Front and Center: oil cooler advice?

widebody911 · widebody911's Garage

I'm shopping for a new oil cooler, to keep my baby alive on the track. This is going to be installed with an RSR/Iroc front bumper that's already in my possession.

I've done some poking around with searches, and see that the 2 big names are Mocal and B&B.

Right now I have a Carrera cooler on the passenger side and a Mocal on the right side, with -12 lines runing across the front of the car. The plan is to cut the lines to plumb the new cooler, and possibly use the old mocal cooler as a transmission cooler in it's current location.

Does anyone have preferences of B& over Mocal, or the other way around? I also don't have a clue as to part #'s and whatnot, but I assume a phone call to either establishment would fix that.

The Mocal cooler is a work of art, and the B&B is similarly well-constructed.

I've seen Bill V's and a couple of other installations, so I have an inkling of how it will go together.

In other news, my C2 engine lid setup is en-route. Once I have tha t dialed in, and the cooler and bumper installed, it's time for paint

katigbr · 04-27-2002, 01:07 PM

Thom,
I went with the B&B nose mounted. I was going to go with the MOCAL but ended up with the B&B when I bought my setup from Dr. Steve as part of my 3.6 conversion. It works very well. I did have to modify the tub of my early 911 to provide enough airflow. The only concern I have is that it may be too efficient or the MOCAL thermostat is set too low. My oil temp never gets to 180 during the mild spring weather. I don't know what combustion inefficiency that causes. We'll see how hot it gets during the summer track days. No problems with the installation. I'm running exposed an-12 braided under the rocker. I've gotten used to the "boy racer" look.

Regards,
Rick

kepperly · kepperly's Garage

thom,
when i was doing the conversion to install a cooler in my right rear brake duct i about went nuts trying to find the "right"
cooler. the mocal i purchased was more than up to snuf for cooling my 3.2 in kansas heat (110f) with the a/c on. for a deal i would suggest emailing terry morris a cooler expert here in wichita kansas. Trymorris@cs.com . he is an authorized "mocal" distributor and has discounts for porsche club members.
keith epperly

KevinP73 · 04-27-2002, 05:17 PM

Hows this for a cooler set up. It fits behind the 'glass bumper and still gives plenty of road clearence.

Adam · Adam's Garage

Thom,

In another thread WydRyd has pics of his alloy oil cooler he got from an Australian manufacturer. It cost him A$650, so less than US$350! It's a work of art.

911pcars · 04-27-2002, 07:43 PM

As an alternative, lots of folks have successfully used the RX7 oil cooler (3rd generation) up front. Should be way less than the cost of a B&B or Mocal.

Sherwood Lee
http://members.rennlist.org/911pcars
www.seinesystems.com

CamB · CamB's Garage

Yeah, I'm getting an Rx7 cooler. NZ$200 (about US$80), plus mods to make it accept -12 lines. This requires aluminium weld on male fittings (I'm not doing this - my engine builder is).

The cooler also has a pressure limiting device in it (which the standard 911 thermostat has I think too). Someone better chime in why this is good (I think it is to stop the thing being blown up by too cold oil - but I have a Mocal thermostat anyway).

Cooler is quite big (I can't find the details but remember it is in the region of 16 or 18" by 2" by 6 or 8"). However it still fits in the wheel well (apparently).

When I get the car back I will post pics of my cooling system...

Bill Verburg · Bill Verburg's Garage

The 5 1/2 X 2 1/4 X 20 B&B is an excellent cooler. As Rick has mentioned the oil temps stay close to the t-stat opening temp of ~80&degC(this will still happen even on warmer summer days, max has been ~93&degC). If I used extended oil change intervals it might be a concern but with frequent oil changes it's not. The confidance that oil temps are totaly under control is very reassuring. If traffic jams are the norm in your hotter climate then I might cosider retaining the fender mount cooler w/fan in series with the spoiler mounted cooler.

I used nerf bars(under the f/g) bolted into the stock bumper shock mounts. The front one is a perfect mount for the oil cooler(No pics till I take the front bumper off again). It is similar to, but simpler than Kevins pic above.

Rick used straight I/O ports which I believe are easier to plumb than the angled(~15&deg) ones on mine

The B&B is almost a perfect match for the Ruf opening.