Perrin oil cooler real world review. Impressions.
 

Edited:

We installed the Perrin Oil cooler kit and will report back on its on track performance. Installation was simple. quality of parts is good.


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Thanks for the review and pics! I have three kits coming in already and hopefully some more soon. The HKS and Greddy kits are in the $1k range and even if they were the same price i would get the Perrin, better tech support and customer service right here in the USA from some great people.

Good to know, now Im very excite.

Show us a better view with the hood closed and front bumper attached.

Is it possible to mount it on the side like the RA brz track edition?

a data logged comparison of with vs without from the factory ECU oil temp sensor would be fantastic... bypassing it for a comparison next time you're at the track I'm sure would be great for 86 community, even though it would be a pain to do!
cheers

So where are the numbers? Can't really have an oil cooler review without any data!

Perrin has this data, though not on a track but on a dyno i think.

I want data from third party sources that certify (or bust) the seller's results. :w00t:

I'll take one please

Never thought I'd see a butt dyno review on an oil cooler. :lol:Are these cars really that sensitive? Sounds almost like a manufacturing defect if you can tell the difference after installing an oil cooler while driving around on the street in the middle of winter.

hah, if you want some real LOLs then you should visit a fitness forum and see the reviews for supplements. Multivitamin? Protein powder? :bellyroll:

I haven't noticed any driving differences with my setup. Oil temps are stupid cold on the street now with my setup. Perrins should do about the same.

This is a horrible "review" if you even want to call it that.

You basically state the reason for buying this kit is if you are too lazy to piece one together yourself and then you didn't even do the install yourself you had someone else do it lol

How can you give a review on something you didn't even install?

How can you use a butt dyno to review an oil cooler? That is absurd!

Why would you install an oil cooler in the winter as there would be no way to test any improvements?

Oil coolers are hugely OVER HYPED on this forum.

If the 2014 FRS/BRZ comes factory with an oil cooler then you will have evidence to the fact of needing an oil cooler. News flash.. there will be no such cooler.

What is the magic number in terms of oil temps you don't want to exceed? 212f? I'm monitoring my oil temps now.

Some of us track our cars in the winter. I'm tracking mine two days this weekend.

Oil coolers are great for track cars. Not so much for a street car. I also run an endurance car without a cooler so while I wouldn't say its required its not a bad idea either.

Honda put a l2l oil cooler on 94-95 GS-Rs but then removed them (added back for all ITRs though). Does that mean they weren't ideal or just a cost cutting measure? OEMs focus on cost not what is ideal for the minority of buyers that track their cars.

212 is nothing. I'd like to stay around 250-270 on track. Based on experience with other cars these likely see 300 or more on track. On the street an oil cooler is basically pointless IMO. So far with my cooler I haven't gotten past 180 on the street.

Several things. No I didnt install it myself. I had one of my techs install it. I spend my time doing other things BUT did want to relay to the community what my initial impressions were with regards to how easy the install can be.

I also make mention of the kit being very "complete" and good for someone without much time on their hands.

I also said that I haven't tracked it and WOULD report back once I did. It is very well documented that these cars loose power once oil temp rises in normal driving let alone track driving. I also do make note that its winter here.

We will have some data/info once its tracked.

Lots of people have noted the small differences in power that they "feel" or dare I say " think they feel" from hard driving this car. I for sure do coming from a car with much more power.

We installed the cooler NOW because our track season starts early next month. I already tracked it last year to know that once it gets hot you're for sure loosing power.

For those who found it useful (pictures and me telling you that its a complete easy to install kit) glad you liked it.

For those who didnt, sorry I wasted your time for a review without data or data logging.

Myles

Just edited this.

Peace.

Myles

There wasn't a need for the edit. Don't sweat it Myles. And I always like pictures :)

Not sure why people are so hostile about certain things, for a track car you obviously want to be able to keep your oil temps lower and for a forced induction street or track car i think its a no-brainer. If you can spend $5-6k for a turbo/supercharger you have $700 to spend on an oil cooler. If you don't then you shouldn't be adding FI anyways because how are you going to afford to fix it if it breaks?

