Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Well, being the genius that I am, I decided that the easiest & cheapest way to install an oil cooler to my car was to buy one off eBay...

Please queue up in the line to the left in order to laugh at my expense.

And I do mean expense. :O

I bought an eBay oil cooler kit for $135 (posted) back in June with the plans of fitting it up & being awesome.

The pics looked like this:

1.jpg

: with the plan of routing an oil to air oil cooler core from a sandwich plate between the oil filter & oil to water oil-cooler sandwich plate thats already fitted to the block.

Then I received the 'item' some 10 days later direct from Shenzen, China. w00t!

This is what it looked like in the box when I opened it:

IMG_1877.jpg

As you can see, it's got a relocation kit... not really what I wanted, seeing as though theres a poofteenth of nothing when it comes to space for relocating your oil filter in the engine bay of an M35. :wacko:

So I complained that I didn't get what I ordered & was contacted various girls named 'Michelle' & 'Brandy' in Guangzou to address the fact that I hadn't received what was in the picture (being a simple sandwich plate with -10AN oulets & a place on the top to screw in a factory oil filter...)

So they graciously sent me a replacement adapter to match what was in the photos.

Some 16 days later, I received the correct adapter & got to work fiting everything up...

Until I realised that the cooler core was about 300x300 in size & I couldn't get it to sit in an acceptable place inside my front bar where it would do any good...

Luckily, Just Jap is 15 minutes from my house, so I trotted down to see them & picked up the smallest of their oil coolers, which measured about 90 x 250 & had the -10 nipples that I needed.

'Cool', I hear you say!

Well, yes, everything was cool up until I fitted everything up to the car, with core in place above the intercooler & behind the grille.

Then the leaks started...

Every single one of the yum-cha AN fittings leaked.

That and the braided hose was so soft, it kinked trying to go around a gentle radius bend. :/

Luckily, I have a Pirtek dealer 5 minutes from my house, so I trotted up to see them & came away with two brand new braided hoses featuring -10 Proflow fittings.

'Finally', I hear you say!

So, it turns out I ended up using absolutely nothing from the original package I was sent! :whistling:

So the install was fairly straightforward from then on, with a couple of brackets supporting the core, a 90deg fitting on the nipple closest to the centre of the radiator, running the hose behind the bar reo & a 45deg fitting on the other nipple, angling the hose down past the i/c piping.

The hoses then wrapped around the washer bottle & back into the engine bay through the inner guard liner & met up with the sandwich plate.

Good news: the Proflow fittings don't leak at all! w00t!

Pics:

Brackets

IMG_1933.jpg

IMG_1934.jpg

Fittings & hoses

IMG_2027.jpg

IMG_1935.jpg

IMG_1936.jpg

IMG_2026.jpg

And the finished product

IMG_1931.jpg

The moral of the story:

Don't buy yum-cha oil cooler kits from eBay...

:rant:

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/409089-m35-oil-cooler-adventure/
Share on other sites

  • Replies 45
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

So you learnt the hard way, I don't know how many times I've told my mates not to buy those shit china kits!

Just go buy a core and buy the fittings and line from speedflow or who ever you choose, and make the thing yourself.

Your yum cha kit leaks because the fittings are not matched.

They are not hydraulic fittings.

Inside the fittings should be a 45 degree taper

Male and female respectively to couple together and make a mechanical seal.

Look at your relo plates, there is no taper at all.

The oil pressure just forced the oil thru the threads and leaky leaky.

Buy Australian , buy speedflow, don't winge about the money, because as seen here, you end up doing it right the 2nd time.

Good to see you learnt a valuable lesson and also thanks for a detailed post, maybe no guys will think twice before being Jew bags and wasting there money in china on inferior products that clearly will never ever work.

Lol. Good story man. Plenty of times I've been back and forth to pirtek.

Did you have any ability to read before and after results?

I've got an oil temp gauge ready to go on, but the gauge sender ports on the sandwich plate are in a spot that will make the senders interfere with the aircon lines, so I'm waiting on a couple of 45deg 1/8npt elbows that will angle them out of the way.

So no, I can't tell what difference there is now that the oil cooler is on there, but once the gauges are in, I'm planning on bypassing the coolant from the factory sandwich plate & having the new oil cooler doing all the work.

I'll report back once I've got results.

So you learnt the hard way, I don't know how many times I've told my mates not to buy those shit china kits!

Just go buy a core and buy the fittings and line from speedflow or who ever you choose, and make the thing yourself.

Your yum cha kit leaks because the fittings are not matched.

They are not hydraulic fittings.

Inside the fittings should be a 45 degree taper

Male and female respectively to couple together and make a mechanical seal.

Look at your relo plates, there is no taper at all.

The oil pressure just forced the oil thru the threads and leaky leaky.

Buy Australian , buy speedflow, don't winge about the money, because as seen here, you end up doing it right the 2nd time.

Good to see you learnt a valuable lesson and also thanks for a detailed post, maybe no guys will think twice before being Jew bags and wasting there money in china on inferior products that clearly will never ever work.

there was definitely a taper in the yum-cha fittings, but from what i understand now is that the angle of the seats is different... near enough is close enough in China they say. :wacko:

the cheap fittings also felt cheap... they just seemed lighter & less dense than the Proflow ones. In fact I was afraid they'd crack as I was doing them up. :unsure:

lolz.

