[s-cars] improving air flow for the oil intercooler - getting a bigger oil cooler

[Mark Turczyn]

At 12:23 AM -0700 9/2/02, Frederic L'Huillier wrote:
>Hi,
>
>After another day at the track, I am going to fix one way or another my oil
>temperature problem. I am reaching very quickly 130 degree Celsius. Looking
>under the car, it seems the air flow is very poor after the oil cooler. Has
>anybody do anything like drilling the black piece of plastic to evacuate the
>hot air like some have done it fo the turbo intercooler ?
>
>Has anybody switched for a bigger oil cooler or/and put one in front of the
>engine and not one the side like the stock one ????
>
>Thanks all in advance for your help.
>
>Regards,
>Frederic.
>


Frederic-

On my S6 Avant I put in a MOCAL 24 row cooler in the stock location
and boxed it in all the way to the plastic wheel liner.  I use the
under tray as the bottom of the box.  I also louvered the plastic
wheel liner like I did on the IC side using a 3/4 inch diameter
wooden dowel and a heat gun to form the louvers. I kept the stock ram
air duct in place.

I do not bring my Avant to the track but I do tow my race bike and
inclosed trailer through the mountains in 100 F and 95% humidity
days. My oil temps only got to a max of between the 110C tick mark
and the 130C tick mark whatever that temp is--maybe 120C.  Still much
higher then I would like but still just below my pain threshold.

I had used two single stock oil coolers back to back, and then
switched to a 911 Porsche engine oil cooler in the past.  The MOCAL
even though it is on a slant seems to work better then these two
setups even though the ram air was more effective using the two and
then the 911 cooler.  They were a much cleaner install but did not
keep the oil as cool as I wanted.

I think If I simply stuck the 24 MOCAl in front of the radiator it
would have worked even better but I liked the challenge.  I would
still like to stick an RX7 turbo oil cooler up in front someday which
I believe would work the best and even have the oil not go over 110C.

I have the RX7, two Merc turbo diesel oil coolers, and a BMW 325i
chin oil cooler I got from a wrecking yard that look like they would
all fit up front.  Since I want to work with the stock location I
never made brackets to hold any of them up front but I am sure you
can make them work.

If I did not like putting oil coolers in series I really wanted to
put the BMW chin cooler up front and run it to the 911 oil cooler in
the stock location.  It would be a very tidy setup where I would get
the benifit of the stock ram air plus the additional cooling from the
chin cooler.  I am sure that this setup would keep the oil at 110C.
I just do not know how robust the Audi oil pump is so I did not wish
to take the chance.  If it was a 911 I know I could put oil coolers
strung all over the car and the pump would keep the pressure up.

I know you have a V8 so I am not sure what kind of space you have to
work with but the MOCAl fits on my S6. I believe you can make it fit
your either on the side of the motor or up in front of the radiator.

Mark Turczyn