The front mounted oil cooler saga begins

nice setup!

one Q though - why front mount?

Three reasons:

1.  front mount means lots of direct air flow to the cooler.

2.  I have absolutely no room in the back.  IRS and a rear torque bar makes it near impossible to mount the cooler by the tranny, and I didn't like the way it was mounted before-in the rear wheel well.

3.  I've always wanted to try this and now is as good a time as any.

all very valid.

when you do an oil change - you'll need to add extra oil for the lines.

my 72 pass cooler setup takes a fair amount of oil.

those are nice fans BTW.

The engine now takes close to 6.5 litres.  I bet the long oil lines and bigger cooler will add a few more litres. 

My oil cooler has arrived.  Kudos to John at Aircooled.net.  My cooler arrived in four days.

Next, I have to box in the front so I can mount the cooler.

I installed the side panels today and put the bottom plate in place.  When I put the oil cooler in place, to see if it cleared everything, I noticed the bottom aluminum plate bowed slightly.  Damn, it looks like I'll have to buy and cut another thicker piece of aluminum.

Notice the bow in the bottom plate?

Front view

Just fits

Ron,

You could fasten an angle brace the length of your lower plate behind the cooler on the bottom piece of aluminum to stiffen it and keep it from bowing and keep the piece you have couldn't you? Could also possibly add a small break (15 degree) to the front edge of your lower plate to add stiffness.

In the last picture the bowing looks like it's due to interference with the cooler.  It looks like the corners of the cooler are hitting the bottom panel and pushing it down.  Not sure a thicker panel of stiffening it will help.  You might be able to fix it by simply "ovaling out" the screw holes used to bolt the panel on, thus allowing for some downward adjustment.

Have some of those ridges like Cory used in aluminum panels of the Hoopty.  Forget exact name but they are creases rolled/pressed info the flat surfaces to add strength and prevent drumming.  They make for a finished look too. Not real visible here - but see the left fire wall.

Thanks for the replies guys.  That's why I love this forum!

56Speedster, I'll take your advice and add an angle brace right behind the cooler.

another idea that i have seen the locost super 7 guys do is add some angled aluminum to direct the air through the cooler rather than having the air redirect around it.

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vs. something like this:

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ya - the drawing is awesome isnt it.

Ron,

Are you going to notch the lower apron behind the bumper?

Mango, I did that when I mounted a new radiator in my old monster (V8) Miata.  I put in a lower scoop and totally closed in the radiator, so all the air had to go through the rad.

Unfortunately, I had to mount the oil cooler very close to the front of the bottom plate (one inch), so it would clear the battery tray in the trunk (see my third photo).  The side supports are much wider than the cooler because I used the bumper brackets.

I installed two pieces of 'L' brackets across the bottom plate and it's now stiff enough to easily support the cooler.  Thanks again 56Speedster.

Terry, the apron and the front bumper are the same height, so to get more direct flow to the cooler I would have to trim the apron and the bumper.   That's something I don't plan on doing unless I absolutely have to.

I'm curious, how much more cooling capacity does the double fan unity have over the single?

I have single and oil overheating issues.  

Also, are you not worried about bottoming that front mounted oil cooler out?

Ditto on what Cole says.  I mounted my front air cooler about the same as yours and it has bottomed out and bent the **** out of it.  Now going to replace it but higher up and I'll use a scoop that will hang down.  If the scoop gets damaged its a lot easier to replace than the cooler.

My oil cooler will sit at the same height as the bottom of the front beam.  I realize I'll have to be cautious when traversing speed bumps and ramped driveways.

I had a scoop on my monster Miata and it was just as low as my IM and it came through a year's driving without a scrape.

Well, it's done.  I may block off the area between the side supports and the cooler, but I'm not sure that would force any more air towards the cooler.  I will probably cut a bit of the body away just in front of the cooler, as it is slightly lower than the fender and its curved surface will force the air down instead of straight towards the cooler.

Ron, very nice.

Have you given any thought to painting that supporting plate black...sort of hiding it in the shadows so it isn't visually distracting?

Good call, Carl.

That is exactly what I plan on doing once all the plumbing in is place.

After spending some time looking at my oil cooler I decided to try angling it a bit to get more of the cooler in the airflow.  I liked the results, but I still felt that it was too low.  I figured it was only a matter of time until I whacked it on a speed bump.  So, I then tried mounting it in a horizontal position.  There is just enough room between the body and the battery box.  Next step is to build some new mounting brackets and design, or find, an air scoop to direct the air up into the cooler.

Ron O, I can well understand your concern about 'wacking' the hanging radiator. Repositioning it at an angle will certainly give you more ground clearance, and less anxiety...but it will also reduce its effectiveness since the air instead of hitting the cooling vanes at 90degress will slide over the angled surface in the slip stream.

Your scoop sounds like a workable solution to force more air onto the vanes and to seal off air escaping at the corners...But it should be attractively integrated too. 356's are unhappy with blunt square corners! But you wouldn't want to invest a lot of fabrication time since this scoop will be vulnerable to being crunched. Better to replace a sacrificed inexpensive scoop than $$ plumbing.

Here's an idea to get your creative scoop juices flowing:

Using a thin flexible wood (not plastic) veneer I fashioned a compound curved corner ceiling fixture by first soaking the veneer, then forming the desired shape on an adjustable dowl pegged piece of pine. When dried it retained the shape I wanted...The possibilities are almost endless... and if painted the body/bumper color the scoop would be visually unobtrusive.

