Would anyone happen to have a picture of the oil cooler drain plug? Want to make sure I am not overlooking something!

 

The car just so happens to be up on jack stands so I snapped a pic for you. The bolt is originally painted black and that makes it hard to see as well. The paint has chipped off mine after removing it four times. HTH

The tube to the right goes to the Auxiliary Cooler with the fan like the one you posted earlier.

 

For you guys who change your own oil and drain the cooler. What procedure do you use to circulate the oil once it's refilled?

Or is there a fill port for the cooler?

With an aftermarket cooler on my old track car I used to run the starter for a few seconds with the fuel pump fuse removed to prime the system.

 

I just start it up and let it idle until I think the pressure is up and the oil circulated throughout the engine.

 

I guess there's probably enough fluid in the pan to prevent it from starving while it pumps through the cooler.

I'm not familiar with the system plumbing.

 

I am not familiar with the plumbing either but the sump does have a large reserve. I add 10 liters to get mine to the top red mark on the dip stick. I was wondering if the cooler system has a thermostat it it so that it doesn't even open until a specific temperature is achieved. If so no oil (or a limited amount) may flow through the cooler at all until it is up to temperature. My guess is that it does have a thermostat so that the engine gets up to operating temperature faster and stays at a required minimum temperature during operation.

 

Do you have to add oil after you've started it and run it for a min. Or do you have to add oil after your first drive when it gets up to operating temp?

 

I add 9 liters of oil and start it up and let it run for 30 seconds or so. Then I top it off with ~ 1 liter to the correct level on the dip stick. I never seem to have to add any oil after that. So maybe the cooler is filled during that run time. I change my oil ~ every 5000 km and never have added any oil except for the factory fill when I added a liter and 1/2 at about 2800 km.

 

I recall reading that in the average engine it takes seven seconds for the oil to completely circulate through the engine after startup. Presumably ours might take a second or two longer.

 

I doesn't take too long for sure. My truck has an oil pressure gauge and I can watch the pressure come up on it after an oil and filter change. Not sure exactly how long but it seems less than 10 seconds.

 

Thanks for that pic of the oil cooler drain plug. Unfortunately, there is not one on the SL63. It actually appears that the oil cooler is main longer oil cooler is flipped upside down on the SL63. I actually found what could be a drain plug on the cooler but it was on the top of the cooler and on the driver's side. I ended up getting just about all of it out through the main drain plug so all is well

 

Should also add that the ticking at idle and the little puff of white smoke I use to get when doing a cold start is gone after the oil change to 5W40 Formula M.