Oil cooler questions

[Gloucesternige]

Hi everyone,

I am a little concerned about my oil cooler letting go, probably needlessly, and would like to change to an air to oil cooler anyway.

having looked at the LHD cooler, perched on the front left side of the block i'm a little confused why we cant just fit the LHD cooler to our cars? What is in the way? Am I missing something?

I am considering the take off plate with pipework going to a remote filter/ thermostat and cooler which seems to be popular in the states, and it looks like i would just need to turn up a spacer for the engine mount to replace the boss cast into the RHD cooler take off casting.

I am an Engineer with full machining facilities so nothing is too difficult for me, but it seems like i may be missing something as i wonder why people are paying a fortune for oil cooler kits and fitting "stuff" to disable the coolant/oil cooler? Surely it's best to just take the whole casting off?

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[hinch]

Hi everyone,

I am a little concerned about my oil cooler letting go, probably needlessly, and would like to change to an air to oil cooler anyway.

having looked at the LHD cooler, perched on the front left side of the block i'm a little confused why we cant just fit the LHD cooler to our cars? What is in the way? Am I missing something?

I am considering the take off plate with pipework going to a remote filter/ thermostat and cooler which seems to be popular in the states, and it looks like i would just need to turn up a spacer for the engine mount to replace the boss cast into the RHD cooler take off casting.

I am an Engineer with full machining facilities so nothing is too difficult for me, but it seems like i may be missing something as i wonder why people are paying a fortune for oil cooler kits and fitting "stuff" to disable the coolant/oil cooler? Surely it's best to just take the whole casting off?

its because a) most people aren't knowledgeable or capable of doing the conversion themselves so they have to rely on overpriced kits and b) the kit makers charge mad mark up and miss bits out ie: leave the old cooler in place just cap it off and cap the water holes in the block. As then they make more money.

If you go on demontweaks you can buy almost all the parts you'll need a lot cheaper than the kits only thing i think they can't provide is the remote mount plates and the sandwich/blocking plate for the standard filter location.

 

[v8hgt]

Agreed and this is the solution I am looking at. I was going to source the parts for the engine mount from a lhd car, either that or take the rhd oil manifold and cut it up.

Mmr do a kit for the take off plate, air/air cooler and remote filter.

 

[GR11M]

Oil cooler is on my list to replace.

 

[Gloucesternige]

So, there’s no reason the LHD cooler wasn’t fitted to our cars then?

I have spoken to my supplier this morning, the same guy who made the conversion kit for the pedders in steeds mounts. He reckons he can make the unit very similar to the MMR for £100 plus p+p but not anodised. If I can get an order for 10 off this will drop to £75 each. I will need to know what size threads are required and the size of the o rings too. Then the parts could machined accordingly. Does anyone have the stock UK fitting available to measure?

 

[hinch]

So, there’s no reason the LHD cooler wasn’t fitted to our cars then?

there is a reason ford claimed but i can't remember what it was at the time i remember thinking bullshit but can't for the life of me remember what it was.

for the old cooler i'd just disconnect it from the block and block the water outlet channels it uses leave it in place its not exactly heavy / large/

 

[Gloucesternige]

there is a reason ford claimed but i can't remember what it was at the time i remember thinking bullshit but can't for the life of me remember what it was.

for the old cooler i'd just disconnect it from the block and block the water outlet channels it uses leave it in place its not exactly heavy / large/

I don’t think you’d be able to retain the original unit? I’ll have look in my manual. If you want to retain the original I think you’d need to get a swandwich plate for the cooler lines take off.

 

[hinch]

yeah disconnect factory cooler drain it and block off the coolant lines and oil lanes from the block. sandwich plate or at least a takeoff plate with a couple of 10an lines going to a new cooler on the other half. or to a remote filter plate with cooler in series if you wanted to remote filter it too change sandwich/takeoff as required. you can actually buy billet takeoff plates with with inline temp control from the states think its beefcake that do them.

