oil line question, and setrab cooler install

[Kevin Stewart]

Hi just put a Setrab cooler on the front ran into a oil line problem,
i need to keep the 3.6 cool but am concerned about the inside diameter of the line,.
heres the issue, I can run the line from the where the trombone cooler used to be to the front of the car, but, the setrab is 12an line, and the oe line is bigger, will this cause any problem with the oil pump? i had to cut the fittings from the trombone cooler, so ill have to buy fittings etc150-200 still leaks buy the thermostat

when the thermostat was replaced the lines were cut and a section of braided was put in place, (about 8 inches) the braided line with clamps leak, the local power hose guy can take the old ends that went to the thermostat and make me lines from the thermostat all the way to the front cooler, but this will also be 5/8 inside diameter, is this to small, this cost about 150, and he can cut into the lines when i put a fender cooler on in the spring, the real issue i am worried about is the inside diameter of his lines 5/8 being to small and damaging the engine with to high of oil pressure, has any one done this? this is not a track or show car, so putting 600 dollar lines on is a bit much plus the cooler lines,

does anyone actualy know the difference in flows of the two lines, I can take a guess, what im looking for is more facts then guess, or a page or site that may have this info, Kevin

[Chuck Moreland]

5/8 inch hose is AN-10. This is a 15.9 mm ID on the hose. AN-10 hose fittings have an even smaller ID (maybe 10mm?).

The factory stuff is 19mm. This is a huge difference in flow capacity (increases with the square of the radius). AN-10 is way too small.

Steel braided lines can not be used with worm drive hose clamps, they will always leak. They need crimp collars or re-usable hose ends. Further, they must be used over a hose barb, not the smooth stub of a cut-off oil line.

If I remember your earlier posts on this topic, you bought a close-out old-style setrab cooler that has welded on an-12 fittings. If you had purchased a current model setrab with threaded fittings, you could replace them with the 30mm metric fittings that I make. That would allow you to used properly sized 30mm fittings throughout along with properly sized hose.

Your best bet at this point is to use proper 30mm hose ends along with AN-12 adapters at the cooler. If you want to go cheap, run the hose all the way back to the thermostat. If you want to do it right, use hard lines up to the fender.

If you go the cheap route, you'll need to deal with the saggy line problem. Plus you won't get the cooling benefit of the hard lines themselves. But you might save a couple hundred dollars.

[Early_S_Man]

Kevin,

Way too small! You can have the AN-12 fittings cut/milled off the cooler and have aluminum AN-16 fittings Heli-arced (TIG) welded to it ... for a 'proper' system installation that is no smaller than OEM from end to end! Repair or replace the 'botched' factory line, or install Elephant line for even better cooling ...