Homebrew Oil Cooler (Setrab/Mocal)

[Dezoris]

Also in terms of temps it takes my car nearly 14 minutes to reach 175F with the cooler. at the 12 to 14 minute mark go on boost to 5000rpms wot twice or 3x and watch it go to 185F rather quickly.

[F1point4]

Originally Posted by Dezoris

I will be curious how you get your aeroquip lines run down past the airbox and piping without rubbing on the vortech airbox/bracket and abs module Mine are horribly tight. I am considering switching to stainless because of it.

Here you go!


20130704-HomeBrewOilCoolerSandwichPlate-001 by VictorN07, on Flickr

The zip tie hits the airbox. I'm not that concerend by it.

20130704-HomeBrewOilCoolerSandwichPlate-002 by VictorN07, on Flickr

I had to go back to the OEM filler cap

20130704-HomeBrewOilCoolerSandwichPlate-003 by VictorN07, on Flickr

The thermostat does make contact with that steel/aluminium line

20130704-HomeBrewOilCoolerSandwichPlate-004 by VictorN07, on Flickr

[swift996]

Someone make this a kit! I'm too lazy to piece together even with this incredible amount of detail.

[ATL BRZ]

Originally Posted by swift996

Someone make this a kit! I'm too lazy to piece together even with this incredible amount of detail.

I agree; that's why I ordered a Perrin kit. Only a little over $100 more for a complete kit with lines already cut with fittings for true plug and play with support in case something goes wrong. Their new shipment of pressure tested Mocal cores will also be black. Worth it, IMO.

Still major props to @F1point4 and anyone else who goes the homebrew route, you are all much braver than I. Saving money is also a great thing.

[F1point4]

Originally Posted by ATL BRZ

I agree; that's why I ordered a Perrin kit. Only a little over $100 more for a complete kit with lines already cut with fittings for true plug and play with support in case something goes wrong. Their new shipment of pressure tested Mocal cores will also be black. Worth it, IMO.

Still major props to @F1point4 and anyone else who goes the homebrew route, you are all much braver than I. Saving money is also a great thing.

This. The extra hundred bucks is totally worth it for the mounting brackets and support. I totally would have went this way myself.

However at the time, the silver core killed it for me. I can take apart a car but paint? no thanks.

[xxscaxx]

lol I can paint but a 100 bucks is a 100 bucks...why waste it when you don't have to. If it was like 20 i'd be more inclined to just buy the kit.

What I like about piecing it together is you can choose whatever you want to use.

Still nice to just be able to buy something and have everything to install it without worry

I say this yet knowing me will end up buying some type of kit

[brillo]

I'll be installing my home brew oil cooler kit on a naturally aspirated car this Saturday with Victor's help. I'll be sure to post some pics as well as test results in humid high 90s / low 100s Houston summer weather

[deange]

Originally Posted by F1point4

This. The extra hundred bucks is totally worth it for the mounting brackets and support. I totally would have went this way myself.

However at the time, the silver core killed it for me. I can take apart a car but paint? no thanks.

If they did actually support it I'd agree. I bought one and sent it back because they weren't going to do anything about the bad core they sent me... besides just tell me to wait around for at least 3 weeks. Maybe it will be better in the future, but I'm just going to buy the parts and save the money. If I do have an issue I can just call BAT (the guys that Perrin get the parts from) and have them address it directly. In addition you can get the color cooler you want too.

[F1point4]

Local Homebrew Oil Cooler Install

Originally Posted by brillo

I'll be installing my home brew oil cooler kit on a
naturally aspirated car this Saturday with Victor's help. I'll be sure to post some pics as well as test results in humid high 90s / low 100s Houston summer weather

@brillo is a local member to me and wanted to participate on the homebrew oil cooler action. His car is naturally aspirated and largely unmodded. Overall it was fairly easy to install. We finished in 4 hours from start to finish! Super quick

I'll make some basic comments, but leave the detailed feedback to him.
Was trying to go for a dreamy feel to the photos

Let's go!


We were testing fitment of the cooler. He wanted to keep something similar to my placement so we went with offside. Note the tape is there to mark how far over to the drivers side we can go.

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-002 by VictorN07, on Flickr


We drilled the holes using a Unibit and started placing the bolts and polyurethane. @brillo cut the polyurethane using a dremel.

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-006 by VictorN07, on Flickr

Closeup of the polyurethane standoffs. I purchased material that fit together well. Note the polyurethane and bolts were a perfect fit

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-018 by VictorN07, on Flickr


Here is the cooler mounted to the plastic tray

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-026 by VictorN07, on Flickr


We cut the polyurethane spacers too short so we were running out of thread. He had these flat cap nuts around so we used them as spacers. It works.

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-031 by VictorN07, on Flickr


@brillo went with Aeroquip fittings instead of Mocal largely because he has a firestorm. It looks mostly the same to me except colour

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-044 by VictorN07, on Flickr


My favorite picture of the lot. Oil Cooler Dreams! I find its best to install all the fittings and hose onto the cooler before remounting the plastic tray. The pushlok style fittings are not easy to place on in tight quarters.

