Oil Cooler with Fan - Experiences
 

Continuing my discussion from another location, I'm curious if anyone here has mounted an oil cooler with a fan. The idea is that you'd need air circulation in a hard to get spot, so you create pressure with a fan.


I think this could be ideal if sitting in traffic or somewhere that requires you to remain still, in conditions where radiating the heat isn't enough, you need the airflow to wick heat from the oil cooler.


I am not proposing putting a fan in a push/pull setup in the center stack. But what if it were mounted in a location that does not get good airflow? like the driver's side (LHD) bumper area if you remove the windshield washer reservoir.
I could see some people having a setup in this regard specifically for circumstantial cooling, rather than constant/active cooling (like if you track your car one day a year, but daily drive it and want the option to cool the oil cooler based on your discretion). This could be a good idea for those in very cold climates who have a hard time with a center stack oil cooler, getting it up to operating temp but don't want to deal with blocking it off half of the time.


Anyways, post your thoughts.

you know I'm looking forward to hearing from you. This is a discussion in general, not about my specific setup. So ignore the fact that I'm going to be putting my turbo into in the spot I am referencing here, haha.


I'm thinking of people who want to mount in weird places, like the space above the crash bar, or who knows? Maybe in the transmission tunnel? Under the car horizontally w/ a shield covering? Who knows. So I'm asking :)

The drift guys do this already with various coolers. Not unusual at all. As far as peak air flow on the track, you'll never beat center stack flow. But strictly for low airflow circumstances, it's common

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Good to know. I couldn't imagine why it wouldn't be, but there's not any discussion I've seen on this platform specifically. I feel like removing the washer fluid res makes a perfect spot for an oil cooler with a fan. Short lines, easy to route cables for fan power that are hidden, etc.

Summitracing.com has a bunch of fluid coolers with fans already attached as a kit FYI

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Or go with a little reservoir like the one Vibrant sells. Even on track, I wouldn't want to not have it.

You can put a cooler anywhere with a fan. Typically you want to just put it somewhere where 1. it's not at risk for being damaged and 2. not creating a risk to you the driver.

Remember that regardless of the location, if there's ZERO air flow, the limited air mass will eventually become hot and lose effectiveness, so there still need to be *some* air exchange in that area.

For the areas left and right of the center cooling stack, you actually don't need a fan. There's enough pressure in front of the stack that if you just duct the cooler, there's more airflow than you will ever need.

If you're a complete stop for an extended period, your oil may get warmer, but won't get too hot. Remember, the stock car didn't have any cooler at all! With no load and idle-ish rpm, there's very little heat added to the oil, and that heat will conduct into the block, and eventually either into the coolant or radiate into the engine bay.

Reservoir? Like an external oil tank? Be better off with an Accusump

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I tested myself extensively in the previous 2 winters that my car actually ran. I was able to get through the whole winter without using windshield washer fluid. Far from ideal, but it was a fun experiment that never felt unsafe. Salt kick up from the roads is 100x worse from anything else I could imagine.


I understand your point though. I was contemplating building something using the pump from my stock reservoir as a fun project. A huge NOS can somewhere would be fun

Washer fluid. If he puts the cooler driver side it will be in the way and he mentioned removing it.

Oh yes. That makes more sense. Washer fluid "bags" can be had on eBay for like 30$. I've had mine for years. Just hung it off the crash bar. Has a pump on it. Just wire it into the stock plug

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Interesting data point about the oil not getting super hot if you come to a standstill. I had been curious about the level of heatsoak, maybe it's not as bad as I had thought it could be.


I agree about the airflow to the left and right of the center stack - there should be plenty of travel on the sides to still provide ample flow for the cooler.

Did all this on my build thread. Used the 86 fog light bezel jb weld a screen into it, had oil cooler on passenger side and trans cooler on driver side. Used a chase bays windshield reservoir/pump mounted in engine bay. Series blue switches to turn them on. I used a very similar setup in my Q50 and now again on my Q60(g37) but on my newest setup I went with Thread-in electric fan thermostat switch to auto turn fans on and off. Works great. No overcooling in winter concerns or overheating hooning in summer. Cruising or even stand still idling you will watch as the temp drops before your eyes. Mine overcooled when not hooning and fans where on, had to turn on and off a lot, hencs the switch to thermostat switch.

Awesome info, thanks for this contribution!