second a 998cc 1969 Saloon. Both cars bone stock. Both used as daily drivers all year round. Neither had oil coolers. Or added fans. In the coldest part of winter, the engine benefitted from having cardboard inserted outboard of the rad. In summer, nothing special was done. Never had an overheating problem either, except when the accordion style head by-pass hose gave out. In fact, the 850 was used not just as a daily driver, but was also a "work" car, doing many highway miles daily. All summer. Winter was just as brutal - down into the -30 deg F range. And as Dogscarf pointed out, the only short-coming was the lack of heat in the cabin. Oh, and these weren't restored or custom cars or rebuilt. The first one was bought for $175 and needed ball joints and brakes to meet safety. The second one was $350 and was bought with the motor/transmission sitting beside the car.

As noted, the issue is getting the oil warm enough in winter. I actually had a dipstick oil heater - the dipstick was taken out and straight 120V immersion heater was inserted in its place, removed before starting the engine.

One of the little known issues is that, in cold weather it is beneficial to allow the engine to warm up, despite manufacturers' reccommendations, so that the engine oil has a chance to warm up and flow properly before applying heavy power loading to bearings etc. (Manufacturers tell you to not let it warm up, but to drive gently until warmed up. This is mainly because they are more concerned with their corporate fuel economy figures than premature engine and transmission wear.) It also benefits transmissions, both manual and automatic.  You don't realize this until you try to drive a really cold manual transmission. You would start off in 1st gear ad then try to shift to 2nd, but the oil drag in the transmission could actually stop the car.  Sometimes it could take both hands to effect a gear change.  Or, as in the case of my 89 Dodge Cararvan (2.4 L Turbo with manual 5-speed Getrag transmission) the torque from the input shaft would be transferred to the output shaft - in neutral - and actually move the vehicle unless the parking brake was on.

The point is that engine and transmission oils need to be warmed enough to work effectively. 

John,  I will ship it back to the supplier.  Don't know when I will be back in Iowa City.

I am not close minded read my posts correctly. I don't like your unsubstantiated Bull$hit.

You won't convince me with any of your Bull$hit ramblings.

Again show me some proof of oil coolers with a fan attached, for once back up what you are saying with some factual proof.

I believe Austin/Morris Sir Alec and his team did all their homework and spent a lot of money when researching and designing the Mini driving it in all kinds of different climates and updating it over the years but the only UK Mini's to be fitted with oil coolers (without fans by the way) were the S's and on the early models that was an option.

Dogscarf-Randy

what are you going to do with your starter, bring it with you next time you are in Iowa City.

thanks 

And the reason we can't see a picture of your absolutely neccessary oil cooler (with a fan no less) is because?
There's thousands of Minis left on the road. You could market this snake oil cooler and make a fortune.

So, the remote shifter you were offering up on another thread couldn't be fixed with your soda can, duck tape 'n bailing wire repairs.... And, you expect some poor fool to trade you something of value for it.

I consider my Moke to be therapy. Doesn't matter how bad of a day I've had or how big of an asshat I've delt with on the interweb thingy. Once I get in, it brings a smile to my face. And, it'll take me anywhere I want to go. (without a whiz-bang oil cooler)

And, why haven't we seen any recent pictures/video of the pink/red wonder?

zippy dear, since i bought my mini, the only thing i have replaced on it are the steering boots and one of the axle boots. and the point's and condenser, and the fuel valve stop inside the carb.,and remote shift because it was worn out./ and i drive my mini few hours everyday and almost all day on weekends, and i can barely hear the engine because it drives very quiet and smooth.  Our minis need TLC more than buying new parts. 

i honestly don't know if the seals are installed incorrectly because i bought that way already but the fact is , if it was installed incorrectly the oil should have been pouring, and not dripping(for almost 38years?) wow!

i always say get out of the box because you guys don't want to explore, you go by theories and rituals. wouldn't it be nice if you install fan on your oil cooler?, it will cool better right? instead of relying on wind, jeeez!.

Maybe your moke does not overheat because you don't even drive it. , we haven't heard you tell stories about you driving your moke,honestly. tell us when was the last time you drove your moke? and where? and how many miles?

Boison,
Why is it every time someone points out actual facts, you resort to the reply of:

"...again and again, i will say that pls get out of that box, explore,discover, experiment,justify and execute! open your mind,and keep your options open!!"

You cannot tell us the temperature of your oil because you have no way of measuring it.
You can only guess at the temperature of your coolant using a notoriously inaccurate gauge that reads "C, N & H" Nothing else on you car seems to work properly. What makes you think the gauge is right?
Most likely, your leaking main seal has nothing to do with temperature. Judging by the rest of your car, I would assume it was installed incorrectly.

