Hats Off to Elephant Racing and their ST/R Dual Cooler Kit

[Jeff Higgins]

I have been putting this off and putting this off for far too long, fearing a frustrating, hair pulling job - the installation of the second fender mounted cooler in my '72 hot rod. Boy, was I ever pleasantly surprised - it turned out to be a piece of cake, really.

I have been running a single "Wide Mouth" cooler and finned lines for years. It's proven adequate for street use, and cold day track use - barely. Hot days on the track, however, would see temps rapidly passing 250, and approaching 270, where I would just have to pull off. Unacceptable. So I resolved to install that second cooler. I just finally got around to it. I'm heading to Pacific Raceways tomorrow for a PCA track day to try it out.

Installation was very straightforward, if not a little bit cramped. The right front fender now houses a veritable snake pit of plumbing:



Installation requires drilling four holes, two each in each inner fender. The supplied templates were spot-on regarding their location. It can be just a bit worrisome punching four 1.25" dia holes in the tub, checking and double checking their location, but they turned out perfect:



The shelf that the crossover lines lie upon in the trunk is quite narrow, just that little piece between the tank and the smuggler's box. The location of the four holes are, of course, critical to making these lay just right. I think it came out pretty good:



The left side only has two hoses, of course, so it's nowhere near as complicated as the right side. About the only thing I might wish were different is the left side stone guard - it's actually a right side stone guard. A mirrored version of the right would fit much, much better. Even at that, however, a few minutes with a tin snip and some pipe insulation soon had it fitted and all gaps filled air tight.

So, again, hats off to Chuck Moreland and his Elephant gang for providing a quality kit that fits right. I think sometimes we under appreciate when that happens, so I just wanted to say "thanks".

[seafeye]

Do you still have battery boxes? Did the Elephant Racing oil coolers fit under your 911R fenders?
Did you also get the lines from the oil tank forward?

[gomezoneill]

Nice job on the install.

[Jeff Higgins]

I removed both battery boxes and moved the battery to the smuggler's box using the Rennline kit sold by our host. And yes, I so have the Elephant finned lines from the oil tank to the right cooler, an Elephant "Widemouth". Those have been on the car for many years prior to the installation of the left cooler, so I just bought their add-on kit to add the left cooler.

I'm happy to report a significant reduction in oil temperature on the track yesterday. With temps in the mid 80's, when I was running just the single cooler, I was seeing oil temps at or above 270. I would simply have to pull off, often only halfway through a session. Yesterday I was able to run the full 20 minute sessions and oil temps never went about about 230. I was pretty darn happy with that.

I guess it's still not as effective as the center mounted RS style cooler, but it all boils down to what you are after with your car. Mine is kind of an "R tribute", so the center mount would be out of place.

And yes, the kit did fit easily under my "R" front fenders. They are actually the stock steel fenders. All I did was weld some sheet metal in the turn signal bucket openings. Dave at TRE supplied a template that he traced off of a real "R" he had in the shop at the time, and I used that to locate the large openings and marker lights. I did not want to go with fiberglass fenders, for a lot of reasons.

[gtc]

Did you get a new hose made, or was there a trick to getting the supplied hoses to fit?

[Jeff Higgins]

I had to shorten the two hoses in the left fender. Cut the collars with a cutoff wheel in my little die grinder, cut the rubber hoses with a hacksaw, and ran out to Bernie's to have him crimp on two new collars. Piece of cake.

In a very informal pole of locals who have also installed this kit, some didn't have to do a thing, some had to shorten like I did, and some had to lengthen a couple. There is just so much variation in these cars, I think it's a miracle that I only had to alter two hoses.

Speaking of which, it's astonishing how many commercial hydraulic shops cannot do this. Shops that do heavy equipment hydraulics and the like. Turns out a couple of locals can do it, Chris's German being the other. The tool they use is a very simple, bench mounted, "armstrong" (you pull on a long lever to operate it) cam actuated kind of a thing. Works great. Expensive tool, though, like a couple thousand dollars expensive. The big hydraulic shops all have big fancy hydraulic swaging machines, but they struggle with really short hose lengths, and none carry the oddball metric size required for these hoses.

[RSBob]

How many additional quarts of oil for the new cooler and how many for the whole system?

[Jeff Higgins]

One of the concerns is that it's impossible to easily drain the cooling system itself. There are no drains on the coolers, and the lines go into the tops of them.

That said, it took four more quarts to top it up to the "full" mark on the dipstick from what was, prior to the install, a full tank. That means there are now 16 quarts of oil in the system. It does kind of bother me that I'm not changing all of it when I change the oil.

[James Brown]

you can add a schrader valve to the oil out line from the engine and "push" the oil out of the lines and coolers with air pressure. Do it warm and low air pressure.

[Superman]

Yes, you could push the oil out with air pressure. A gloved hand might substitute for the Schrader valve.

[manbridge 74]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

One of the concerns is that it's impossible to easily drain the cooling system itself. There are no drains on the coolers, and the lines go into the tops of them.

That said, it took four more quarts to top it up to the "full" mark on the dipstick from what was, prior to the install, a full tank. That means there are now 16 quarts of oil in the system. It does kind of bother me that I'm not changing all of it when I change the oil.

You could also do a “double” oil change every now and then. I will sometimes change mine and then again after I get it warm. I give away or use the second drain amount in another (usually older) vehicle.

[75 911s]

Originally Posted by James Brown

you can add a schrader valve to the oil out line from the engine and "push" the oil out of the lines and coolers with air pressure. Do it warm and low air pressure.

This. Also the finned ER lines have a valve included. Just be sure to leave the oil filter on until you are finished blowing it out or you will blow oil all over your engine. #stupidthingsI'vedone

[H-viken]

Originally Posted by 75 911s

This. Also the finned ER lines have a valve included. Just be sure to leave the oil filter on until you are finished blowing it out or you will blow oil all over your engine. #stupidthingsI'vedone

I tried this for the first time. How much oil should one expect to get out of the system? (Dual or single). Haven’t measured but guesstimate I got 1-2 quarts out of my dual set up. Would’ve thought I’d get more

Johan

[70SWT]

I wonder how hot the exposed lines in the frunk get after a spirited run.

[Sboxin]

Originally Posted by H-viken

I tried this for the first time. How much oil should one
expect to get out of the system? (Dual or single). Haven’t measured but guesstimate I
got 1-2 quarts out of my dual set up. Would’ve thought I’d get more

Johan

Johan,

Our 964 engine 3 cooler system holds 15 quarts from complete empty to tank 1/2"
above low mark on tank measuring stick . . . a regular oil change is about 10 qts.

Just another data point . . . :-))

Regards,
Roy T

[H-viken]

Thanks Roy!

That also supports the additional 4 quarts Jeff put in to his.

I’m thinking the high clearance lines I use in the rear wheel well makes it hard for the air to push out all the oil. Could explain why I didn’t get more. But better than nothing, brings down the percentage of old oil in the system

The double change is not a bad idea, could use the first batch in the old Audi