Goodbye Trombone, Hello Setrab.....

[fred cook]

Setrab oil cooler that is! I spent this past Saturday building and installing a mounting bracket for a "real" oil cooler to go in place of the "Trombone" loops that Porsche installed. The only factory parts that I used were the rubber anti-vibration mounts. I used as many existing bolts and mounting points as possible and only had to drill one hole in the headlight bucket and one in the inner fender. The oil cooler is fully supported and there is room to add a fan later.

[img]
Mounting bracket assembly


oil cooler and hoses



dirt/stone shield with louvers


stone shield in place

Fred Cook
'80 911SC coupe

[1fastredsc]

WOW, what's the size of that setrab cooler? I want to try that for my next project.

[geof33]

Looks great... But your louver idea might pose a few problems if your not running a fan. One reason the cooler is in the well is the constant air flow caused by the rotation of the wheel. With that cover you effectively reduce that a bunch. Air doesn't actually flow too well "through" the cooler. I'd consider a fan (sooner than later)... unless I missed that part... or simply remove the cover and make sure you keep the cooler clean. Better yet, integrate the fan into the cover...

[MichiganMat]

fantastic job. Where did you get the fittings from the porsche lines to the braided hose? I have a similar setup on my Targa but my fittings are junk.

[fred cook]

Thanks for the comments. The cooler is about 7"wide by about 14" tall. I bought it used from a fellow Pelicanite who also lives here in Georgia. It is about the largest that will fit in the wheel well area. The metric to -AN adapters (gold and black on the braided hose) came from a supplier in Florida called BATINC (Batinc.net) and seem to be of very high quality. The thread size is 30 x 1.5 mm going to -12AN hose size. Yes, I know that the louvered cover reduces air flow. The fan will come sooner than later. This cooler reduced engine temps by about 20 degrees (200 vs 220) when driving with the a/c running. The trombone really doesn't do much cooling, just turns the oil around and sends it back to the thermostat/oil tank. Total cost to do the conversion was about $480 plus a Saturday's worth of labor. The mount weighs about a pound and is made of cad plated mild steel bought from the local hardware store.

Fred Cook
'80 911SC coupe

[k9handler]

Mocal also sells them...In fact my Mocal is built by Setrab.

[vash]

fred, that project came out great! your horns dont have the "bells" on them? if not, that really saves a ton of space. i have been eyeballing my trombone cooler too. looks like that cooler is a great option!

[kach22i]

I took a lot of gruff for drilling holes and using angle iron in another 911 project, glad to see those guys stayed home today.

Nice job.

I took the easy way to droping temps 20 degrees, waited for fall in Michigan, the air cooled down and so did the engine temps.

Still playing that trombone.

[Jdub]

I love a hand's on person.

My only critique is that either nyloc or Loctite ought to be used on those nuts and bolts. But then again, that's my British motorcycle background coming to fore. If you've ever seen the shake of a parallel twin...

Great job and good photos. I can see how you cut and bent for the louvres. And going to the high/low horns without bells, setting them forward is something I will probably do myself when my 28-tube arrives in the mail.

I put a numeric gauge and sender unit in my car recently. I still cannot get the car to break 180f on highway runs. I HIGHLY recommend this conversion to anyone's car. Knowing exactly the temp in the car without guessing at lines is priceless.

John

[cowtown]

Very nice job with the bracket. I know that my front-center-mounted 24" Setrab required some shock protection. Do the fender mounted units need this? You could toss a few rubber washers under your hardware.

EDIT - yes, yes, I can read after all - I see in your first line that you used rubber mounts...very nice setup.

[Chuck Moreland]

Good to see you got rid of the trombone. I applaud the DIY efforts.

My apologies for being a wet blanket here, but @ $480 you could have bought a brand new factory Carrera cooler and factory hoses. And still had enough change left over to fab mounts and a stone guard.

Those custom AN hoses and metric/AN adapters are damn expensive. I'm guessing that was about 1/2 your cash outlay. The factory hoses are cheap.

I think your stone guard will flow plenty of air. The slat design is similar to the factory setup.

Colin, all front mounted coolers should be rubber mounted for virbation isolation. I've seen several cases of rigidly mounted cooler that developed cracks from vibration. It sounds like Fred did rubber mount his.

[Wil Ferch]

Although Geoff33 cites the often quoted wheel-rotation- helps-airflow theme.....I really doubt it does that much. The REAL reason the cooler is there is because its the only place left for a cooler TO FIT....in the long evolution of the 911.

The factory Carrera cooler has a similar vented shroud with no problems... and early 3.2's had no fan, while the later ones did. I recommend a front-mounted 7.5" SPAL fan...works and fits like the factory original.

Wil

[fred cook]

Chuck,

I looked at the factory pieces and after adding up the cost of all the parts decided that it was more than I wanted to "invest" at the time. Anyway, I started seaching for bits and pieces and bought what I could when I could afford it. By the way, one reason I wound up doing things this way is because I had to buy an Elephant Racing supply line! You can just see the end of it in the picture with the hoses and cooler. The metric to -AN adapters were about $30 each but the only other option was to use a metric to -AN adapter and then an -AN fitting which would create one more potential leak spot. Actually, the only Porsche factory oil cooler parts that I used were the rubber isolator mounts. The oil cooler sits on two with one in the center at the top. Those parts as well as the Elephant Racing oil line were ordered from our host here at PP. The oil cooler came from a PP board contact and the rest from the hardware store and a supplier (hoses and fittings) in Florida. Of course, now that I have all this new, more efficent hardware on the car, the ambient temps have dropped!

Thanks to everyone for the comments and suggestions. As always, this board and its members really rock!!

Fred Cook
'80 911SC coupe