Front mounted oil cooler?

Wayne 962 · Wayne 962's Garage

Hey guys, I'm going to be installing the front GT bumpers and valance in my six, how did you guys route the air to the front cooler? Any suggestions, as I haven't taken a close look at how people have done this before.

Also, what is your preferred method of routing the oil lines? Along the bottom like the 911, or through the heater vents (I need to keep the heat though). Anyone crafted any shields for the lines if they run along the bottom? I've always thougth the 911 lines were quite unprotected...

-Wayne

kellzey · 08-03-2003, 04:22 PM

You can run them behind the rockers on either side. See a guy named Timo on www.914club.com technical forum. He's in Finland and has posted some photos of the brass lines he's run through the rockers. The factory did this on some of the GT cars.

You can route air to the front by getting the GT front bumper with the oil cooler opening, either removing the rubbler plugs along the front, or cutting an inlet.

Get the GT Oil cooler shroud and place it over the cooler in the front trunk, and then divert the air through the trunk floor.

Jim Patrick has some nice pics on his website at http://www.patrickmotorsports.com

Click on the projects page.

Jim Smolka · 08-03-2003, 05:35 PM

Wayne,

On the 3.2 914, I routed the high pressure side on the passenger side behind the rocker panel. The return to the oil tank is rounted on the drivers side. From the rocker to the front of the car is routed inside of the fender well.

J P Stein · 08-04-2003, 09:36 AM

Heat? We doan need no stinkin' heat.
My lines are in the pass side longs, so I'm no help.

Since your gonna want a Rennshifter anyhow, fabricating a new center tunnel would give room for lines. The center console is a POS that just gets in the way......

I punched holes in the front trunk aft firewall to vent hot air into the area over the steering rack, then covered it with something similar to the spare tire cover. I'd show pics, but they're already on this BBS....somewhere... and my new puter isn't fully loaded yet so's I can't do a re-run.

confused · 08-04-2003, 10:58 AM

This won't help Wayne but for anyone else reading this post thinking about a front oil cooler for a street car with a 3.2 or smaller you won't need a front mounted oil cooler.

I priced just the parts to do this and it will run around $1000-1500 for parts alone. I went through this question with many people and finally said F*ck it I'm going to try running my 3.0 Weber engine with no external oil cooler. And the verdict... The car runs very cool -around 180 to 200 degrees so there is no need for an external oil cooler. I know many other 914-6 owners that have no problem with overheating in their 2.7's 3.0's and 3.2's.

Other ways you can cool your engine: Cool collar, ceramic coat the headers, delete the heater outputs, make sure your engine bay is sealed from the ground! (most important thing you can do!!!), change the fan or fan drive ratio, HeetSheets, turbo valve covers, (maybe even use synthetic oil). Some people say run no rear valance to help the heat exit better... I tried this and there is no difference in temp.

If you really want to run an external oil cooler you can place it in the rear of the car, Also for those of you that know Tom Woodford (tech editor of Wayne's book) he ran a plate inbetween the oil filter and console that directs the oil to the passenger side wheel well and you can retain stock 914-6 oil lines with no cutting!

If you want to save some money on a 914-6 conversion you don't need the front mounted oil cooler (save $1000), oh ya and I hate that little $300 throttle linkage adaptor..... kind of a waste of money as you can make something super simple that will work with the stock 4cyl throttle cable. I'm no cheap ass but there are plenty of other places to spend the money to really help you (like on bigger 5lug brakes for you conversion guys with stock 4lug wheels YIKES!!!!

). Or spend the money on roll bars or aftermarket sports seats.

Mr9146 · 08-04-2003, 11:09 AM

If you really want to be "cool", just do what the factory did on the 916 ... bore some half-a$$ed holes in the body and run them through the interior, down the driver's side. Of course, you have to run a bare interior or risk starting a fire, but if this is going to be a racecar ... what the hell?

Actually, this isn't a bad idea except for the fact that you will invariably run into higher interior temperatures. On the up side, you won't have to pop for heater boxes

This was also done on numerous race cars - the Abarth Carreras being the one that pops immediately to mind. The end result - lots of mechanics and drivers with burned hands.

Hey Confused ... have we ever had this conversation before?

