Oil Cooler Ducting Question
 

I had the bumper off to straighten the fins of my oil coolers yesterday.

I noticed that the drivers-side oil cooler duct had a piece of vinyl riveted to it to form the upper half of the duct. My passenger side duct did not.

Is that normal? I sure would hate to loose oil cooling flow for the sake of a missing hunk of vinyl.

Dave

I'm sure both sides are supposed to have it

Yep, both sides should have it. I've seen that vinyl piece get old and crumble off from heat/weather/etc.

I replaced my passenger side duct since my car was in a minor fender-bender on that side from the previous owner, and the duct was all jacked up. The duct was pretty reasonable from Mazda if I recall - like $40ish or something.

Dale

1) Spray foam it in with a good edge seal.
2) Trim the foam
3) Mask the fins
4) Hit it lightly with black spray paint

Lasts a good while. Not hard to punch out and re-do either.

Spray foam??? what type of foam are you talking about?

I'm still in the dark about some sort of foam that can replicate a duct.... are we talking someing like "great stuff" insulating foam???

Damian fabbed something for me (and his race car too,) first he ripped the rubber piece off both sides and fabricated aluminum covers. He riveted them on and sealed them off with aluminum flashing tape from Home Depot. Works well. I'm not sure why there are rubber pieces on there in the first place... Maybe the stock nose parts interfere? We both have GTC noses now and nothing gets in the way.

Edit: I should also mention that we both have installed metal mesh in front of the coolers on the ducts to keep them from getting beat up again. I used #6 stainless mesh from Pegasus, and he used some metal mesh he bought at Home Depot.