Unless your Cobra is closer to a daily driver than it is a "special event' car, I just don't think you need a thermo valve for your
oil cooler. With my car, 1) I never even reach for the keys unless it's at least sixty degrees outside; 2) My engine has no choke, so I have to pump it, get it to fire, and then I have to "feather" the throttle for a couple of minutes until it will even idle on its own; 3) I don't even pull out of the garage until I see the needle on the water temp start to move up and it will hold an idle without me heel and toeing; 4) I almost never drive it for a period short enough that the
oil temp doesn't get up in to the 180's. On
brutally hot days, and a little hard running, it'll go up in to the low 190's. I run Brad Penn 15w-40 and it flows quite nicely at sixty degrees, so I don't need to warm it up with a butane torch or the like.
Now, if I was in the habit of running up the street to the 7-Eleven in the Cobra, and then turning around and coming right back, not only would it take me three times as long, but the car would never warm up, my plugs would foul early, condensation and acids would form in the
oil, rust would grow from the moisture inside the side pipes, etc. But that's not how I drive the car.
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