How important is an oil cooler?
05-22-10, 05:37 PM
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Wrkn Toyota, Rootn Wankel
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How important is an oil cooler?
Long story story short, I can't mount my oil cooler and probably won't be able to until next spring, or fall if I am lucky. So my question is could I get by without? Running a S4 motor NA, rebuilt, with a S5 radiator and s Taurus 2-speed fan. I really want to get the car running this summer, but this damned oil cooler issue is holding me back. 
05-22-10, 06:35 PM
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Wrkn Toyota, Rootn Wankel
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Damn, that's what I was afraid of. It's one of those; you know that you're right, but you hope you're wrong situations.
Thanks for the offer, but the problem isn't the oil cooler itself, its mounting it to the car. I measured and welded some brackets to the oil cooler, but it ended up being the wrong design (So much for measure twice cut once), I forgot to factor in offset from the radiator. I was trying to bend the brackets so I could make a temporary mount but one of them snapped, didn't like the position I wanted it in.
Now that in itself wouldn't be a set-back, but our welding department at school closed its doors for the summer and possibly the fall Thursday, so now I am stuck with no way to weld up new brackets. I was thinking of dropping $2k on a new AC/DC Tig Welder, but all the portable ones, including the $4,000 one don't have enough duty cycle to handle the job and god knows I'd probably cook them without water cooling. I don't have the space or money to buy a shop style TIG welder and I don't know anyone that has one for doing aluminum. I had to crank the amps up to about 180 to get a decent pool on the actual oil cooler where I welded the brackets on.
Hey, what about a Beehive? Think I could get by with that until I can make new mounts?
Thanks for the offer, but the problem isn't the oil cooler itself, its mounting it to the car. I measured and welded some brackets to the oil cooler, but it ended up being the wrong design (So much for measure twice cut once), I forgot to factor in offset from the radiator. I was trying to bend the brackets so I could make a temporary mount but one of them snapped, didn't like the position I wanted it in.
Now that in itself wouldn't be a set-back, but our welding department at school closed its doors for the summer and possibly the fall Thursday, so now I am stuck with no way to weld up new brackets. I was thinking of dropping $2k on a new AC/DC Tig Welder, but all the portable ones, including the $4,000 one don't have enough duty cycle to handle the job and god knows I'd probably cook them without water cooling. I don't have the space or money to buy a shop style TIG welder and I don't know anyone that has one for doing aluminum. I had to crank the amps up to about 180 to get a decent pool on the actual oil cooler where I welded the brackets on.
Hey, what about a Beehive? Think I could get by with that until I can make new mounts?
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05-23-10, 12:18 AM
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PM Jeff20B, he's done a few beehives on 13Bs. They work well enough for a street car. The main problem with them is that the o-rings have a tendency to fail and leak after a lot of miles.
But yeah, why not just have a shop weld it? It'd probably be pretty cheap.
But yeah, why not just have a shop weld it? It'd probably be pretty cheap.
05-23-10, 02:21 AM
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why don't you use the angle iron and exhaust clamp method. coming from a experianced welder, thats the route I'm taking. less work, looks nice, seems to work well aso.
05-23-10, 11:12 AM
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the beehive cooler will work just fine. just make sure u get the hard line that goes from the rear housing to the front cover. since this type of cooler uses engine coolant, u'll need to change out the heater hoses to use it cause they'll need to be longer/routed differently. u can also make some more brackets to bolt to what u already have should work also. just get some nuts and bolts, drill some holes and ur good. the metal doesn't have to be really thick, no more than 1/8 thick. that's what i used to make do with the existing brackets already on the cooler. altho what i'm using is original rx4 and hangs from the radiator. but my experience is with fb and does have provisions for hanging an oil cooler like the gsl-se has and r also on mine(base model) and u didn't mention what u had.
05-23-10, 05:51 PM
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Wrkn Toyota, Rootn Wankel
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I've seriously contemplated that idea... but I'd need too many Zipties. I guess the Beehive is just gonna be too much hassle. Thanks guys, I'm just going to deal with other stuff until I figure out what to do... I have about a year to figure it out...
05-27-10, 07:06 PM
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i used the stock s4 fc oil cooler and mounts and flipped it upside down then made an aluminum plate for one side to hold it in. i even used the factory fc oil lines. I did it in a hurry and will be revising it but it has worked for 50,000 miles no problem. ill take some photos of my work.
05-27-10, 11:11 PM
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I Have a 13b in my S4 with a "Tall" Radiator.. I got longer lines made and zip tied the oil cooler to the round tube that runs left to right just in front of the radiator. In essence it's a front mount oil cooler. zip ties are the ****!!!
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