I bought one a while back......sold it to some tard with a gold POS named Sunkist in Vic! :P

Just an fyi....if your after a good thermo sandwich plate I have a brand new Grex one sitting on my bedside table thats for sale....only issue is it has an R34 adaptor but you should be able to use the one you have just used for you sandwich plate.

Sooooo; did someone say Haydn's awesome Aussie spec oil cooler group buy? :whistling:

Sucks that you had a shite experience; at least you had the good sense not to persevere and potentially damage a motor.

Where is your trans cooler hiding?

Exactly the same spot above the intercooler next to the oil cooler.

It hadn't been fitted in the pictures

There's also a small power steering cooler wedged in just between the oil cooler & headlight now too.

Pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Apologies to Mr 20Valve. LOL

Maybe; but nothing ventured nothing gained. Someone has to take the risk every now & then.

If no-one had tried K-Sport BB Kits, or BC Coilovers they would've been an unrealised performance bargain.

  • 4 weeks later...

Have you had a chance to measure temps yet Hayden?

Considering doing this and trying to work out if the size you've picked is big enough, and if it's not where to fit something bigger :unsure:

To give you a quick idea - cars that I have logged when hot (ie traffic/idle/city driving - NOT giving it a boot) have logged oil temps around the mid to high 90s.

Cheers Alex. I take it that's without a cooler?

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • I'm looking for some real world experiences/feed back from anyone who has personally ran a EFR7670 with a 1.05 exhaust housing or a .83 I'm leaning towards the .83 because its a street car used mostly for spirited driving in the canyons roads. I"m not looking for big numbers on paper. I want a responsive powerband that will be very linear to 8000 rpm. I dont mind if power remains somewhat flat but dont want power to drop off on top. The turbo I've purchased is a 1.05, although the mounting flange T3 vs T4 and internal vs external waste gates are different on both housings, I not concern about swapping parts or making fabrication mods to get what I want. Based on some of the research I've done with chat gpt, the 1.05 housing seems to be the way to go with slightly more lag and future proofing for more mods but recommends .83 for best response/street car setup. AI doesn't have the same emotions as real people driving a GTR so I think you guys will be able to give me better feed back 😀   
    • Surely somebody has one in VIC. Have you asked at any shops?  Is this the yearly inspection or did you get a canary?
    • This is where I share pain with you, @Duncan. The move to change so many cooling system pieces to plastic is a killer! Plastic end tanks and a few plastic hose flanges on my car's fail after so little time.  Curious about the need for a bigger rad, is that just for long sessions in the summer or because the car generally needs more cooling?
    • So, that is it! It is a pretty expensive process with the ATF costing 50-100 per 5 litres, and a mechanic will probably charge plenty because they don't want to do it. Still, considering how dirty my fluid was at 120,000klm I think it would be worth doing more like every 80,000 to keep the trans happy, they are very expensive to replace. The job is not that hard if you have the specialist tools so you can save a bit of money and do it yourself!
    • OK, onto filling. So I don't really have any pics, but will describe the process as best I can. The USDM workshop manual also covers it from TM-285 onwards. First, make sure the drain plug (17mm) is snug. Not too tight yet because it is coming off again. Note it does have a copper washer that you could replace or anneal (heat up with a blow torch) to seal nicely. Remove the fill plug, which has an inhex (I think it was 6mm but didn't check). Then, screw in the fill fitting, making sure it has a suitable o-ring (mine came without but I think it is meant to be supplied). It is important that you only screw it in hand tight. I didn't get a good pic of it, but the fill plug leads to a tube about 70mm long inside the transmission. This sets the factory level for fluid in the trans (above the join line for the pan!) and will take about 3l to fill. You then need to connect your fluid pump to the fitting via a hose, and pump in whatever amount of fluid you removed (maybe 3 litres, in my case 7 litres). If you put in more than 3l, it will spill out when you remove the fitting, so do quickly and with a drain pan underneath. Once you have pumped in the required amount of clean ATF, you start the engine and run it for 3 minutes to let the fluid circulate. Don't run it longer and if possible check the fluid temp is under 40oC (Ecutek shows Auto Trans Fluid temp now, or you could use an infrared temp gun on the bottom of the pan). The manual stresses the bit about fluid temperature because it expands when hot an might result in an underfil. So from here, the factory manual says to do the "spill and fill" again, and I did. That is, put an oil pan under the drain plug and undo it with a 17mm spanner, then watch your expensive fluid fall back out again, you should get about 3 litres.  Then, put the drain plug back in, pump 3 litres back in through the fill plug with the fitting and pump, disconnect the fill fitting and replace the fill plug, start the car and run for another 3 minutes (making sure the temp is still under 40oC). The manual then asks for a 3rd "spill and fill" just like above. I also did that and so had put 13l in by now.  This time they want you to keep the engine running and run the transmission through R and D (I hope the wheels are still off the ground!) for a while, and allow the trans temp to get to 40oC, then engine off. Finally, back under the car and undo the fill plug to let the overfill drain out; it will stop running when fluid is at the top of the levelling tube. According to the factory, that is job done! Post that, I reconnected the fill fitting and pumped in an extra 0.5l. AMS says 1.5l overfill is safe, but I started with less to see how it goes, I will add another 1.0 litres later if I'm still not happy with the hot shifts.
×
×
  • Create New...