Plumbing a second oil cooler

This has turned into a saga. I want to plumb a second (Carrera) oil cooler in series with an existing (Vertex) oil cooler that's in my front passenger fender. I want to put the second cooler in the front driver's side wheelwell, not in an RS-style fender.

The problems: 1) The Vertex cooler has non-standard female fittings (they're dash-12, but with finer threads than standard). This works fine with the flexible extensions that Vertex provided that run to my fixed Carrera oil lines, but it makes it tricky to tap in the diversion to the second cooler. 2) It looks to be impossible to run the stainless steel lines through the front S-style spoiler. There's an ac condenser up front, and (because of the Vertex fittings) it's difficult to have the outlet from the first cooler loop forward and over.

The more my mechanic works on this, the more complicated it seems to get. Has anyone out there done this? It appears that I've made some choices (Vertex cooler, which has a fan and required that I remover the front passenger-side battery box, and also the S-style spoiler, which won't accommodate a front-mounted cooler) that are causing me problems, but I still hope to find a way to divert an oil line to the second cooler (after the Vertex one) and make this setup work.

My mechanic keeps coming up with elaborate solutions that involve running lines through the trunk and relocating my brake reservoir. I think it should be simpler.

Any ideas?

------------------
Jack Olsen
1973 911 T (3.6) sunroof coupe
jackolsen@mediaone.net

[This message has been edited by JackOlsen (edited 03-12-2001).]

I have always been partial to the RS spoiler bumper,(had one on my '72). Wish I could offer a better solution.

Hi Jack, why do you want to place the second cooler up there in the front? It doesn't really get that much air up there (unless it's mounted in the front like the RSR), and you might be disappointed by the results. It's difficult to plumb two oil coolers in the front (especially on the battery box cars) even if you didn't buy a wierd oil cooler from those 'Vortex' guys .

If you place a fan on the cooler, and perhaps locate it at the rear of the car, then you might actually get better performance than two located at the front. Remember that a lot of the cooling comes from the length of the lines to go to the front - not necessarily from the oil cooler itself. Also, the fender doesn't receive a lot of air (unless you have a Scoop or a Carrera-cut front bumper).

You might be spending a lot of time and $$$ on a solution that you might not be 100% happy with...

-Wayne

Thanks, Wayne. Vendor loyalties aside, the Vertex cooler was a mistake. It's not as effective as a Carrera cooler, and its fittings aren't standard, which means trying to break into the series is difficult to impossible without custom-welding fittings. I would have been better off if I had started with two Carrera coolers.

I think I may be able to solve the problem by putting the Carrera cooler first in the series, though, and using the Vertex cooler as the turnaround point. Especially if it's possible to mount the Vertex cooler upside down (anybody know if that impairs the cooler's function?), I think it might all fall together without any more drilling or cutting.

Is it possible to mount a second oil cooler in the back? It seems that this would shorten the overall length of the cooling lines (easier on the oil pump, but less passive cooling from the oil's long trip), but the only place for it seems to be the driver's side rear wheelwell, where the lines would have to cross under the engine and exhaust.

With regard to overall cooling, Wayne, I think this will work, because -- even with the one cooler and a fan -- the system is adequate for 95% of the driving I do. It's only on the track that I've had a problem with temperatures. Stuck in traffic, or in spirited street and canyon driving, it's been fine -- temperatures never get above 210. I figure with a second air scoop (which only helps in track situations) and the 100% of additional surface area that the second cooler gives me, I should be able to tackle that last 5% of track-only cooling trouble. If it doesn't, I either go to another chopped-out battery box and a really aggressive air scoop, or I begin to think in terms of there being an engine-related problem, and start to look at the oil circulation system itself.

------------------
Jack Olsen
1973 911 T (3.6) sunroof coupe
jackolsen@mediaone.net

[This message has been edited by JackOlsen (edited 03-12-2001).]

As Wayne mentioned, the lines themselves
are part of the heat exchange. On my
car, I suspect my braided ss teflon lines
are more insulators than factory hard lines making my overall cooling capability reduced despite my Carrera w/fan cooler. What type of lines do you have Jack?

Another cooling trick is the misting of water into the cooling fan. Supposedly good for as long as you have water... Track junkies here in RMR use their wiper tanks for reservoirs and get a small water pump to deliver water right into their fans. HTH

Bill

As it so happens, we're coming out with a portable misting unit, all self-contained with it's own pump, filter, nozzles, hose, reservoir and install hardware for just this purpose; to reduce the air temperature for cooling hot parts and to keep things cool. Typical applications might include brake cooling ducts, oil/water radiators, engine compartment, etc. There'll be various methods of energizing the high pressure pump, from manual to automatic.

Other markets we're looking at include vehicles with open cockpits needing personal "evaporative" cooling (golf carts, tractors, fork lifts, etc.).

Expect some revisions to the website in about a month or so while we (I) scramble around sourcing the rest of the pieces for the kit.

Regards,
Sherwood Lee
(www.seinesystems.com)

Bill,

Yes, I upgraded from flexible lines to the hard Carrera lines when I got the bigger engine. And as I've said, between the cooler, its fan, the hard lines, and the additional air made available through the new rear decklid, the car stays plenty cool all the time -- except when you run it for 20 minutes in a row above 6,000 rpms. Then it gets hot.

I don't think I need to double the effectiveness of my setup to make it work on the track as well as it does on the street. I think the incremental boost of a second cooler (even with SS lines connecting it to the first) should be more than enough. I've just got to get it plumbed, and it's been a bear to figure out so far.

------------------
Jack Olsen
1973 911 T (3.6) sunroof coupe
jackolsen@mediaone.net

[This message has been edited by JackOlsen (edited 03-13-2001).]