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-049 by VictorN07, on Flickr


You can see the lines run inside the crash beam

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-057 by VictorN07, on Flickr


This picture kinda shows the very tight clearance between OEM airbox and the fittings. I think he has to undo the filter and rotate the sandwich each time he wants to check his air filtre.

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-078 by VictorN07, on Flickr

Last one. He ended up adding another quart of 0w-20 to his machine.

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-079 by VictorN07, on Flickr

[F1point4]

Local Homebrew Oil Cooler Install

Originally Posted by brillo

I'll be installing my home brew oil cooler kit on a
naturally aspirated car this Saturday with Victor's help. I'll be sure to post some pics as well as test results in humid high 90s / low 100s Houston summer weather

@brillo is a local member to me and wanted to participate on the homebrew oil cooler action. His car is naturally aspirated and largely unmodded. Overall it was fairly easy to install. We finished in 4 hours from start to finish! Super quick

I'll make some basic comments, but leave the detailed feedback to him.
Was trying to go for a dreamy feel to the photos

Let's go!


We were testing fitment of the cooler. He wanted to keep something similar to my placement so we went with offside. Note the tape is there to mark how far over to the drivers side we can go.

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-002 by VictorN07, on Flickr


We drilled the holes using a Unibit and started placing the bolts and polyurethane. @brillo cut the polyurethane using a dremel.

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-006 by VictorN07, on Flickr

Closeup of the polyurethane standoffs. I purchased material that fit together well. Note the polyurethane and bolts were a perfect fit

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-018 by VictorN07, on Flickr


Here is the cooler mounted to the plastic tray

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-026 by VictorN07, on Flickr


We cut the polyurethane spacers too short so we were running out of thread. He had these flat cap nuts around so we used them as spacers. It works.

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-031 by VictorN07, on Flickr


@brillo went with Aeroquip fittings instead of Mocal largely because he has a firestorm. It looks mostly the same to me except colour

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-044 by VictorN07, on Flickr


My favorite picture of the lot. Oil Cooler Dreams! I find its best to install all the fittings and hose onto the cooler before remounting the plastic tray. The pushlok style fittings are not easy to place on in tight quarters.

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-049 by VictorN07, on Flickr


You can see the lines run inside the crash beam

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-057 by VictorN07, on Flickr


This picture kinda shows the very tight clearance between OEM airbox and the fittings. I think he has to undo the filter and rotate the sandwich each time he wants to check his air filtre.

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-078 by VictorN07, on Flickr

Last one. He ended up adding another quart of 0w-20 to his machine.

20130713-ADOilCoolerInstall-079 by VictorN07, on Flickr

[brillo]

Couple of initial impressions as I've only drove around a bit and haven't been able to warm the car up truly cold.

car warmed up about the same as before with daily driving, oil never got over 186 degrees in 90 temps. Car felt the same, no strange noises or NVH.

I had a slight oil leak drip on one of the aeroquip fittings near the sandwich earlier, after some additional tightening it appears to have gone away, although I felt a hint of oil on the fitting after driving this evening.

Oil level is stable. Do the aeroquip fittings take time to seal? We used lock tight on all the threads, I don't want to over tighten them. Ill monitor the car over the week as I drive it but I'm assuming I'm good to go. No noticeable leaks or issues with the core.

[brillo]

Couple of other thoughts / notes:

1. Oil cooler fittings / lines near the sandwich will block access to the stock air box in terms of filter changes. You will have to remove the sandwich to change the filter.

2. Washer fluid bottle - hoses run right by it, not sure if the heat will be an issue with the neck, hopefully not, I'll be watching it.

3. Poly mounts - victor bought a cylinder of poly to cut for the mounts, cutting it is a bitch, I would suggest having a very sharp bandsaw or a dermel handy (we used a dermel).

4. Hose length - end up ordered 12ft but only using about 6 ft total. I would say 8 feet is plenty assuming a side mount (I mounted as close to the right side as I could to keep the lines short).

5. Thermostat Sandwich Hex Nut - you may need to file down one side of this nut to clear the high pressure fuel line and provide additional flexibility in terms of position and orientation.

[brillo]

The picture below shows the thermostat sandwich. with the stock oil filler cap part of the sandwich touches the metal line in the picture. I'm not sure what this metal line is. I'm going to get a lower profile oil cap to allow me to rotate the sandwich away from the line to be safe. Not sure what extended vibration/touching may do.

[brillo]

It's raining in Houston most of this week so I haven't had time to finish the install and test my cooler as I can't figure out how to get the sandwich to not touch that metal line (which I think is a high pressure fuel line) due to the air box and the stock oil cap. I can move the sandwich into a position where I get about a papers width of clearance but I'm not sure that's enough if stuff moves or shifts.

More to come....