Oil Cooler Plumbing

[oscar32]

Hey all.

I've just purchased an oil cooler, and was wondering where people were plumbing them in.

My tuner had two thoughts, the first is to oil the oil just prior to it going into the turbo, the other the cool the oil post turbo before it goes back into the motor...

Just interested in what people are doing.

[Roy]

:confused: ....id be perhaps talking to another mechanic. Not trying to be rude, but i have never seen oil coolers plumbed up in such a way.

The best, and to the best of my knowledge the only really sensible way is to get what is called a sandwich plate. You can get them from Earls fittings or most speed shops for between $40-60. You remove your oil filter and screw the sandwich plate to the block where the oil filter goes.

You then screw the oil filter into the sandwich plate...so that the sandwich plate is sandwiched between the oil filter and the block (sandwich...get it:))

The sandwich plate has two ports, an inlet and outlet...basically you plumb these lines to/from your oil cooler...as the oil filter is on the driver side of the block, most ppl try to install the actual oil cooler on the same side to minimise the length of oil lines required.

Hope that helps:)

[oscar32]

Cheers heaps,

Thata a much better description of option two. He's a great tuner... just a little out there with ideas from time to time

I guess the thoery is cooling the oil before it goes into the turbo.

[Trust33]

no seriously that is out there unless of course it was your dad....Then that would be understandable..

[hungry6]

No the idea is not that bad if u think about it. i ran a similar set up on my last motor and the oil temp was definately lowered. THe way i ran my set up was, from the turbo outlet i ran 1" alluminium piping thin walled in a big S shape toward the bottom oil return point, making sure that oil does not build up inside the alum tubing. after that , i bought wrap around heat sinks that you sometimes see on high pressure hydraulic line and wrap it on the piping. The theory was to cool the hot turbo oil before it got return into the sump, nothing kills oil faster than heat, But i also ran the conventional set up on the otherside of the motor.

The irony of it all was that i had a good oiling cooling set up, but there wasn't just enough of it when i need it the most, until i got a 7.5 litre capacity sump plus huge oil lines for cooler and a large oil cooler. next stop would be a dry sump and a 20litre set up in the boot i guess