Where to mount oil cooler?

[Rittmeister]

I'm considering adding an oil cooler to my SR'd S13. Standard redtop engine, S15 T28 turbo, Koyo rad with Altima fans, Greddy FMIC. I've already got an oil filter relocation kit, so plumbing would be pretty easy.

The problems are these - I have air conditioning, and I'm not giving it up. This makes mounting a cooler in front of the radiator problematic, but not impossible. I'm also wondering if small amount of blockage to the radiator would either not matter, or would be more than made up for by the added cooling capacity the oil cooler offers.

Second - I can't mount in the driver's fender in front of the wheel (stock side mount intercooler location) because I'm running a Silvia Q's bumper, with no hole to let in air. I could cut the bumper but I'd have to repaint it (again), so I'm trying to avoid that also.

Any suggestions?

[Matt93SE]

Pass side fender opening, to mirror the stock intercooler on the driver side?

Or do you want to keep washer fluid tank?

I would say to mount it in front of the radiator.. Since the radiator is currently used to cool everything in the engine (including the oil), cooling the oil with the cooler and still passing that warmed air through the radiator shouldn't hurt... That's my guess though. lots of people mount them in front of the radiator with no problems.

[Rittmeister]

1. Need to keep washer bottle.
2. Bumper has ONLY the center opening - it's from a non-turbo Silvia Q's. No opening on either the driver or passenger side - that's why I said I can't mount it where the SMIC should be (that's where it'd go if there was a way to get air to it).

So, you're saying you think between the intercooler and air conditioning condenser would work?

[Your Mom]

really need it?

[Matt93SE]

Do you have space above the intercooler still in front of the radiator?

It's been several years, but there was an article in a magazine that did a bunch of testing on that stuff, and showed diagrams of where they were best placed. some in front of radiator, some behind, some above intercooler, etc etc.
really wish I could remember where that article was!

[Rittmeister]

Yeah, I could probably find room; it'd have to be a skinny cooler to fit.

I was hoping to be able to mount it underneath somehow, or something. I may bite the bullet and chop into the bumper, that's probably the best bet; I want to paint the car again in a year or so anyway.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

[Cory]

My Tru Cool cooler is just zip tied to the front of my radiator

[BeerBringer]

I have my 19 row Setrab cooler between my IC and rad.
Last trackday my oiltemp easily went up above 120 C!!!
And I'm only at 230-240 hp (CA18DET). I'm going to try getho-ducting it and possibly cut some air outlets in my splitter/undertray to see if that helps.

My brother had the same problem on his ~280 Hp SR. He solved it with a Greddy oil pan. The extra capacity together with the cooling fins made a huge difference.

Putting the cooler in the stock sidemont IC possition is not as bad as it first seams. The lines only need to be a little longer than front of rad possitioning.
Alot of people run like this in Sweden.

[Cory]

I'm not willing to give up my brake ducting for the oil cooler.

[drunkmunky]

This article that was mentioned above, Does anyone still have information or a link in regards to its content?

[Matt93SE]

Maaaan I REALLY wish I could find it since we're all about in the same boat on picking a location. I'm not far from installing an oil cooler for mine as well...

But it's been several years and I don't even remember which magazine. Coulda been a half dozen different mags that I was either subscribing to or picked up at the store because I liked an article in it.

Honestly, you might look in some towing/truck rags for stuff like that. Lots of the deisel truck crowd will install various aftermarket coolers and there will be research on them as well.

um.. also check the Hayden coolers website for info. I remember seeing some stuff in the box when I bought a tranny cooler for my old Maxima too.

any info is better than nothing, right?!

Edit... There's a small amount of info on the instruction sheets for the Hayden coolers. Nothing ground-breaking and you probably already know that much though .

http://www.haydenauto.com/installation/instruction-sheets.htm

[Def]

You want to maximize delta P across the core, and mounting in front of the radiator is pretty bad for that.

A better place than that is to put a short and long core below the radiator and duct it down below an underpanel and have ducting on the face of the core.

[Bumnah]

I shouldn't link to other boards, but here is a great thread on fa regarding oil cooler placement: http://forums.freshalloy.com/showthr...ght=oil+cooler


I am a fan of Andy's oil cooler install. It can be found in the thread above.

Here are some pictures of his setup; because well pictures make threads more fun.

[Cory]

Yea that was posted a while ago. It really takes away from being able to do brake ducting. I would also wonder about pressure building in the wheel well. A manometer reading inside the wheel well would be awesome. I guess if you vented the wheel well area there would not be an issue.

[Def]

I have mine in the same location. I angled mine though. There is still room for brake ducting with maybe some minimal ovaling of the duct.