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]

Hey Mike - interesting question. I've given it some thought, and I'm not sure there is a clear cut answer. I suppose it depends on how your oil lines are routed and what the "elevation" is of the components. In my setup I would guess that at least some of the oil drains back to the case, but mostly from what's left in the lines. Because my oil lines go up some into the engine bay (before going back down through the J-Tube hole), there's a bit of a natural trap in the cooler. I honestly don't know how much total oil I have in the system, but I'd guess it's roughly 4.5 to 5 quarts.

EDIT: While I'm at it I should point out that I've made 5 trips now bringing oil up to temp, and no blown seal so far. Gaining some confidence that I'm good at this point. Temps are ok, but still in the 215 to 220 range range. I guess I can live with that. I did remove the "shroud" for the fan I created, but it didn't seem to change things significantly one way or another.