Got a front oil cooler? Here's your worst nightmare...

[widebody911]

I left the house this evening to play some basketball; I was less than a block from home when I realized I'd forgotten my wallet. No prob, I do a wide U-turn in the middle of the street - done this drill a zillion times - but 4/5 of the way thru the turn, I hit a nice solid patch of wet leaves and slid straight into the curb. I wasn't going fast, but even @ 5mph, 2600lbs of car exerts a lot of force on an oil cooler

I had the good sense to take it immediately home and check it out, and sure enough, the cooler is broken. Luckily the thermostat hadn't opened yet, so my oil loss was just a trickle.

And I was finally feeling flush after selling 3 heater tubes this week I had my eye on some R lights and RS interior panels. Oh, an a new back window.

Hey Chuck - do you carry the large Setrab coolers? I doubt this one can be fixed.

My next engineering project will be to figure out a guard for this baby.

Uh that was unlucky. Unfortunately the front bumper is a vounerable place to have an oil cooler You will have to replace the bumper as well won't you (glassfibre)?

[widebody911]

Originally posted by Mikkel
Uh that was unlucky. Unfortunately the front bumper is a vounerable place to have an oil cooler You will have to replace the bumper as well won't you (glassfibre)?

Yes, but this is an excuse to graft on the 930S valence I've had kicking around for a while. If it doesn't work, eh, I'll call up Peter @ Rennspeed.

Hell, for $xxx for the oil cooler, and $xxx for the bumper, I wonder if its worth reporting to my insurance... eh, they'll just bend me over more...

OTOH, it happend 50 yards from home, and not 100 miles away at the track...

[Chuck Moreland]

Ouch! Center mount coolers are best for cooling, but there is that little drawback. They aren't curb friendly and don't like off track excursions much either.

Did you mount it flush with the front of the tub? That is probably your best defense, moving it back as far as possible. A meaningful skid bar would get heavy fast.

[Sonic dB]

Ive often wondered just how much of a front end impact would be needed to break open the oil cooler. Hopefully I will never personally find out.

[k9handler]

I like the idea someone posted a few weeks back with the cooler mounted deeper and the exit vent up and over the hood.

[911pcars]

Thom,
Ouch. I probably would have done more damage if I had your engine under my foot.

Wishing your pcar a speedy recovery.

Sherwood

[Porsche]

Arrghhh... the dangers of having a fibreglass bumper... I'm having them installed at the moment, and this is one of the drawbacks...

[Embs]

That really sucks Thom, perhaps some additional protection is needed on those damn streets with wet leaves......In oHIo we put these on all of our vehicles just because there kewl..

[iamchappy]

I lost my front spoiler oil cooler at 4am on a Sunday in the in the middle of Montana. I hit a truck tire retread laying out on new paved black top doing 90, spent the rest of the day in the ditch and had to hitch hike 60 miles back and forth just to get oil.

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by widebody911
.

Hell, for $xxx for the oil cooler, and $xxx for the bumper, I wonder if its worth reporting to my insurance... eh, they'll just bend me over more...

you may have $1,500 into this ding..
Ins Co is good for taking to the cleaners, not the nickel and dime stores IMO

[turbo6bar]

Get thee to a junkyard, and invest the $1500 in a Cayenne front clip. Instead of hitting the curb, you would drive over it.

Jürgen

[Schuey]

the front coolers are expensive, plus the front spoiler, etc. it would be an insurance claim for me...

[kepperly]

Tom thats why I mounted the oil cooler on my slant nose in the rear brake duct.

Keith Epperly

[widebody911]

Chuck hooked me up with a replacement cooler, should be here Monday.

There are safer locations for the cooler, but there's a tradeoff in terms of efficiciency and/or convenience. I'd really like to move the cooler father back into the trunk and duct the air thru the hood, but that would pretty much negate the use of my trunk to carry all my crap to the track.

[911pcars]

Instead of the hole in the glass bumper, there would be a big dent in a steel bumper, and the oil cooler would still be bent. To be safe, I would install the oil cooler out of harm's way; perhaps replacing the rear wing element.

With that statement, I've got guys thinking. Hmmmm, what if?

Sherwood

[Bothari]

Maybe something like this:


and:

[KobaltBlau]

bump because... whoa, Bothari! Somebody's been weldin'!

[Grady Clay]

Guys,

On a 914-6 it is easy, on a 911 it depends on your fuel tank. Clearly the best place to position a front cooler is just ahead of the steering rack. Not easy with a 911’s stock fuel tank yet very easy with a properly placed fuel cell.

With proper duct work, the cooler does not have to be way out front and exposed to all the hazards. Common sense has the cooler not the first contact with some solid object.

Wherever the oil cooler is mounted, it should be not be rigid and incapable of moving from it’s mounting in an incident. The same is true of front water radiators. Did you watch the 6-hour race at Watkins Glen yesterday (6-20-04)?

With a stock fuel tank I would mount the oil cooler inside the trunk box with several (4-8) rubber mounts in shear or tension. This is so an incident would only cause rubber mount failure and not the cooler. The hot exhaust air could go over the fuel tank and down or into the fender wells and out.

Best,
Grady

[ubiquity0]

Is it possible to mount a front oil cooler where the front a/c condensor is fitted (on the SC's for example) & use the factory protection bar?