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.

[GregAmy]

Aren't the heat exchangers already a heat shield for the headers? If air is running through them, the exterior should stay pretty cool.

Mine are horribly hot, you can't even get your hands near them.

There's a TON of heat stagnating under the backside of these cars.

This is on mine. It's now covered in adhesive-backed reflective insulation.

It's finally stabilizing the temps around 215-220 (in the line exiting the cooler) on 80+ days.

[Olympic 914]

Aren't the heat exchangers already a heat shield for the headers? If air is running through them, the exterior should stay pretty cool.

Mine are horribly hot, you can't even get your hands near them.

There's a TON of heat stagnating under the backside of these cars.

This is on mine. It's now covered in adhesive-backed reflective insulation.

It's finally stabilizing the temps around 215-220 (in the line exiting the cooler) on 80+ days.

Do you still have the original oil cooler in place? No gauge sender in the taco plate?

I guess it depends where you are reading the temp.

As I understand the oil flow -

(1) its picked up from the sump,

(2) through oil pump then to the oil filter


(3) through the stock oil cooler

(4) on to the bearings etc. through the oil galley.

If you are reading the temp inline after the aux cooler your oil temp should drop some more after going through the stock cooler, before going into the engine.

Using a sandwich adapter, after the oil filter the oil goes to the aux cooler then back through the stock cooler to dissipate more heat before going to the bearings etc.

By having the sender for the temp gauge in the taco plate you are reading the oil temp after it has gone through the engine and lubricated/cooled it.

[GregAmy]

Do you still have the original oil cooler in place?

No. Replaced with Tangerine block and thermostat, lines come out of that.

No gauge sender in the taco plate?

Yes, factory sender in taco plate feeding factory combo gauge. The gauge correlates directly with a Mainely dipstick.

I guess it depends where you are reading the temp.

The 215F is being measured by a Race Technologies sender in the cooler exit line back to the engine, feeding the datalog into my Microsquirt (which controls the fan).

So I have three methods of oil temp measurement and they all correlate with each other.

I can add a fourth if you think it'll help... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer3.gif)

This is just a good excuse for building an engine over the winter, take advantage of the Microsquirt setup. Shhhh, don't tell the wife....