 

[v8hgt]

The reason we don’t have the lhd cooler is due to the steering rack. The rhd rack would contact on the oil filter if we had the lhd assembly which puts the cooler in line with the filter and therefore pushing the filter further forward from the block. Ford had to find a rhd solution and the chose to leave the filter approx where it was but remove the bulk of the oil cooler by repositioning it elsewhere. Then they worked out how to get oil to the new coole location and came up with the manifold system. Would have been better to position the cooler under the air box and plumb it there.

 

[Gloucesternige]

The reason we don’t have the lhd cooler is due to the steering rack. The rhd rack would contact on the oil filter if we had the lhd assembly which puts the cooler in line with the filter and therefore pushing the filter further forward from the block. Ford had to find a rhd solution and the chose to leave the filter approx where it was but remove the bulk of the oil cooler by repositioning it elsewhere. Then they worked out how to get oil to the new coole location and came up with the manifold system. Would have been better to position the cooler under the air box and plumb it there.

Thanks for this.. however I'm confused by this. It just seems a little strange that a LHD rack with the column on the left would clear the oil cooler yet a RHD rack with the column two feet away has clearance issues?

EDIT!! I think I see it now.. the electric motor and ECU? are on the left on RHD cars and on the right on LHD cars.

 

[v8hgt]

Thanks for this.. however I'm confused by this. It just seems a little strange that a LHD rack with the column on the left would clear the oil cooler yet a RHD rack with the column two feet away has clearance issues?

Yeah strange isn’t it. I believe it’s due to these new fanged elec power steering racks. There is a motor on the left side of the rack maybe.

 

[Gloucesternige]

Yeah strange isn’t it. I believe it’s due to these new fanged elec power steering racks. There is a motor on the left side of the rack maybe.

Yeah, that is the case I reckon.. I must have edited my post above as you were writing your last post?

Anyway, I think the best way to get around this issue is to get the sump sat on a block of wood and remove the left engine mount and oil cooler manifold thingy. Then refit the engine mount with spacers to replace what was there in the form of the cooler manifold. It looks like the water is fed from hoses at the bulkhead area yeah?

Make up a take off plate for the oil feed pipes and route lines to a remote thermostatic filter mounting and then to a cooler and back to the engine. Doing things this way will achieve a custom designed solution to suit any upcoming conversion/additions and will also allow the user to choose high levels of quality in their components or go for the more reasonably priced off the shelf parts such as Mocal. I have a Chinese oil cooler kit here which I have had for about 15 years and never used, I think I would worry constantly about it failing due to poor quality fittings or cooler?

I have some brand new Mocal stuff lying around somewhere from memory?? Oh dear, I need to start digging!!

 

[v8hgt]

If you get the oil plates and spacers made count me in. Beats paying a fortune to bring one in from the USA and taking the angle grinder to the oil manifold to turn it into a support. I was considering keeping oil / water cooling but using a high quality Laminova cooler and positioning it well away from the exhaust manifold hence not needing a thermostat then put a remote oil filter in just under the airbox. Simple job then to change filter just pop airbox out .

 

[Gloucesternige]

If you get the oil plates and spacers made count me in. Beats paying a fortune to bring one in from the USA and taking the angle grinder to the oil manifold to turn it into a support. I was considering keeping oil / water cooling but using a high quality Laminova cooler and positioning it well away from the exhaust manifold hence not needing a thermostat then put a remote oil filter in just under the airbox. Simple job then to change filter just pop airbox out .

Good plan, thats about it, however, you should seriously consider a Thermostat as your oil may never warm up? Non thermostat systems are fine for race cars, but on the road where you're probably not on the redline all the time, your oil will take an age to even get warm.

I'm not sure if i am correct in saying this.. but does the water/oil cooler help with heating the oil up quicker as the water heats up so fast in comparison to the oil?

 

[v8hgt]

What we need is a local version of this
http://www.modularmotorsportsracing.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=903
With a thermostat (for the uk) . A bit of water pipe joiner. And the engine mount spacer. Then the buyer can choose their own oil cooler off demon tweeks.

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