One-Off Oil Cooler?

[Sam Strano]

HKS has an oil cooler kit... I have 2 in stock. http://stranoparts.com/partdetails.p...250&ModelID=37

Dropped oil temps from 130C (in only 5 minutes) to 105C steady with the cooler. And this was apparently on an overcast day. For those who prefer the good old American way, that's about a 40 degree F drop.

[RedRocket]

Originally Posted by No Limit Motorsport

Its a joke to do. You can have it done in a couple hours without much effort at all. Buying a "kit" is kind of a ripoff.

Buy this

http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/p...andwich_Plates

Use 10AN lines

Than buy the core of your choice, I like 16 row Setrab or Mocal

http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/p...ab_Oil_Coolers

than just put the lines together and bolt the core to something.

I have the stuff here to do my kit, just waiting to get our car back from the body shop.

Adam

You make your lines? What do you use? A buddy of mine just dropped an 800 HP engine into his older mustang... I forgot what year.. I took a quick look under the hood and was impressed with all his hoses.. He made them all, steel braided, it was an impressive look...

If i did my own oil cooler I would definitly try to replicate what he did with his hoses..

[RedRocket]

Bump Re: Lines ?

Anyone able to chime in on making your own lines for putting together your own oil cooler?
Recommended material?

[Ninjaneer]

OK, sorry to bump an old thread for my first post, but I have some experience designing oil cooler systems for cars, so I thought I'd offer some thoughts for those wanting to put their own cooler together. I'm looking into buying an FR-S, so I was researching oil cooler kits and came across this thread.

First, some general thoughts... Personally I've had good experience with Mocal parts for just about any oil cooler application. They make good quality coolers, hose, fittings, and sandwich plates. The main US distributor of Mocal parts in the US is BAT, Inc. I believe they also sell direct to consumer. You have to be careful with a lot of the universal kits you see being sold on ebay and around the internet. Many times you'll find the cooler quality sucks, and the hoses and sandwich plate will leak. Stick with a quality supplier like Mocal, Earl's, or Setrab. Those 3 use what's called a pressed plate core design, which uses a series of plates with internal "turbulators" to maximize heat transfer. The much cheaper, "fin tube" coolers are no where near as efficient, and have a higher pressure drop. All of the kits I've seen on the market for the BRZ/FR-S appear to be the pressed-plate type, which you would expect given the high cost of the kits.

Cooler Core:
Mocal has 2 different widths of coolers, a 115mm matrix core and 235 matrix core, with different row sizes within those. The 115 core is a good compact size for tight areas and for applications in high airflow areas and/or where extensive cooling isn't needed. I use a 13 row 115 matrix core for an MR2 Spyder application mounted in the side air vent, and it provides adequate cooling for everything but heavily boosted engines. Perrin appears to use a 235 matrix, 16 row Mocal cooler (Correction, it's a 13 row). That is a good all around size for most applications. You could get away with a 13 row most likely, looking at oil temp numbers I've seen on the board. I wouldn't go any higher than 16 row unless you are running some monster HP. As far as inlet size, 4 cylinder engines with short oil line runs can get by with 8AN, but I use 10AN as my standard.

Hose and fittings:
I personally only use stainless braided hose and aluminum swivel fittings, rather than the "push-on" style rubber hose and fittings. I've heard of and personally witnessed too many cases of the rubber hose fittings popping off and spraying oil everywhere. The rubber hose also ruptures and is damaged more easily. The cost of stainless hose and fittings is a little higher, but worth it for peace of mind and for looks IMO. If you do use rubber hose and fittings, make sure you use oetiker clamps on the fittings. You might have to find someone with a pair of Oetiker pliers to borrow, which aren't cheap.The one thing you have to be careful with about stainless braided hose, is it will saw through other hoses or wire over time due to vibration, so you have to make sure any part of the hose that comes in contact with wires or other hoses is covered in sheathing. The main challenge with stainless hose will be assembling the hoses and fittings. The anodized aluminum fittings will scratch and mar using steel tools. I have a special aluminum vise and aluminum wrench to assemble my hoses to keep them looking nice.

Sandwich plate:
Mocal makes the best sandwich plate I've found. They make a thermostatic plate that keeps you from excessively cooling during warm up or cold temps. Don't even think about putting together a kit without a thermostatic plate or some sort of external thermostat. You'll be running cold oil and might never get to proper oil temp in some cases. With the FRS/BRZ, you'll need a spacer to provide the needed clearance over the "cup". Mocal sells a BRZ/FR-S specific plate that includes a 25mm spacer. Expensive, but good quality. For plate fittings, use 1/2" BSP to 10AN fittings and 1/2" Dowty seals.

