"Best" (most flexible) oil cooler option?

[steve99]

Originally Posted by Koa

Ayo I'm not sure how well it can be done- I was thinking get custom hoses made/make myself with AN fittings for the setrab, and regular female (open) ends for the male connectors at the sandwich plate. @steve99 can't one just add the setrab to the loop, where the setrab is in-between the coolant tap and OEM sandwich?

Why run two?

the lines to the OEM style cooler are coolant lines, no external oil connections.

If you wanted to run a 'normal' oil cooler you would have to put a sandwich plate under the oem style cooler to be able to acess the oil flow.

unless i am misunderstanding what your doing

you could try the "oil" radiator in the coolant line as a coolant radiator to precool coolant feed to the oem cooler but as @Wayno says it might restrict the already low flow of coolant due the extra length of lines ect.

and the limiting factor of the OEM cooler may be the surface area of the heat exchanger



see here for double stacked oem cooler and standard oil cooler on wrx

http://engineering.mishimoto.com/cat...oler-kit-2015/

[Koa]

Originally Posted by steve99

the lines to the OEM style cooler are coolant lines, no external oil connections.

If you wanted to run a 'normal' oil cooler you would have to put a sandwich plate under the oem style cooler to be able to acess the oil flow.

unless i am misunderstanding what your doing

Wow- I totally missed that point.. yep, ck only way would be to double up and that'd be weird.

it's early......

[steve99]

Originally Posted by Koa

Wow- I totally missed that point.. yep, ck only way would be to double up and that'd be weird.

it's early......

you can do it

[Koa]

Originally Posted by steve99

you can do it

@steve99 Is this doubling up a potential point of failure? I'm wary and don't want to mess my setup up. My OEM cooler retrofit isn't leaking one smidge and that's with heavy weekend warrior driving.. I'd say close to 100 or so WOT runs 3rd/4th

[wparsons]

Originally Posted by steve99

you can do it

Haven't looked that close, but would that potentially be getting into clearance issues with the hood and oil filter? WRX hood is higher than ours, just not sure how much clearance we have stock.

Does anyone have any experience with the Skunk2 rad with oil cooler? It looks like it's similar in design to the Robispec rad/cooler? I'm assuming it would just need the rad, sandwich plate and lines?

[Gopherboy6956]

I do want to chime in one more time and say how much I like my Perrin Oil cooler. Definitely works well, and fits with Vortech for sure.

[Mishimoto]

Originally Posted by wparsons

Looking at oil cooler options, and am looking for input on what is going to be the most flexible kit.

Currently the car is N/A, but it might be FI in the future and I'd rather not have to buy another oil cooler when going FI if I can help it.

I like the Mishimoto kit because it looks like a good value, but it also looks like it won't work without a custom mounting bracket if there's an intercooler up front?

I don't like the JR kit because it's two different kits for N/A or FI (with their SC kit).

I'd prefer something that mounts in the bumper opening, not in front of the front wheels, and I need to keep the washer reservoir.

I was originally looking at the OEM style cooler, but I'm not convinced that it will keep temps down enough with FI with heavy track use.

Thoughts?

Thanks for considering our cooler for your 86! An OEM style cooler is an option but as others have mentioned, it will not efficiently cool the vehicle under repeated strenuous driving. I would highly recommend using a liquid-to-air unit if you intend to go down the FI route in the future, especially if you plan to track the car.

Unfortunately, the direct-fit mounting bracket we include with our kit is not compatible with most front-mount intercooler setups. That being said, our cooler can easily be relocated in a similar location (farther forward) as noted by Tye. Aside from the bracket, we include all components needed to install this kit including stainless steel braided oil lines, a billet thermostatic sandwich plate, and a CNC-machined spacer and oil filter cup.

This setup should provide efficient cooling for an FI setup seeing track duty. Let me know if I can answer any specific questions about our kit!

Thanks
-John

Originally Posted by Tye300

If you do go FI, you will just have to mount the cooler further out a bit. I have a Vortech and a Mishimoto oil cooler and I couldn't use the mounting bracket it came with. I just mounted it on the plastic floorboard.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by jvincent

The OEM oil cooler is limited in its cooling effectiveness by the fact that it cools the oil to the temperature of the engine coolant. I have one installed and under normal driving conditions the oil temp is within 1 or 2 *C of the engine coolant.

In cold climates the OEM cooler also acts as an oil heater, since it raises the oil temp to match the engine coolant faster than normal.

I have not tracked with mine yet, but others have reported a modest improvement in on track temps, ~10 degrees reduction, on track and a faster cool down. However, the OEM cooler does not have enough heat exchange capability to keep the oil temp close to the coolant temp on the track so the oil temps will be quite a bit higher than the engine coolant. I am hoping for about 235-240 *F. This is probably fine for me since I am NA.

If you are going FI, then your temps will be considerably higher, so a dedicated air cooler, which is not limited by the engine coolant temp and where heat exchange is limited by radiator size are better options.

Great information!

[wparsons]

Thanks for the info John, it's still in the running. I like the rad/cooler unit because it means shorter lines, but if it's not as effective or I can't get someone to sell me one it's not much use

[MAPerformance]

I can be pretty flexible in our kit. It's very similar to the Perrin design and mounting, but I have sold our kit with your choice of core size, as well as extra hose length depending on where you want to mount it. Our kit comes standard with a Mocal 13 row, but we can go bigger depending on your needs.

[philooo]

@MAPerformance what's the benefit to mount the oil cooler to the air damn plate instead of the crash bar with a bracket like mishimoto ?

I heard this allow to mount the oil cooler flush with the other radiator and then have more air flow ... is that the reason ;0 ?

[sw20kosh]

13 row series 6 setrab cores are way way too small for FI + track duty in anything > 50F in our experience in the 86cup challenge here in CA.

The Jackson Racing 15 row series 9 was developed and tested with their supercharger on tracks in the hot Southern California dessert. Several people run this setup in the 86cup and it performs as it should.

3 people tried Laminova style coolers like the one pictured below and found out very quickly that they are insufficient for FI + track in >50F weather. They cool about as well as the 13 row except they raise the coolant temps much faster as they dump their heat into the coolant system (stock radiator and koyo radiator alike). If a mocal laminova of this size is insufficient, think about how that forrester XT cooler would perform...

Do not get an aftermarket radiator (except for the robispec system) as they have not been show to be better than stock on track.

[sw20kosh]

Originally Posted by philooo

@MAPerformance what's the benefit to mount the oil cooler to the air damn plate instead of the crash bar with a bracket like mishimoto ?

I heard this allow to mount the oil cooler flush with the other radiator and then have more air flow ... is that the reason ;0 ?

Because a bracket system needs to be fab'ed up to mount a core to the crash beam which adds cost.

IMO mounting the core to the bottom plastic plate is ok, but supposedly more dangerous because the plate and oil cooler can get ripped off the car when you go off-road (like spinning/going off of the racetrack and into a ditch or dirt). The way I see it is if you are going to go off that hard and rip that panel off, you are going to damage the core regardless of if it is mounted up top or on the bottom.

[RehabJeff86]

@wparsons I do have a brand new RobiSpec Rad/Oil Cooler core with used vertical sandwich plate for sale

[OkieSnuffBox]

Originally Posted by Sleepless

I have the Perrin cooler but if I did it again I'd go with JR. I believe the only difference between their NA vs FI kits is the mounting bracket. The JR has more cooling capacity than Perrin.

And it doesn't mount to the plastic under tray.