[Mk2] [Turbo] My side-mount oil cooler install

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shinny
Posts: 2345
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:59 pm
Location: Reading, UK

[Mk2] [Turbo] My side-mount oil cooler install

Post by shinny »

I realised I didn't have a simple post anywhere about my oil cooler to link people to... so, 2 1/2 years late, here's what I built. I'm very happy with it and, given my limited fabrication skills, I think it's a pretty neat install even if i do say so myself! And it goes without saying that this doesn't work with a side-mount intercooler... in my case I have an ST205 charge cooler.

I used the following:
17 Row Oil Cooler (260x230x32mm from ebay)
The standard SMIC shroud
Thermostatic sandwich plate (1/2"BSP fittings)
AN-10 right angle fitting
AN-10 180º fitting
2x AN-10 straight fittings
2x AN-10 to 1/2" BSP
3m AN-10 nylon braided hose (I think 2m will suffice though, but not 100% sure)
Some random rubber seals
Some metal sheet
Some nuts and bolts

I mocked up the cooler on the shroud:

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I cut the metal sheet to make brackets to attach the cooler to the shroud then cut and assembled the hoses to the lengths I thought I needed.. which both turned out to be a foot too long!

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I sprayed the DIY brackets black to match everything else and then wrestled the shroud and cooler into the engine bay:

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Finally, I trimmed and reassembled the hoses and connected them up to the car:

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The thermostatic sandwich plate is a very tight fit on the sump. Rotating it 90º and using 90º AN adaptors would probably have been better. (Aaah, hindsight, you're a wonderful thing)

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The cooling is excellent and the oil cooler is nicely tucked away from any potential damage... the chances of getting a stone in the side vent is pretty low! Unlike intercooling, you've got a massive temperature difference between the oil and the air, so a position that's barely sufficient for intercooling is more than enough for oil.

As an aside, my thermostatic sandwich plate doesn't have ports for sensors. To avoid using two sandwich plates (which sounds pretty sketchy to me!) I was advised these ports existing in the rev3+ oil pans:

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These ports are 3/8 BSP so simple threaded adaptors to convert to the size of your sensors (most often 1/8 NPT) plus some PTFE tape sorts our any oil sensors you have. (I admit I've posted this numerous times, but it's very pertinent here)
Mike N
Posts: 670
Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2007 11:17 pm
Location: Still somewhere hot

Re: [Mk2] [Turbo] My side-mount oil cooler install

Post by Mike N »

Looks fine,

I just have a remote stat on the bulhead with a massive Ford filter with pipe runs of around 12". My oil warms up as normal and doesnt stray regardless of how hard I push the car.
pbmr2
Posts: 929
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2010 12:49 pm

Re: [Mk2] [Turbo] My side-mount oil cooler install

Post by pbmr2 »

Decent little write up there.

Was it by design that the cooler was installed with the fittings on the top? How do you drain it come oil changes?
shinny
Posts: 2345
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:59 pm
Location: Reading, UK

Re: [Mk2] [Turbo] My side-mount oil cooler install

Post by shinny »

pbmr2 wrote:Decent little write up there.

Was it by design that the cooler was installed with the fittings on the top? How do you drain it come oil changes?


Yes, I did design it that way to make it easy to fill. It does mean that when I do an oil change I get left with a small amount of old oil in the system that will mix in. However I decided that was preferable to any risk of pumping air around the system from a cooler that's difficult to fill...

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Taken from http://www.racing-stuff.com/coolers.htm where the reasoning isn't explained.

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From http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki ... on_coolers

According to the above it's possibly better to have the ports to the side (presumably with the pressure coming in at the bottom), but I figured filling it would be very messy. It was also saying the ports facing down was the worst option, I guess because it's impossible to pre-fill and would likely trap air in the top of the cooler rather than actually have oil circulate around it all.
pbmr2
Posts: 929
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2010 12:49 pm

Re: [Mk2] [Turbo] My side-mount oil cooler install

Post by pbmr2 »

yeah spose with no bleed valve it would be daft up the other way.. didn't think of that!

If it holds less than .8L (looks like it does) then having it empty wouldn't be a problem at change time. just makes filling the oil a longer process.

As you say, prefilling it by taking off the top hose doesn't seem like a good idea. the joint being undone that many times in it's life is just going to cause issues.
Could easily make up a little elbow to go on the end of a funnel for filling though.

Hmm will have to think about these things when the new engine goes in.
Thanks again for the writeup :thumleft:
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