If crunch is inevitable, as it probably is, the nifty wooden scoop will shatter and splinter without damaging the good stuff...and is easily replaced.  

That's a great idea...  Next step up would be to use the wooden form as a mould for a fiberglass part....  Keeping the part thin walled.

Carl, I like that idea.  I'm also thinking of using sheet metal.

Flexible plywood will also work although you'd probably have to buy a 4x8 sheet.  Just be sure to get the right kind as they flex either into a 4 foot high tube or an 8 foot high tube.  I've used this stuff for lots of things like concrete forms, curved bulkheads, etc.

I used lightweight sheet alum for my little scoop, bought at Cdn Tire.  Deforms easily before damaging your cooler.

There is a lot of info on the net regarding NACA ducts, auto aerodynamics, etc.  Someone has already invented that wheel by doing the research and using CAD to manufacture shapes.  Preformed ducts are available in all shapes, sizes, prices, and materials, from plastic to carbon fiber.  Google "NACA ducts" and you'll find all kinds of shapes, for all kinds of auto improvements, from additional air flow for radiators to superchargers.  If you still want to DIY, it will give you some ideas regarding shapes.  There are also some great tutorials for us lay folks on the science involved in air movement. 

Ron, I like your work and ideas.........very fresh. I used 0.5mm galvanized plate for the base of my scoop as it's easy to work with and more important, if it takes a knock (which I know at some stage it will), it's a simple case of cutting a new one out with tin snips. 

I'm amazed at how little metal there is in the front end to bolt anything too.

Yeah, but there's plenty of plastic, eh? 

Ron,

Often times I will use the inner hood scoop off a WRX for this purpose. Works GREAT! We strip down so many Subarus that this is an easy (and cheap) solution for me.  Before that I have: made my own from scratch in both aluminum and glass, and (going waaaay back) I had taken some aftermarket pick-up truck, 3M stick on faux hood scoops and cut them down.  Just some added ideas.  ...and as Jim said, take a good look at the aerodynamics of ducts and scoops.  I don't believe you have the proper mounting surface and airflow for a typical NACA duct and a scoop would do you much better.

I'll have to take a close look at a WRX scoop.

Thanks

Ron,  I have not followed your build so I don't understand what you are using for an engine or how you plan to move the oil from the engine to the cooler, maybe I am missing important points, but I have 2 thoughts.  Firstly regarding ducting, you have a lot of cooling already, what with a very oversized cooler and dual fans.  There is substantial air flow in and around the front suspension and your cooler location.  Admittedly it is not clean airflow but it is air flow.  I think ducting it right now before testing may be overkill.  One of my Speedsters had dual coolers with fans and oil never got hot enough to turn on the fans (180 degrees) and it had no ducting and the coolers were in an area that did not have much airflow, namely up in the dead zone between the engine and the tub.

Second point, usually front oil coolers are used with dry sumps...it is a very long way from the back of the car to the front and return.  Add in a filter and a conventional oil pump is entirely insufficient, completely so on start up....while pressure in a system is of course constant, the amount of time it takes to achieve the pressure, the max pressure, and the amount of flow all come into play.  All in an unfavorable direction with conventional oiling and front mounted coolers.

These 2 photos show dual oil coolers in my car and yes, it is dry sumped....with a thermostat in the oil line too...

tmpusfugit, I like your set-up.

I probably could have gotten away with a front cooler without fans, but I went with fans....just in case. 

When I discussed mounting the oil cooler in the front of the car with my mechanic, he assured me that mounting an oil cooler in the front would be doable.  He has a lot of experience working with air cooled VW and Porsche engines.  I've also done some online research.  I found that mounting a front cooler is more common than I thought, with most of the installs in European buses. 

Seems the size of the lines has a lot to do with how well the engines oiling system handles the long lines.  The secret is to not go too small.

The secret is to get an accusump, so you don't EVER run the engine with no oil pressure.

I had one here a few days ago and i sent it back. there is another way to prevent this that wont hang down.. ust ask any airplane  tech.

 So... are you going to tell us the secret?

Ron, I agree with Stan that at the very least I would want an Accusump in the oil loop to bring the system up to some sort of pressure for the mains and rod bearings upon start up.  I have one (Accusump) and use it in conjunction with the dry sump as I don't like to start a very expensive engine on dry bearings....a front mounted oil cooler with 15 feet of hose, or more, can take 5-10 seconds to fully  pressurize using a stock sized pump.  While you may trust your mechanics recommendations, I would error on the side of caution and use the Accusump method as well as make certain I was using a much larger oil pump.  And I use AN-10 plumbing on my system....

Ron - Do you have a thermostatic switch (not for turning on fans but for oil flow)?  If one were mounted very near engine - you'd not have the dry start up issue. When cold it would be closed and oil would bypass the long cooler loop. I see one in tmpusfugit's 3 photo. 

http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDe...uctCode=ACC-C10-5516

Oldyeler, you can't just say there's another way and not tell us. 

Spill the beans, buddy.

Wolfgang, my engine does have a thermostatic switch for oil flow. 

For those of you that have an Accusump, were did you mount it?

Thanks for all the imput guys.

Ron, I mounted my Accusump on the back support in the engine compartment.  And just FYI the oil thermostat valve only diverts oil to some extent.  it still flows a partial stream of oil to keep the system full of oil and under pressure, so that when it does open there is always oil under pressure for the engine....so IMO it does not resolve too slowly pressurizing the system on start up....