TTBB Oil Cooler Project ( Pics, Ideas & Experience )

[tryingtobebest]

TTBB Oil Cooler Project ( Pics, Ideas & Experience )

The purpose of my threads is not to show off but to make some designated people think and create ideas for themselves and many different communities with hope that they come back with better ideas and even more cleanlier explanations.
May be some people will find this information useful or maybe use some of the ideas from this thread on their own projects...


Here it is, there is many different types and brand of Oil coolers but ive decided to stick with OEM, so, here is the Oil cooler choices I had. Top to bottom:

Saab 9000 2.3 Factory Oil Cooler
Ford F150 OEM Transmission cooler
HUGE RX7 Stock Oil Cooler
The one on the right is a variant of the smaller F150 tranny cooler:






But the RX7 oils cooler looked overkill with its dimensions and thermostat, they must be running some sort of oversize oil pump just to support this size of oil cooler.




The 300zx TT looked really small:








So I used Saab 9000 2.3 Turbo cooler and it seems to be working great for the last few years:

Dimensions



Thickness




I welded -10 bungs and some straight pieces of aluminium arms to connect cooler solidly in the space in front of my AC rad and between hood hinge and AC Dryer thing (will remove my AC soon)
Im not sure if there has to be P/S lines somewhere there or not, I reroute my lines, when I did Hicas elimination, that there is no power steering loop for cooling!










The connectors that holds the -10 lines together and prevent hoses from wobbling around are from some kind of Ford Focus coolant lines.





Next is I removed the oil to water heat exchanger, which I think is a completely useless thing IF, you are using proper oil cooler and install "Raw Brokerage" (Link might die with their site upgrade) filter to block stud! You can also find similar stud on very old Datsuns:





Of course i wanted to keep both Pressure and Temperature gauges working on the dash so I used included cap with 1/8 NPT for Oil pressure sending unit and I had to drill and Cut one cap for oil temp sensor:

[tryingtobebest]

I didn't bother to do an Oil filter relocation because ive removed my HICAS system completely and i have tons of space to reach to the oil filter. Here is how my Grex / Greddy oil filter block adapter with thermostat sits on the block even today:

















The length of the lines might be pretty long, check out this Lotus Elise stock oil cooler set up:











I always follow the rule "The Bigger The Better" but sometimes I find overkill even for myself:

C63 AMG (Stock vs UPGRADED oil cooler) - LOL)))








PS: HERE is a good web site where you can see and read about different oil coolers.

[tryingtobebest]

This post is taken for future references, updates, pictures and maybe a question that i might asked in this thread. I might include final view of the project in this post! LOL

Ive had some qestions asked about installation, here is the answers:

What's the advantage of the raw brokerage stud, except more thread length? Do the cooler junction blocks come with a deeper shaft that require a longer stud? Do the kits require more sealing torque (thus more threads)? I see from the picture that the bore is tapered and possibly wider too?

You need some kind of stud in the block, because when you remove stock heat exchanger (holds by 3 bolts and a nut) there will be stud but it wont be threaded another words that stock heat exchanger only slips in over a flat pipe and seals it with the o ring! And you can not screw on the filter or the Grex adapter onto it, you will need some sort of stud! Very bad angle on the picture below, but this is the only one i took:

Also, when you use the grex oil adapter to the block do you use some rtv or a gasket between them??

If you look at that Grex or any oil filter/cooler adapter, youll see that i has a factory groove with rubber o ring in place, similar to the oil filter design, so all i did is used some clean oil and some high temp grease to lube that ring and tight it down to that threaded adapter/stud!
This is not the actual Grex adapter but you can have an idea of what i meant:





On the other side tightening that adapter to the block is a PITA because there is no special tools to do that! I used rag and round wise grip's to tight it down with tons of red lock tight on the block and adapter stud threads that go to the block!

[bobbo]

Quite interesting. Thanks for taking the time. When I did my oil cooler I did some research to determine if I should leave the factory oil/water cooler on. I did and wish I hadn't.
When you removed your oil/water cooler was the engine in the car? How did you divert the coolant?

