[email protected]
racefab  25 Jan 1993
- Most OEM installations I've seen just leave the dirty oil in the lines
  and cooler, depending on where the device is mounted.  (BTW, large Chevy
  trucks with the big block and factory cooler take FOURTEEN quarts of oil!)
- On my Capri, I mounted a Mazda RX-7 cooler in front of the radiator,
  between the headlights.  I used a dual filter block mounted low so the
  filters were below the block's oil filter pad.  When I pulled a filter,
  everything from the lines and cooler drooled out into the pan.
- BTW, the RX-7 oil coolers are great, assuming you have room for them.
  Besides being enormous, they're lightweight and have a built-in
  thermostat valve.  They're dirt cheap ($50 or so) in the junkyard.  Just
  try finding an old MG cooler any more (grin).
- The only problem is the smallish fittings, which are also
  straight-thread metric.  I retapped to NPT, but I'd like to find
  "proper" fittings.  No matter how much I flush the thing, I always have
  this paranoid fear of a chip or two swirling down into the engine later...
- For further information, average pressure drop across a clean
  full-size Ford/Datsun/Chrysler filter is 3 to 5 PSI with warm 30-wt oil.
  When the pressure drop hits 10-15psi it's time to change.  You can put a
  cheap guage on each side of the filter block to monitor this, and it's
  also quite handy to see how high the pressure goes when you fire the
  engine cold.  If it never sees more than 100psi you can run the Datsun
  filters which don't have a popoff valve - 100% filtration, no bypass.
- You need to see where your engine's oil pressure guage mounts.  Some
  mount before the filter, some after.  If your engine measures pressure
  right off the pump, like a small block Chevy, I'd advise moving the
  pressure fitting to the inlet side of the cooler adapter block.  You
  don't really care what the pump pressure is; you're concerned with how
  much the main oil gallery sees.
- Mount the cooler properly - it shouldn't be under tension in the
  mounts, tugged on by the hoses, etc.  The coolers are thin to transfer
  heat well, which means they aren't all that strong, particularly with
  regard to fatigue.
- Don't forget to put a *strong* screen in front of the oil cooler - itty
  bits of gravel or sand won't hurt it anyway, so door screen is a waste.
  You want 1/2" mesh hardware cloth, preferably 2" or more away from the
  cooler, well-supported.
- Finally, keep a spare oil filter around (and the block adapter in some
  cases) in your trunk or toolkit.  If a hose blows, the cooler fails, or
  you're involved in a wreck, you can disconnect the whole mess, screw the
  filter on the motor, and still drive off under your own power.

chaos.lrk.ar.us!dave.williams (Dave Williams)
Hotrod List  3 Feb 93
- -> Why is it in high speed runs that nobody mounts tranny and oil
  -> coolers in the trunk deck, in the pressure node in front of the wing?
- Murphy's Weevils love to chew on plumbing which carries important
  fluids, like your engine oil and trans fluid.  Running 20-25 feet of
  extra line will attract so many weevils your car would barely move under
  their added weight.
- Seriously, mid and rear engined cars mount the coolers as you said (and
  some even do the intercoolers too) but for front engined cars, it's more
  hassle than it's worth.

[email protected] (Dave Williams)
racefab  28 May 93
- Mazda rotary!  First-generation RX7 oil coolers are huge chunks of
  aluminum, about two feet wide.  They even have a built-in thermostat,
  and cost about $50 in the local scrapyards.
- Drawbacks:
  1)  their sheer size precludes their use in some applications
  2)  fittings are a little on the small side, and use odd Japanese
      threads.  I drilled mine out and retapped to NPT.  A better
      solution would be to heliarc on aluminum bungs of the size and
      thread you want
  3)  I have no idea how much oil pressure a Mazda rotary has - my
      Haynes manual doesn't say, and Mazda isn't much worried about
      it other.  I don't think it's very high.  My cooler holds 80psi
      with no trouble.  Your mileage may vary.

[email protected] (Dave Williams)
racefab  28 May 93
- -> 3. Make sure the cooler inlet is at the bottom and the outlet is at
  -> the top.  You want to make sure your filling the cooler.
- Good point, Jurek.  Some GM truck installations don't fill all the way
  until you start the engine, nor will they drain all the old oil out
  unless you disconnect a hose.
- Ideally the cooler shouldn't be much higher than the bottom of the
  engine, to prevent oil drainback when the engine is shut down.
- I prefer to mount the cooler higher than the bumper, as I've tangled
  with debris and small animals before.  This means the oil will slowly
  drain back into the engine, but it doesn't seem to be a problem, though
  oil pressure can be a little slow to come up.  I use the ordinary Mr.
  Gasket dual filter bracket (PORT that baby - they have casting flash
  inside!!!) with Datsun L-18 oil filters - these are similar to the Ford
  FL-1, except they don't have the bypass valve and they DO have a check
  valve.  I use the Datsun filters for everything that's supposed to use
  the Ford filter.
- Put 1/2" hardware cloth (welded wire mesh) in front of the oil cooler.
  You might even want to put two layers.  Put a piece of small mesh screen
  in front of that.  Birds, deer, mufflers, rocks, and probably meteorites
  will all conspire to hole the cooler if you let them.
- I have some thought to using hard line with my installation - that is,
  use conventional braided from the oil filter adapter to the crossmember
  or fenderwell, then pick it up with steel tubing run to everything else.
  Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of fittings
  available for steel tubing, though it's possible I wasn't looking in any
  of the tight places.  I get the willies thinking of flexible hoses, even
  if they *are* AN-grade, 3000-psi-rated super hoses.

[email protected] (Dave Williams)
racefab  15 Aug 1994
- I view any external oiling as an abomination.  Baud meant for
  lubricants to flow through drillings in castings, not skinny tubes
  waving out in the air.  Doesn't matter if it's Aeroquip braided or steel
  hard lines, it *will* fail eventually.  Back inna old days the Irish
  believed in Little People who soured milk.  They're still around, only
  nowadays they loosen pipe fittings.