BTW, Why haven't we seen any pictures of the Pink/Red Wonder lately?

I've not attested to any of your theories and I think you're a simple fool. Please don't use my name to support anything that drools out past your lips. Good luck with that "N" is good theory. After acting like you're able to read you somehow missed the entire point. Optimal temp is around 220°f and up to 260°f. Engine damage can occur if temps are consistently too low. (e.g. below 180°f).

I want to provide helpful facts from my own experience and research. It's nearly impossible to do that anymore on this website. Dogscarf, if you want good information without this constant mindless meandering, check out www.restorationmini.com

Interesting numbers you got there. Can you please post some videos of your oilcooler with fan? Can you make some comparison between the fan turned off and on. WHat kind of temp gauges are you using? Maybe you can just cruise around 15-20 minutes under the sun (you dont need to point the camera at your face). I do have a high rev car and will do anything to keep both oil and water temp to optimum range at all times because I do drive mine about 20-30 miles a day at 60-65 mph/ 4500-4800 RPM. My mixture is somewhat ok in my book, not overheating, just staying within the 185-190degrees fahrenheit range but Im always cautious. Just burning right I guess. Im itching to uninstall my oilcooler so I can make some space in the bay.

You already established bad credibility on the forum Boison. Everybody knows it. Even the new guys do. Maybe changing your methods from BS talk to Youtube videos can change our perception.

guys, believe it or not, the State where i live in right now was rated #4 Hottest states in the US. once it was #1. and yet, the worst i got my temp was just right pass the "N", i believe it was 180-190F, and i don't have oil cooler nor a secondary radiator. BUT i know it is very damaging to my engine. after reading mighty mouse's post, i love my mini more now. it means whatever i do to my mini now,it seems to be working and effective./ the temp gauge only goes up when i am at a traffic light but as soon as i speed up, temp goes down to N or little below N.

i dunno why malsal and zippy just close their minds about oil coolers, little did they know that the oil in the mini engines gets higher because oil gets close to the combustion chamber and as the car speed up, the friction from the gears even contributes to the already hot oil thus the temp goes up to even 200+F.  good that cameron attest to my theory.   This 200+F oil temp continuously fries the main oil seals and differential seals and makes it brittle over time., and as cameron stated, the oil temp even affected the temperature on his radiator. NOW, i came to a conclusion that installing a fan to oil coolers is not a bad idea at all.in fact a clever idea, provided it works side by side with a thermostat which you can set to maybe 180-190F. that way you are sure that oil temp won't exceed 200F or even 230 or 250 which is very damaging to the engine components. good that there are members like cameron who did not just took oil temperature sitting, he explored and measured the oil temp and discovered that it is indeed HOT and exceeds 200F... we can go from there! i am just sad that even Sir Alec or the other mechanical engineers who has a hand on bulding the mini engines did not anticipate that this is coming, transmission and engine sharing the same oil will make oil temperature insanely high.... and i'd say BINGO! now we finally know the reason for oil leaks! we always say that minis are British that's why it leaks oil, NO!,(poor british, always gets the blame), it's all about the engine design fyi!!

again and again, i will say that pls get out of that box, explore,discover, experiment,justify and execute! open your mind,and keep your options open!!  now, i don't seem to like cameron, but this time, i salute him for a great discovery.

now, convincing malsal and zippy is my next Quest!

and Sir Malcolm, you cannot always rely on wind to cool down your oil temperature(nothing is free nowadays) ,what if you are on a heavy traffic??....you always need an electric auxillary fan attached to the oil cooler, period!...  oil cooler without fan is simply useless!!imo

oh, and california temp is 75F high, your coolant temp shouldnt even reach180- 190 or 200F as you drive... 75F windchill becomes 55F

uh,oh! zippy just logged in, im waiting for your reply zipppppy

BLUF: Maybe you need it, maybe you don't. It depends on the symptoms, the data, and what you expect the oil cooler to do.

While I agree that most will likely not benefit from an oil cooler, I personally did benefit quite a bit. It's impossible (and in my opinion irresponsible) to say that everyone does or does not need an oil cooler. If anyone wants to question how much I know about oil, that's fine. But I'm willing to bet only a few others on here have done as much research on oil for their mini as I have. Feel free to look at other oil threads and judge for yourself if I'm just full of it.

Do you need an oil cooler? Well... the real question is what issues are you experiencing and what do you want the oil cooler to accomplish in order to help?

