how did you route/mount your oil cooler?

[CaoBoY]

hey guys....im looking/searching on mounting/routing oil coolers, and am looking for ideas. im thinking of using either an FC rx7 oil cooler, or one of the volvo turbo ones, junkyard specials lol. where did you mount yours if you have one? post them up, aftermarket/whatever, insight is all good. this is on a stock body'd s13 with a zenki front. for optimum cooling, i'll cut out a 'vent' if i have to, or use good ole bozo/yankee! style.

also...how did you route it? where do you tie it into the oil system, and would you suggest a new oil pump ( pops brought this one up, thinking that stock oil pump may not have enough power) *i have a new oil pump, its supposedly a high velocity oil pump. looks stock to me though lol*

[Dousan_PG]

Setrab oil cooler
just enlarged one of the holes on the rad support hangs perfect
the lines are all AEROQUIP. once the motor goes back in ill route it, over to the passenger side, between the gap of the rad/frame and to the relocation on the strut tower and the block (i have a tomei blocking plate from SPLPARTS.COM)

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/dousan/DSC03259.jpg

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/dousan/DSC03262.jpg

dont mind the headlight crookedness, havent made the brackets yet. just test fitting and getting ready to take it up to the shop to work on it.

[chmercer]

heres a post i made on another forum copy and pasted, so the ebay links wont work, but you can figure it out

um not to hate but there are better ways to do this for cheaper

if you live in a cold climate you will want to get a filter base with a thermostat, like this http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWDVW
so that your oil can get up to operating temperature, otherwise if its cold you will **** your motor up unless you are running like 0w20. the thermostat only sends oil to the cooler at around 160 degrees, instead of pumping 40 degree 20w50 through an air cooler and not coating anything in your engine and giving you wicked knock.

the thermostat can either be used as a sandwich plate (place it between your oil filter and oil filter landing on the block, this lets you keep the filter in the stock location and have an inlet/outlet for the oil cooler lines) or if you want to relocate the filter as well, you thread the thermostat onto the relocated filter landing and plug the relocated landing's inlet/outlet ports. then thread the filter onto the thermostat. the way i typed this is kindof convoluted, let me know if anyone wants me to clarify.

next you obviously need a filter sandwitch and/or a relocation landing.

these are commonly available on ebay and are billet aluminum (the cast aluminum ones from jegs and stuff crack VERY easily) and use 8an ports instead of pipe thread. these bases also include additional ports for oil pressure sensors and stuff. the ones on ebay come with some extra AN fittings and stuff, you can use them if you want, i wouldnt.

so now you have your base and filter landing, now you need your hoses. you can either use 8an line (not reccomended) or 8an to 10an adapter fittings (ok i guess) or what i will be doing is tapping the aluminum base for 10an fittings. using adapter fittings kindof bottlenecks the flow and its a waste of money also because you have to buy more adapter fittings and crap. also you want to keep away from using pipe thread fittings in cars as much as you can, they seal on the thread instead of the tapered end, which is why you have to use stupid teflon tape on them, AN fittings do not require teflon tape.

ok so lets pretend you tapped your filter base for 10an fittings, if you didnt you can just get 8an to 10an male adapter fittings from baker or jegs or whatever. if you dont tap out the thermostat and bases, you will need 4 adapter fittings.

so now you need hoses and a cooler. again the best place to buy these is off ebay. stainless hose and reusable fittings are deffinitley not the best for oil. stainless hose is rated for like a million PSI and there is basically no point in using it in a low pressure application like motor oil transfer, where you will likley never see over 100psi in normal usage. most braided rubber hose included with the cheaper oil relocation kits is good for 300psi, which is perfectly fine. the best hose to use for oil transfer in a generally low temp low pressure situation like this is going to be kevlar aramid braided smooth bore hose. aeroquip startlite hose, goodridge XF 910 are both hoses that fit this description. im sure icore also has a aramid hose like this, i dont know what its called. so kevlar braided hose. ok cool, now for fittings. the "home assembly" type hose ends arent too great, what you want are crimp on fittings, aluminum. here is a hose off ebay that fits the description. these types of hoses are very commonly available.

