Posted this in the 20B forum before realizing that it's not really 20B specific...

So given that it appears my stock-mounting Fluidyne radiator won't fit in my FC with the 20B installed (will find out tonight when I actually put the engine in the car, but the measurements dont look good), I began looking for replacements. One of my biggest concerns with my setup is that I have big intercooler -> big oil cooler -> big radiator. I can't imagine that I will be able to cool all of these effectively with the airflow from the front of the car.

I began looking at the AFCO radiators to replace the Fluidyne that I have. Does anyone have any experience with the heat exchanger oil coolers?

Something like this seems optimal as it would remove the oil cooler 'obstruction':



Remember this is purely for a racecar application which will see zero street use.

 

there is a thread in the 20B section on the first page right now about an FC race car being built. his oil cooler looked awesome. go check it out.

 

I think that's probably my car

 

Frankly... I wouldn't. We roadrace with Midwestern Council, running equivalent to SCCA E-Prod, and one of the other guys in the paddock was trying that same setup for a good season. Two or three times that season the internal oil cooler burst for some reason and we had to hurriedly try to scavenge a stock-style oil cooler so he could still run. The pressure readouts weren't excessive, the manufacturer swore up and down that it shouldn't burst at that pressure, but yet, milkshake.

As much as it's a neat idea with potential benefits (efficient heat transfer, compact packaging, quicker warmup), emergency repairs and hoping water didn't get into the oil system... yeah, sorta soured me on it. I'm not sure, but I think he gave up on it.

 

Interesting, thanks. How were his temperatures (ignoring the bursting for a second!)?

 

I can't really say with any certainty... I seem to recall something in the 190-200s range on both.

 

That's pretty good...so it seems as if, assuming the thing didn't continually explode as you mentioned, it would be an optimal solution!

 

I've heard of that happening enough times that I'll never use something like that. Keep the oil and water cooling systems seperate.