Adding front oil cooler- hard oil lines?

[Tspringer]

I am planning to ad a front oil cooler to my '73 911 with Euro 3.2L.

I have sourced a front fender mount carrera cooler (being gone through at Pacific Coolers now). I need the rest of the goodies... hard oil lines, thermostat and the lines for the front fender and from the engine to the thermostat.

These are AN12 fittings - correct?

As for the hard lines, has anyone attempted to make these? Would it make sense to buy a tubing bender and flare tool or try to find a local fabrication shop that could make these up?

I know Elephant sells the great finned ones (I have used them before) but my budget at the moment is tight, I need a solution that does not break the bank!

Any ideas are greatly appreciated and if anyone has any of this stuff in good shape for sale please PM me.

[schumicat]

Terry, the Carrera cooler uses non-AN fittings. I think they are 30mm. I know a guy who has a Mocal thermostat and stainless lines that run to/from the thermostat and to/from the cooler. PM me and I will send you his contact info.

[47silver]

get the fan for the cooler too. you will need it..
Also the porsche hard lines and stat or elephant racing lines are a perfect fit and aid in cooling.

[ossiblue]

A couple of comments. Schumicat is correct about the fitting size on the carrera cooler, it is metric. Given your requirements on budget, probably your best bet is to source a pair of used hard lines--they often appear for sale. As far as a thermostat goes, 74 and later factory is a good choice, again, used, as all the fittings are correct for the plumbing and it has a pressure relief valve. I had a 74+ set up on my 73.5 and it worked perfectly. Whatever thermostat you choose, however, be sure it has a pressure relief valve. Finally, using the carrera cooler will probably prevent you from also installing a fan as the battery box does not allow enough clearance and it also interferes with air flow--something to consider with a 3.2 addition.

[Dodge Man]

I want to add a front cooler to my 73. Did the late model factory hard lines fit well? How did you get a cooler in the fender with the early battery boxes?

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Get used hard oil lines and thermostat and new connection lines. It's a fairly easy install, I used Rivnuts to hold the lines to the body. I used a spare late fender to get the oil cooler mount correct. Note that the fan would not fit with the bumper in place; I have not needed it with a 3.2.

[techweenie]

Good points above. On my '72 with 3.2, I removed the battery box, replacing it with a flat plate -- as shown in Shaun's pix. I did not need a fan on the cooler. If you are going to be driving in 90% heat in bumper to bumper traffic, you will want a fan. I found the most affordable fans were used motorcycle units. It's fairly simple to set one up to self-trigger with a thermostatic switch.

On used hard lines (or anything having to do with oil) if you don't know the history of the prior installation, flush all oil passages. If the previous installation was on an engine that came apart, there could be loose bits of metal where you don't want them.

[jmcn3rd]

We got a little crazy with mine, going from the porshe 30mm to AN, but it worked and they cleared above the battery box on my 72 to the front bumper.

[86 911 Targa]

And, when you install the oil cooler fan switch, do not use the factory part.



Use the this instead:



I used this:

210F-On, 195F-Off.





Good luck,

Gerry