[tryingtobebest]

Quite interesting. Thanks for taking the time. When I did my oil cooler I did some research to determine if I should leave the factory oil/water cooler on. I did and wish I hadn't.
When you removed your oil/water cooler was the engine in the car? How did you divert the coolant?

HAaa, now answers to your questions are laying in my other thread - "Removing oil "cooler" and going single - coolant hose redirection" But here is the chronological order:

1 - I went with single turbo, removed exchanger and plugged/reroute all the necessary lines. I was NOT running stock Oil Pressure and Oil Temp sensors/gauges, running only electronic Auto-meter oil pressure gauge which is set up on the turbo side, under the manifold. But then

2 - I broke timing belt bolt (Write up of which is coming in near future) and had to take the head out from the block! That is when I did adapter plate / Radiator / Hoses routing.


PS: I forget to mention that TTBB is my username, which was shortened!)))

[bobbo]

Good enough! Thanks! What is "ACN" btw?

[MarusGTR]

Quite interesting. Thanks for taking the time. When I did my oil cooler I did some research to determine if I should leave the factory oil/water cooler on. I did and wish I hadn't.

Why's that? Happy new year btw!

[tryingtobebest]

Good enough! Thanks! What is "ACN" btw?

That's coming from years ago, when me and all of my buddies were rocking Altimas and pretty much all Nissans, we created ACN club, which means - Anti Civic Nation ! We were Honda haters, because everyone had straight exhaust as a first mod!))) LOL

Why's that? Happy new year btw!

Because many of us not running our cars all year and, I hope most of us can take few minutes for the engine to worm up before THAT SPECIAL DRIVE. Or is it just me??? LOL)))

Heat exchanger is used to bring the Oil temp to the operational condition faster from cold start and/or in cold climate and, somewhat maintain temp after short acceleration, but after few minutes spirited drive coolant temp goes way over 100C which is beyond regular oil working temp. In this case exchanger is working as heater for oil which I think is a bad thing!

As you can see in my last few pictures, and there is many more, search around, car manufacturer using Oil to Air inter-coolers actively with great success. Who ever tells that Oil to Air coolers are obsolete is not right!

I might be wrong with my point of view and if it is so please throw a link and lets discuss it here!

[MarusGTR]

^ I know that, but I read it the other way; he made it sound like he wanted the oil-water exchanger off, not on.

[bobbo]

Happy New Year Marc!
I'd need to do a little more research but I think I'd like to remove the water/oil cooler. Be a simpler system too. Less likely to have a leak or a dangerous burst.

[MarusGTR]

^ Figured as much! With my inclination to run lean and mean I'd do the same if I'd be in your position. Now that you have a hauling truck you won't be starting and going with a cold engine as often, I don't see warm up being that big of an issue.

To keep in the thread subject, what's the advantage of the raw brokerage stud, except more thread length? Do the cooler junction blocks come with a deeper shaft that require a longer stud? Do the kits require more sealing torque (thus more threads)? I see from the picture that the bore is tapered and possibly wider too?

[tryingtobebest]

To keep in the thread subject, what's the advantage of the raw brokerage stud, except more thread length? Do the cooler junction blocks come with a deeper shaft that require a longer stud? Do the kits require more sealing torque (thus more threads)? I see from the picture that the bore is tapered and possibly wider too?

You need some kind of stud in the block, because when you remove stock heat exchanger (holds by 3 bolts and a nut) there will be stud but it wont be threaded another words that stock heat exchanger only slips in over a flat pipe and seals it with the o ring! And you can not screw on the filter or the Grex adapter to it, you will need some sort of stud! Its hard to explain without picture!

Nice point Marus! Ill try to make some pics from my buddies block and post some here!

[supersayianjim]

so one more thing. when you use the grex oil adapter to the block do you use some rtv or a gasket between them??

[tryingtobebest]

^ Good one again, if you look at that Grex adapter, on some pics in Google, youll see that i has a factory groove with rubber o ring in place, similar to the oil filter design, so all i did is used some clean oil to lube that ring and tight it down to that threaded adapter! On the other side tightening that adapter to the block is a PITA because there is no special tools to do that! I used rag and round wise grip's to tight it down with tons of red lock tight on the block and adapter itself!

[supersayianjim]

so you put the locktite on the threads that go into the block side???