DonNewton · DonNewton's Garage

Underneath the rockers there are buttresses installed to support the rocker covers. Amazingly, there are cut-outs in these buttresses that support chaffing rings and oil lines. There will some (slight) heat radiation (enhancing cooling). I have a front mounted cooler that is plumbed exactly as mentioned above. Even on the hottest days at the track, I stay nice and cool (~200degF). Worth a look. . .

Jim Smolka · 08-04-2003, 03:44 PM

IMHO, having an external oil cooler for a 6 cyl motor is cheap insurance once the size of the motor exceeds 2.4 liters. The 911s with 3.0 and bigger had stock oil coolers to the front. Sure the 914 is usually lighter than a similar 911, but the factory put oil coolers on those cars for a reason. Some Carreras had trouble keeping cool, so a fan was added also.

08-04-2003, 04:21 PM

You could get by without an auxilary oil cooler on a street car, depending on where you live. I have a 2.7 that had an auxilary cooler under the rear trunk back by the bumper. Worked okay for the street, not okay on the track. I moved the cooler up to the front bumper and ran the lines through the heater duct on the passenger side. It's made a big difference on engine temps. I'm convinced that if I hadn't moved the cooler I would have been buying a new engine sooner rather than later. It's well worth the cost and hassle in my disregarded opinion. But I've never been accused of being a concourse weenie.
I'm with JP: We don't need no stinking heat. We don't need no stinking stereo. A/C? I puke on your A/C.

Zeke · 08-04-2003, 05:24 PM

I would love to see Elephant Racing's finned hard lines made available for the behind the rocker installation. Yes, we know that there are holes already there to run them through. I believe this is where the oringinal vapor recovery lines went. I ran my lines through the heat tube as well. for a streeter, that would be unacceptable, IHO. The finned lines are supposed to aid in the cooling of the oil, a double benefit. Chuck? Are you reading this? (hint)

scg · 08-04-2003, 05:44 PM

I put mine in the center channels. I worked hard to get them tight (ss-braided lines). They work great and I feel that if I manage to scrape/bang them on something, I'm going to have other worries!

That said however, after a few heat cycles the ss-braided lines actually stretched out a bit and now droop a tad so I'll have to add a couple more brackets.

Don't know if I'd do it again...I just didn't want to run the lines *in* the front wheel well (after using the heater pipe) since I know big rocks fly around in there....

08-04-2003, 06:33 PM

Scg; if you use the rockers to run your line you would exit in the wheel well to get to the front trunk. If you run through the heater duct you come into the passenger foot well and then through a slot that takes you up into the front trunk just to the side on the fuel tank, right against the inside of the wheel well.
Zeke; So far it seems to me that a proper size cooler is more than adequate and the line probably doesn't need to be finned. Since moving my cooler my temps haven't gone over 170o on the street. I'll get some track info Aug. 17.

Wayne 962 · Wayne 962's Garage

I talked with Tom (Woodford) about this today. I think I'm going to echo his side-mounted installation. He's got the cooler mounted where the oil tank would normally go, if it was located on the right side of the car.

-Wayne

scg · 08-04-2003, 06:58 PM

Quote:

if you use the rockers to run your line you would exit in the wheel well to get to the front trunk. If you run through the heater duct you come into the passenger foot well and then through a slot that takes you up into the front trunk just to the side on the fuel tank, right against the inside of the wheel well.

...hadn't thought of that...maybe this winter.

campbellcj · 08-04-2003, 07:18 PM

The heater ducts are better protected than both the rockers and particularly the open areas under the car. In a track "off" or a bad street f*up (i.e. tagging a curb or something) you could certainly crunch the rocker area pretty easily.

I'd be terrified to have big oil lines under the floors - just this past Saturday I hit a softball-sized rock on the local canyon road that made me cringe. It thunked the floor hard but fortunately missed the engine & exhaust completely.

campbellcj · 08-04-2003, 09:21 PM

Kevin, that might be interesting since you could pretty easily duct it for some serious airflow. But is there enough room? The 911's fenders are obviously a lot more rounded and there is significant space (like 8" wide) behind the headlight buckets.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Wayne,

Are you planning on using a fan with the oil cooler in the wheel well? And can you post part #'s and sources when you get it together?

James