Didn't mean anything negative. I'm honestly wondering if there is something wrong with our cars if you can feel a difference on the street from an oil cooler. I'm still mulling over robispecs total solution personally.

Doesn't look like it's compatible on cars that have intercoolers.... :(

It sure is: http://s1359.beta.photobucket.com/us...y1989/library/

I bet you can mount it further back. My cooler is mounted further back since it's a larger cooler and won't even fit under the bumper support without the lines attached, let alone with the lines attached.

Hard to tell for sure if RCE mounted the cooler completely behind the support or not. Anyways, I have room with my setup to mount an IC under the bumper support without touching the cooler.

Now I'm not sure I'd run this type of cooler with an IC, I think I'd just go L2L with a solution like Robispec's then, but I do think you could make it fit just fine especially with the smaller 13 row cooler used here.

Edit: Or mount the cooler up front like the example ATL posted.

I'm not sure if this oil cooler has a thermostat. If it does you don't need to worry about running too cold. Remember.. even with today's multi-weight oil cold oil is not particularly great for your engine.

Empower yourself with a Scangauge of some sort. The OBDII system in our cars can track oil temps (unfortunately not oil pressure). Buy a Scangauge. Monitor your temps. If they go above 230F+ for the driving you do for the conditions you're in.. then it's time to look into an oil cooler.

This isn't necessarily one of those *bling* items you want to install to look cool at the local car meet...especially if it doesn't have a thermostat.

Looks like a nice piece. I ought to add it to my mods list.

I believe that they use a thermostat but I also believe it's a Mocal so it's partial bypass when cold.

@Racecomp Engineering, did you monitor oil pressure before or after the install of the Perrin OC?
@Dave-ROR, are your pressures okay with the Mocal currently? I haven't checked your related thread recently.

Yes but I'm not sure if its due to the new sensor location or the 5w-30

Jealousy? Envy? Negativity? A :brokenheart:?

I'm curious to see if there are other locations that this cooler can be set up. Here in Jersey the roads aren't great and it would be nice if there was a place on the car with good airflow while being protected from the elements.

Also, this looks like a good upgrade for this car as high oil temps eat away at power.

Same here. I would like to get a oil cooler that sits in front of the passenger side wheel. Only premade one I can think of is the HKS oil cooler

AFAIK the HKS is a "universal" kit with the specific spacer/oil cooler thermostat.

You couldn't use their mounts but unless it's too wide you should be able to mount it vertically. I can't remember how much space is available over there. If it's in a place without air going past it or you have to run a small cooler and long hose runs I'm not sure there's a ton of benefit... if you put it there run one of the brake duct kits (on the pass side only) and direct air to the cooler on the passenger side. Drivers side would be more ideal from a oil line run length perspective but these cars have absolutely massive windshield washer tanks so all your space is taken up there already :)

You can get the cooler measurements from Perrin but they'd have to make you custom lines or you'd have to throw these lines away and make new ones.. unless you can figure out how to route them in such a way that they'll reach to the pass wheel well (talking about the perrin kit specifically).

Unless I'm wrong on the HKS one, it's basically a box of parts for you to figure out at MASSIVE margins.. I'd go with the Perrin kit any day of the week over that.

Just looked at some pics of the HKS stuff, you do in fact have to cut the lines yourself, figure out mounting, etc.. I like their thermostat except you need 90s (for pressure drop concerns you want as few bent fittings as possible!) for it but I like that you can get temp and pressure from the oil cooler sandwich adapter if you want. Otherwise, the HKS setup is one of the worst. The Greddy might be as bad, it's got a "funnel" to force air to it though.

For a packaged air-to-oil setup the Perrin does look like the best solution IMO. If you want something like the HKS make it yourself (you will be doing so with the HKS anyways, just paying double for the name).