4 ft long, icore kevlar hose, aluminum crimp fittings, 45 degree 10an swivel female. 20 bucks. this hose would cost $123.90 + shipping if you purchased it new at baker, so you can see why it makes no sense to buy them new.
but yeah to reiterate, braided hose makes no sense to use for an oil cooler, braided hose is better for brakelines, power steering and other high pressure stuff. also on thoes applications you would want to use steel fittings, not aluminum, aluminum will crack/burst (power steering can get up to 12-1500 psi on the pressure side)

ok so theres your hose, now you need a cooler. look for a cooler with 10an male inlets, this way you dont have to run more goofy adapters, also there is less chance of leaks. if you cant find a 10an one, try to find a 12an one and adapt it for 10, using a cooler with 8an fittings and adapting it for 10 is OK but again bottlenecking the flow with adapter fittings is kindof stupid. if all you can find is 8an, try to get some 10an male fittings welded onto the end tanks in place of the 8s if you have a local hotrod shop or somthing. just for example, i got a 5.5x11x2 setrab core with 8an fittings (using it for a power steering cooler so 10an wouldve been too large, 10 or 12an is better for motor oil) for 50 bucks. setrab, mocal, modine, fluidyne, long, b&m, c&r, etc etc. are all good oil coolers. try to stay away from the ones with the mandrel tubes running through a bunch of metal fins, you want the kind that looks like a baby radiator.

i think thats everything?

[ThatGuy]

Nice write-up chmercer. Pics would help, but good info none-the-less.

[TipStylez]

The other one i seen was on NICO, its how to do a $100 oil cooler? How much is yours? I dont feel like reading the whole thing

[chmercer]

sombody posted all the shit you need to get off of summit, then i replied with my cheapy ebay post that you see above, this was in the nico oil cooler thread before i got banned, haha. you could do an oil cooler for 50 bucks if you go cheap, rubber hose, barb fittings, etc. the stuff i suggest is basically the most "bang for your buck"

[TipStylez]

^Cool, will read later tonite

-Q

[CaoBoY]

wow merc. pos rep for you. so i shouldnt use the rx7 or volvo oil coolers? i should pretty much get everything off ebay then right? hoses/oil cooler, then get this thermostat sandwhich adapter plate. iirc spl had one, but it was just a sandwich plate with fittings for temp/pressure sensors etc. im a friggin noob at modding cars like this and would just buy stuff to make it work then blamo grenade my engine. i thought you were all talk..lol looks like you know your stuff! haha

[TipStylez]

Well i been plaing to do a Oil cooler setup since im trying to go NA, but my friend gave me a oil psi guage and was wondering if theres a way i can hook it up and would it be usefull? and it only has 3 wires sticking out of it, dont know if i need other things to make it work. (Never planed on using guages but might as well since i got one)

[CaoBoY]

you buy that sandwhich adapter, which has spots for sensors. then you need to buy an electronic pressure sensor for your gauge.

[chmercer]

oil temp the easy way is to put the sensor in your drain plug in your oil pan

the 3 wires are gonna be power ground and illumination, probably like black red and orange maybe? depends on brand. screw the black wire into some metal in your interior, tap the red one into a power wire for somthing that is only on when your car is on, like, acc power on your ignition switch, or your stereo power, or whatever. illumination wire tap into somthing that is only on when your lights are on, like the lightbulb on the cig lighter or hazard switch or whatever.

volvo and fc coolers mechanically are good units but they use different fittings and sometimes hose barbs and other stuff that is wierd. aftermarket oil coolers will generally always have like 2 fittings on the top, usually an fittings. and they are so cheap you might as well.

heres a cooler
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NASCAR-Long-oil-cooler-AN-8-connections_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ107063QQihZ 015QQitemZ250008055403QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWD1V
50ish bucks buy it now, 8an fittings, has a rock guard etc etc. just search all of thoes brands in the post above, or nascar oil cooler, dirt track, etc.

this is the spiffy oil filter relocation thing
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/OIL-FILTER-RELOCATION-KIT-HIGH-PERFORMANCE-KIT-NEW_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ46098QQihZ011QQitem Z320010682226QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

of course you can use the permacool filter landing or whatever, way cheaper, less ricey.

http://stores.ebay.com/tmvtaylor_Oil-Cooler-Filter-Systems_W0QQcolZ2QQdirZ1QQfsubZ10QQftidZ1QQpZ4QQtZ km

this guy has the cheaper aluminum filter landings and stuff, and the thermostats etc and other stuff

theres tons of this stuff available just gotta buy the right pieces haha

no need to get whack ass 600 dollard greddy with shitty 1/2" thick calsonic core