Homebrew Oil Cooler (Setrab/Mocal)

[Acree]

I was going to go with this solution until I figured out the major flaw with mounting the cooler on the undertray. This happened this past week coming home from work... big rig tire.

Because of this, I'm going to go with the Robispec upgraded radiator with the oil to water heat exchanger.

[post_break]

Originally Posted by Andrew@Autolux

I was going to go with this solution until I figured out the major flaw with mounting the cooler on the undertray. This happened this past week coming home from work... big rig tire.

Because of this, I'm going to go with the Robispec upgraded radiator with the oil to water heat exchanger.

You can still mount the cooler off of the bumper beam, behind the fogs, etc. Your problem doesn't really have much to do with this kit.

[dabocx]

Might ditch the washer bottle on the drivers side and see how big of a unit I can fit back there. Anyone have any ideas on how large?

[EMS Guy]

That Setrab is such a nice little core. Used one of those in a time attack car for an oil cooler before with a Mocal thermostatically controlled sandwich like you did. Nice work and choice of components.

My only gripe about it all is why did you go with push lock fittings?

[brillo]

I went with push lock fittings based up several recommendations and the fact that most of the kits sold are built that way. Victor and I zip tied the the hose ends to be safe, although I might toss on some band clamps.

There is some risk with the front mount but the same could be said for an intercooler or even the radiator in certain instances if you hit something.

I'm still working out how to best clearance the sandwich around what I think is a fuel line. After speaking with Mocal I'm going to file down the hex nut on the side of the sandwich and see if that provides enough space so the components don't touch.

[OrbitalEllipses]

Originally Posted by brillo

There is some risk with the front mount but the same could be said for an intercooler or even the radiator in certain instances if you hit something.

Those aren't mounted to a plastic tray that can easily come off.

[Hanakuso]

You could always make a mount like Dave ROR where it attached to the top just in case the bottom breaks loose.

I have the Perrin oil cooler on order and i'm planning on finding a bolt with wire to attach to the top. Same idea as Dave but a little more clean.

[brillo]

Originally Posted by OrbitalEllipses

Those aren't mounted to a plastic tray that can easily come off.

agreed. Just pointing out that things in front can get damaged if you hit stuff.

I intend to design a more robust top mount as a safety precaution as I've already decided how to add some additional protection to the lines with a high temp rubber wrap which will require me to remove the bumper anyways.

Any suggestions for a easy to meld aluminum bracket material? Thinking of stuff that can be sourced at Lowes Home depot etc...

[Hanakuso]

Originally Posted by brillo

agreed. Just pointing out that things in front can get damaged if you hit stuff.

I intend to design a more robust top mount as a safety precaution as I've already decided how to add some additional protection to the lines with a high temp rubber wrap which will require me to remove the bumper anyways.

Any suggestions for a easy to meld aluminum bracket material? Thinking of stuff that can be sourced at Lowes Home depot etc...

Once I get mine, i'll play around with ideas. I'm thinking a u-bolt attached to strong wire will be the easiest.

[brillo]

Update!

Mocal's suggestion to shave the hexnut was a success, with that material gone you get full clearance over the fuel line which allows for both clearance and rotation without compromising the sandwich integrity.

If you have any issues with positioning shave down a corner/side of the hexnut and you will be fine. I put the sandwich in a plastic bag and taped around the hex nut to protect it from metal shavings.

In addition, a big thanks to Perrin Performance for their help with my issues even though it wasn't their product. Should you decide to buy a pre made oil cooler kit, I highly recommend you buy it from them, if for no other reason than their customer service (they make great products too).

[qoncept]

Originally Posted by brillo

I put the sandwich in a plastic bag

I did that this morning.

[brillo]

Now that the rain has stopped I had a chance to do some real world testing with the oil cooler now that my installation issues were sorted. On my drive to work, which included both city driving (stop and go) and some stop and go freeway driving with air temps around 84-90 degrees f (70% humidity - gotta love houston), it took about 10 minutes to get to my stock OW-20 oil to 170f keeping the revs under 3,500 when accelerating from a stop.

for reference, the same warm up without the cooler to 180f was about 7-8 minutes in similar temps.

Once I got on the freeway after a quick stop for an estimate to fix a scratch on the bumper, my oil temps varied between 183-190f in stop and go freeway driving (50ish mph) for about 20 minutes.

in summary, warm up takes a bit longer but nothing hugely material and really only prevents me from revving the crap out of the car at the begining. My drive home will be a interesting test of freeway stop and go traffic with 95f+ temps for about 30 minutes.

I've been told that 160-170 is kinda the minimum safe oil tempfor most oils so I'm using 170 as a minimum oil temp before taking the car over 4,000 rpm.

[mikalem]

Getting ready to tackle this myself but I had a few questions.... how does this solution affect quantity of oil needed? (How much extra was it) and when doing a change, is there a modified process to follow to make sure the oil is drained entirely?

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[brillo]

My setup took about an additional 1/2 quart of oil, part of it depends on the length of your lines. I can't imagine needing more than a full extra quart, so have a quart handy when you do the change.

There is no way to easily drain the oil cooler with an oil change. Its a known fact of having one but its not that much oil and its a non issue in reality. I had an RX8 with stock dual oil coolers for 9 years without a single oil issue. Many high performance cars have oil coolers and live with a bit of older oil in the system. Just change your oil regularily and if your really paranoid you could always change the filter every 2,500 miles.