Before you add an oil cooler, you should make sure everything else is sorted out. In my case, I had coolant temperature issues. I just couldn't seem to get my temps down. Ultimately I was able to lower the temps by playing with the fuel mixture until it was just right for that season while getting the timing dialed in correctly. I was still having issues with heat soak in the Texas heat and driving at highway speeds for prolonged periods. Try a more efficient radiator? Yeah... it helped a bit, too. But now that the fuel, timing, and cooling was as good as I could get it; I was still having issues with my coolant temps creeping up while my oil pressure dropping and dropping and dropping. What it took was a friend lending me an oil temp gauge and an oil filter sandwich plate to check on my oil temps. Guess what... they were high... too high.

If you don't have an oil temp gauge, you can get a good guesstimate by adding 10°-15°f to your coolant temps, and that's where your oil temp sits on a motor that is well tuned... again, notice that the prerequisite is that the rest of the engine is well tuned. What's the ideal temperature? Well I'll never believe that 170°f is ideal on any car. Most oils aren't happy below 180°f and are optimal around 200°-220°f. But you don't want a conventional oil to get much hotter than 275° or they start to break down and stop working.

In my case, my oil temps were still high even after having everything else squared away, and it was contributing to my high coolant temps as well. I popped in a front mount oil cooler and guess what... my oil temps were holding around 240°f, and I gained a bit of oil capacity at the same time. My coolant temps went down, too. I no longer needed that secondary radiator. And the oil cooler is very simple to block off in the winter.

Velopackrat,...The Fender was a 1970 Precision Bass.  Worth a ton of money now.  Wish i still had it.  I bought it for $300 in 1983 and sold it to pay for grad school in 1993 for $350.  What a cryin' shame. 

Randy

1968 Morris Cooper S

Don't recall writing that. My comment addressed the fact that you said all Mini's leak oil because the seals come in contact with hot oil. Again Bull$hit.

Also Bull$hit to your oil coolers with a fan. I have never seen an oil cooler set up with a fan to assist in cooling, please enlighten us poor Haynes readers with your publication that shows this new technology.

My Mini's don't leak any oil. Again Bull$hit.

The only stupid thing is your presence on this forum.

So Boison, what temperature does your oil run at? And, how did you measure it?
Until you can answer those questions, any of your "theories" are totally unsubstantiated. (That means Bullsh!t)
Millions of Minis have got around just fine without an oil cooler. What makes yours so special that you think you need one? And, why haven't we seen any pictures of this cooler on the pink wonder if it's so critical?

hahaha, i think our ole stache guy needs to go back to elementary school, or maybe he was absent when the teacher discussed that topic, or he was sleeping, lol.  oil coolers shouldn't have been invented if it does nothing ,,jeez!! as i have said, mini engines are weird in the sense that motor  and trans share same oil. it produces more heat than any regular engines out there.  thus the more we need oil cooler on every mini in the planet, and even mokes(your moke is not spared, lol)

if you live in texas or arizona or florida where temp can get to 100+ F  and you drive your mini like hell you need a fan on your oil cooler. 

dont let me post that moke song again ok!! ill make you cry again, haha

Well, an oil cooler (and aux rad) can be so easily blocked off in cooler weather that having either installed is not an issue...IF you will drive the Mini in extremely hot weather...if not, remove the cooler (and aux rad).

The village idiot said, "In my own opinion, ALL, and i mean ALL minis should have oil coolers with fan, it will surely prolong the life of the oil seals. ,,plus it will the keep the overall engine temperature cooler.. less heat,less damage!!! copish!!??"

1.) The only way to determine if an oil cooler is needed is to know the temperature of the oil.

2.) I've never seen an oil cooler on a Mini that uses a fan. Maybe you should post up pictures of your whiz-bang creation. Perhaps you could use an air conditioner condenser and freeze the oil. Because you know cold oil is better. [rolleyes]

3.) I understand that English is a second language for you. So, I suppose that slang Italian would be a third language. Acceptable spellings for your "Copish" would be Capiche or Capisce.

Edit: And, if you want to blame "cold oil" for your car doing an imitation of the Exxon Valdez, go ahead. But, I would suspect some other cause.
I don't have an oil cooler and we're still leak free 7 years after the rebuild.

More damage is done from cold oil than hot. 170 is the bottom, not the top. And remember the Viz books are 50+ years old.  

Post up pics of the Fender bass!!

I'll bet the increase over time in the value of the bass easily matches or exceeds the increase in the value of a genuine S.

And we can now argue over which makes more noise, you know, in theory.