I don't see what makes the HKS kit universal compared to Perrin being dedicated to our car. I also don't really understand how it's the worse out of the 3 when it has the temp/pressure outlets. It's not like the Perrin kit is 100% FRS/BRZ specific for us.

I guess for myself it's going to have to be pieced together myself or going the HKS route, unless Perrin can get me custom lines. This is what I have in mind. I just don't think I can fab up the metal piece in the HKS kit myself.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42...2335464073.jpg
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If you look closely, the shield/metal is venting air to the oil cooler. Cutting out the area where the foglight on the FRS is simple enough like shown in this link, or doing a brake ducting like you said would add even more air.
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29281

This is what I'm basing it off of:
http://ft86speedfactory.com/images/15004at008-2.jpg

HKS description says 4M hose, which means you have to cut, route, put the ends on, etc yourself. That means doing it yourself. The Perrin kit comes with the hoses completely assembled, instructions on routing, etc.

That big black plate isn't shown on FT86SF's site so I had no idea it was included nor is it mentioned specifically in the product descriptions I've seen from HKS when it first came out. If they are including that then installing the core itself would be easier. Any non HKS intercooler may make it less friendly of course for running the piping through it :) You still have to deal with the SS lines, so if you go that route I'd suggest the Koul Tool kit for SS lines, makes installing the hose into the socket a breeze, some hose assembly lube and put the fitting in the socket. Cut the SS line with a cut off wheel until you get to the inner rubbing, blow off line, cut rubber, blow out line (from the other end not where you just cut) to remove debris, etc.

So that's what I mean by universal. Awesome if it includes a mount, it just wasn't visible or mentioned so I wasn't aware of that.

I bet the back of that cooler gets coated in rubber and rocks pretty quickly lol :)

I believe that picture you posted is the lower spec kit, there is actually two, Type S and Type S Pro. Every vendor i've seen in the states have only been selling the basic "DIY" without the metal air guide. iirc the one that comes with the big air plate should also come with fittings already installed on the lines, ready to go like the Perrin. Not 100% sure about the fitting already installed tho, I guess we'll have to wait till someone in the states get the higher end kit. I guess I just got your terminology wrong, since I know HKS sells universal oil coolers, but we do have 2 model specific coolers for us.

I know HKS gets bashed a lot for being too universal and not specializing on any specific car company. I used to work at HKS, so i've personally seen R&D or at least heard about it. They definitely don't just throw on a bunch of parts in the catalog and hope it works

I guess when it comes down to it, yes you are paying for the name and R&D for both the HKS and Perrin kits. You could put it together yourself for cheaper but at the expense and risk of your own R&D

Wasn't aware there were two kits. What's the top one cost? The low spec is already too expensive. The only issues I have with HKS is that they make the worst air filters on the market and they are overpriced on a lot of parts :) Other than that they make fine parts.

Not much R&D in a cooler though. The only specific bits of the low spec kit is the spacer. The high spec, the spacer, grill for the wheel well, the mount and cutting the lines for you.

I can fit an intercooler just fine with my setup and I know you can with Perrins also, so is the... 1100? or whatever the high spec will cost really worth it?

Obviously that'll all come down to personal opinions :)

Just looking at msrp and converting it on google, it's $874 but that's inside Japan without tax or considering it getting shipped to US vendors. I think it would be at least $100 more compared to the lower spec kit.

I wasn't thinking much R&D is needed for oil coolers, but I do remember Perrin had the fitting come off on the prototype oil cooler that made a mess for a member on here. Just small things like that is the R&D i'm referring to. I rather have a company like Perrin resolve hiccups instead of myself. Basically I want to know someone with more knowledge with myself put the kit together.

Yeah i've heard of the horror stories about HKS air filters. I actually had the HKS intake for my S2000 and it didn't seem to bad or clumsy. Then again I replaced the filter more often then recommended.

That's why I don't like the socketless stuff.. I'd rather have the good old SS lines with the annoying to install fittings :)

Perrin took care of the customer though and he was a tester, not a full paying customer :thumbup: