More Rear Mount Oil Cooler Questions, Setrab Setup Options

[BeatNavy]

I'm trying to nail down why I'm having oil cooler issues. Specifically, I've blown two sandwich plate adapter seals in the same place / manner. In addition, during my test drives I wasn't necessarily thrilled with the temp drop I was seeing.

First, I'm running the Setrab oil cooler and Setrab sandwich plate adapter. Anyone else running the Setrab sandwich plate adapter without any issues? I know I'm not the ONLY one, but how many people run this as opposed to something like the Mocal setup?

Second, when I contacted Pegasus Racing to order more seals, I spoke to the tech guy who gave me some food for thought. The most interesting thing was he said the oil cooler needs to be mounted with the inlet and outlet ports facing up, otherwise the cooler won't fill up all the way and you won't get ideal (or any) cooling.

Here's my setup with it angled somewhat down for what I hoped was good airflow: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?s=&...t&p=2826235

Essentially he says the oil takes "the path of least resistance" which could largely be from the inlet port to the outlet port using few of the cooling rows. I assumed the pressure would fill the cooler, but I can see what he's saying. Any thoughts on that? If that's the case, I really need to completely redo my mounting setup and plumbing.

[BeatNavy]

Thanks for the input. I spend a good part of the day undoing my setup from last time (of which I was pretty proud) and then reinstalling the cooler so the inlet/outlet ports are oriented up. It was a bit of a b**** to get the lines to fit, but I got them. I had to swap out the 45 degree AN fittings for some straight connectors. The good news is I can now actually install my grommets where the lines pass through the engine tin, and there's really no change the half shaft is going to interfere with anything.

So much for my shroud and ideal air flow, but air flow doesn't help if it's passing across a largely empty oil cooler with no oil in it to cool.

Here's the current orientation. @Olympic 914 Tom, I know you're concerned about airflow with the fan shroud (as am I). I'm going to see how it works. Good news is it should be pretty easy to remove if needed.


Here's what it looked like originally:


I'm nervous to take it for a ride again in case the seal blows, but you gotta do it, right? Boy it makes a hell of a mess when/if it happens. I'll give it a shot tomorrow. I'm pretty beat right now.