Oil Cooler Placement

[EricTheRed]

Hi All!
Had an opinion question on the correct or best place for mounting an external oil cooler, and what model you all think is best for a Type! CB 2376 motor.

My Spyder is an early Vintage with a oil cooler mounted to the bulkhead with a electric fan. Been driving the car some and every time I pop the engine lid, many people keep telling me that the location of the cooler is not correct or not good air flow for it to be efficient. Wondering what peoples thoughts are here, and if its better to move it to the tail like many images I see online.

Attached is a pick of the location of the cooler now.

Whats your take??

E

[EEricson]

Option 1. If it's not overheating maybe leave it.

But I agree with the busy bodies. You've got hot oil circulating right near the fan intake with not much room to get cool air in front of it.

Option 2. Look at the two cross tubes above and just to the rear of the transaxle. I think many, maybe most, Vintage Spyder builders make a simple bracket and mount the oil cooler there, right under the grills. It's a little longer run for the oil but not that long.

Option 3. Or, you could go crazy and run lines to the nose of the car, as in the originals. A lot of work. Needs a high volume oil pump (or better yet dry sump). Brings heat into the tub. This is only for the Hard Core lunatics.

[egrant5329]

I think a lot of people run it from the rear transmission crossbar to the crossbar the rear bonnet hinges from or from the cross tube that Ed previously mentioned. DannyP generally does a really good job. you might look for pictures of his car.

Plumb it with a good quality Stainless Steel hose, like PTFE, Braided Stainless Steel. I initially used the Jeggs push-loc hose. It worked fine for several years, but while hammering it down a highway it developed a pin hole which nearly cost me my engine.

I can't see in the picture if you have it, but I would definitely run a good filter and a thermostat.
EdG

[Carlos G]

My car is a Vintage built by Seduction. It's in the location egrant is talking about.
It does require more plumbing, but it seems to be the most logical choice. I need to plumb in a thermo bypass to aid in warmup though.
If you need more pictures, just let me know.

[egrant5329]

Nice pic Carlos! I like the push-pull cable on your battery cutoff, sweet PBS cable shifter, jacking points, etc...
EdG

[RVosari]

Hello Eric the Red,

Would you kindly measure the distance from your fan-center to the firewall...it looks mitey-tite

ReV

[RBP]

My 2 cents. Move it up front! The last thing you want is more heat in the engine bay. All you need to do is increase your line size from 8 to 10. There is not a lot of difference in distance between installing up front or in the rear, maybe the 3' along the door sill.

[EricTheRed]

thanks for the reply's

For those who asked the oil cooler has a pinhole leak, so that's why I'm replacing it and moving the cooler. Right now the cooler sits about 1.5 inch from the bulk head, and is thermo activated. Most of the time the fan kicked in about 190 without fault. Since I have to change it I thought I would move the location to try and help the cooler and the engine bay from excessive heat soak.

From looking on the web and the pictures here it looks like Vintage moved the location to the back where the cross bar for the trans is. Makes sense to me to do this, only issue is the clan run of the oil lines. I hate it when it looks all crappy with zip ties, so I will make it as clean as I can. Looking for vintage clamps no online.

Because my exhaust is to the back of the car more then the seduction I think I will mount the cooler from the bottom trans bar, to the top round cross tube bar. Should get some good flow. Thought about mounting it in the front but thats a pain in the ass to get that up there.

Any advice on a really good cooler and fan combo? Still looking for the right one for the car.

Thanks Eric

[egrant5329]

I have used a cheap Empi mesa plate oil cooler and fan for close to 15 years and never had a problem. I am told Setrab is one of the best. Never used one though.
http://www.setrabusa.com/products/oilco ... index.html
EdG

[albaran]

I have used a Derale oil cooler/fan combo for years with no problem. The fan blows down and pushes hot air out of the engine compartment.

[EricTheRed]

Ok so I decided to try and keep things simple...at least that's what I thought.
Called Greg at Vintage Motorcars who built this 550 in 2004, and re recommended moving the cooler to the rear and had a kit available that he uses on new cars he builds (cooler, Fan, and brackets). Normally the cooler goes on the rear of the car in passenger side. Greg was 95% sure it gulf fit my car, because I still have the shitty Jamar shifter that I will replace in the future.

Well kit came in today and the cooler will ***NOT*** fit for cars with the Jamar shift linkage on the passenger side. If you have the cables your golden, but for me it did not work. So I'm just going to mount on the drivers side and mount the battery on the passenger. No big deal but I will need to mount and fabricate some extra brackets to raise the cooler up a bit to Clear.

Sucks but now you know.

E

[DannyP]

My cooler is mounted similar to Greg's method, but a bit more forward. I made SS straps around the bar between the shocks on the passenger side. Then I bent some SS standoffs that went from the frame rail by the trans tailshaft straight up, straddling the Jamar rod. The cooler is angled down a bit toward the rear of the car.

Rev, the Vintage Spyder with the 911 fan has at least 3, probably 4 inches between the fan and the firewall.

I'd load a picture, but after editing one and resulting in 150 kB size and getting denied an upload, I'm done.

[EricTheRed]

needed to update on the Oil Cooler.
Turns out it can be mounted on the passenger side like many other spiders with the Jamar shifter linkage. You will need to do a bit of custom work to get it to clear the shifter linkage. Greg at vintage was very helpful on getting me the parts fast to make it work, but was unsure if it would fit. To his credit he told me that it's been a long time since he fitted the cooler with the older shifter linkage. He got the item out to me and told me it was no problem to return if it didn't fit.

What I had to do was simply add 2 inch box tubing onto of the brackets to make sure no shifter linkage will hit under movement.

Here are the picks without the 2 inch box tube.