Mounting location/bracket:
Mocal has a universal bracket which may or may not work for the FR-S/BRZ. I'd recommend some kind of damping between the bracket and cooler if possible to keep down vibration. The Mocal bracket has damping pads included. Some sort of custom bracket might be a better approach for the FR-S/BRZ. I like Perrin's approach of mounting the cooler on risers behind the front grill. Simple approach, and great air flow (better cooling).

I've already gotten too long winded, but later I can post up part numbers for the above parts I would recommend if anyone is thinking about putting together their own cooler kit. Using Mocal parts I would guess you could put together a high-quality DIY kit with stainless hoses for less that $500. Using rubber hose and a smaller core could probably get you under $400.

[Dave-ROR]

I'm running a 19 row 235 Mocal, 230s on the track for oil temp. I thought Perrin used a 13 row, I'd have to go back and check the pics. I just made my own brackets, which was easy enough. I'm using Aeroquip hose and fittings, but Earls and Mocal are great also. Mocal plate here also of course. And I definitely agree on the SS Line and real fittings.. There's pics of my setup in some thread around here.

[Ninjaneer]

I went back and looked, and you are correct, they use a 13 row. They also use a Mocal thermostatic sandwich plate. Hose and fittings are Mocal also. The mounts and sandwich plate spacer appear to be the only non-Mocal parts. Yep, forgot to mention Aeroquip. They are great for fittings and hose.

[norsamerican]

a vendor should get a kit put together and put together some group buy

[Calum]

@Ninjaneer What do you recommend for a thermostat temperature? The 185 deg F that Mocal offers seems low to me.

[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by norsamerican

a vendor should get a kit put together and put together some group buy

The Perrin kit is available and @JoeBoxer did a group buy on them already.

You can save money doing this yourself if it's worth the hassle to you. There's a price breakdown somewhere that I did but the parts alone in my setup are about $460, not too much different from the Perrin setup in price (but I do prefer SS lines and the shorter runs that I use, although my exact setup wouldn't work for some).

Oh and here's pics of what I'm using:
First post: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...&postcount=113
Second post: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...&postcount=126

[Ninjaneer]

Originally Posted by Calum

@Ninjaneer What do you recommend for a thermostat temperature? The 185 deg F that Mocal offers seems low to me.

It depends on the application, but 180-185 deg is pretty much the standard for oil thermostats. If you are in a colder climate or find your car is taking too long to get to proper oil temp, I might use a 95c/203F thermostat. Mocal offers a high temp thermostat for about $10-15 extra. I live in the south and find the standard Mocal thermostat keeps me in a good range and allows quick oil warm up. Keep in mind, it is simply going to take longer for your oil to get up to ideal temp with an oil cooler, even with a thermostat installed. The thermostats actually allow a small amount of bypass even below 180F. This keeps air bubbles out of the oil path. You don't want a on/off thermostat to send an air bubble through every time it kicks in.

[Calum]

Originally Posted by Ninjaneer

It depends on the application, but 180-185 deg is pretty much the standard for oil thermostats. If you are in a colder climate or find your car is taking too long to get to proper oil temp, I might use a 95c/203F thermostat. Mocal offers a high temp thermostat for about $10-15 extra. I live in the south and find the standard Mocal thermostat keeps me in a good range and allows quick oil warm up. Keep in mind, it is simply going to take longer for your oil to get up to ideal temp with an oil cooler, even with a thermostat installed. The thermostats actually allow a small amount of bypass even below 180F. This keeps air bubbles out of the oil path. You don't want a on/off thermostat to send an air bubble through every time it kicks in.

Ya know, I was actually wondering about this.

My experience with oil temperatures is mainly with medium speed diesels and all the ones I work with run around 90-100 deg C, hence my question.

Thanks

[Ninjaneer]

Another thought/comment on proper oil operating temp. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, because I don't yet have a FR-S; but the recommend oil is a 0w-20 synthetic, correct? That is a lower viscosity oil than most cars run. With it running thinner oil, I wouldn't be as concerned with oil warm up as I would with high oil temps under heavy load.

[Calum]

Originally Posted by Ninjaneer

Another thought/comment on proper oil operating temp. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, because I don't yet have a FR-S; but the recommend oil is a 0w-20 synthetic, correct? That is a lower viscosity oil than most cars run. With it running thinner oil, I wouldn't be as concerned with oil warm up as I would with high oil temps under heavy load.

0w20 is correct.

[Jesse@JDLAutodesign]

Here's my one off setup...this was before lines were done.