When my 914 was turbo'd, I had an additional cooler under the trunk and it did a fantastic job of keeping oil temps reasonable. When that motor died, (see sig links for that sad story) I put in a 2.0, and removed the cooler as I didn't think I needed it. With the "hot" 2056 I built, I decided the cooler was a good idea again. Except that it was damaged while in storage. So I started over.
And here is the project.
First you need a willing participant. Enter my 2056 powered 1973 914. I bought a cooler kit from summit. It had almost everything I would need. I also bought some 3" isolation mounts from McMaster Carr, and got screwed on the shipping. My advise would be to order with a real person, rather than online. On line orders get a message of "shipping will be added to your order" I never saw a shipping amount till the parts arrived. Lesson learned. I also bought a -8 male/female 45 degree swivel fitting. Kinda $$, but worth it to make everything fit that much better.
You can see where the old cooler was. Sadly the new cooler would not fit these same hole locations. So I'd have to cut into that sweet, freshly painted trunk. Ugh.
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The black pieces came with the kit, the blue one was the special bit I had to buy. There is a cooler to -an adapter that needs to go on first. That one has a rubber o-ring seal, and I needed to crank it down to prevent any leaks. Next on the inlet to the cooler, which would be the hot out from the engine, came the adapter with temp sensor, and after that the hose barb end. I just used the common, rubber hose that came in the kit rather than get some of the fancy barb ends and hose that connect w/out a clamp. On the other side of the cooler, the adapter went in, the 45 degree swivel fitting was next, and then the hose barb end. As the 45 degree fitting would swivel, I could off set the angle of the connection for better routing of the hoses, one on top of the other. You'll see what I mean later. Be sure to correctly tighten the -an fittings. To much brute force can damage them, and there is a right and wrong way to do this.
Finished product ready for install. Prior to the install I put the leads from the fan to the battery to be sure which ones to use for power and ground, to have the fan run as a "puller". Before mounting the stand offs, I placed the assembled unit under the trunk and lined things up. I made one a mark at one corner, and drilled a pilot hole up into the trunk. Painful. I could then set the cooler in the trunk, mark the holes, and drill in comfort, rather than upside down. More pain, as that nice new paint was chopped up by the drill bits. I added the standoffs to the cooler, put some sealant on the tops of them, and installed the cooler from the bottom up, while my assistant put some sealant, a large washer, lock washer, and nut on in the trunk to secure the cooler.
Some pics of the completed install, and I'll tell you right now, it all fits. The perspective of some of the pics has it looking like everything is going to rub, but none of it does. To get the oil to the cooler I used a pretty standard sandwich plate adapter with a thermostat built in. I made sure the line out of the sandwich plate, t-stat side, was the line that went into the cooler where the fan switch sensor was located. There are a couple of other pics to show the routing of the hose, from the sandwich plate back to the cooler. At the cooler you can see how the 45 degree swivel fitting allowed a smoother hose routing without binding. Also note I placed the cooler in line with the supply hose from the sandwich plate, hoping to avoid as much strain on the fan switch sensor mount on the cooler as I could.
I added shielding to the hose lines and the wiring, because why not? I colored outside the lines on the wiring for the fan. The directions has the power being switched thru the temp sensor. I would prefer the power to be a direct connection to the motor. So I chose to switch the ground thru the sensor. I ran a wire from the trans ground strap lug to one side of the temp sensor, and the ground from the motor to the other side. As I noted before, I pretested the motor to be sure to get the right wires in the right spots. I used a flag style connector to the temp sensor to streamline the wire runs. For the fan power, I added a key switched relay with a 20 amp fuse. The fan notes indicated it would pull almost 15 amps at start up, but ran on much less.
The fan tilts up slightly at the hose connections due to the slope of the trunk floor. I have not noted any air lock sort of situations. I also would say that a 2" stand off would have been plenty, but they were quite a bit more $$ than the 3" for some reason. But again, the 3" made for some nice even hose runs, which I like the idea of.
Does it cool? Does it cool! On one of the hottest and most humid days of the summer, I took it out for a proving run. Temps never got over 200, where in the past I'd expect to see 220-230. CHT's remain as expected, EGT's are in line as well. I'd say a win all around.
A few more pics to follow tomorrow.
although I am not going this route myself, it is interesting to see and I want to compliment you with the post, explanation and clear pics. Thanks !
Very nicely done and excellent write-up too.
Thanks for the write up and well documented steps/pictures.
Wonder what engine capacity this is good up to? 2.4 or 2.7L?
I like the new style clutch cable mount. Mine is the old style and hangs down...time to give Chris a call!
My compliments also to you for the excellent write-up, I too am not in the market for a cooler right now, but good to have your write up for the future. I always thought oil coolers had to be mounted in the front trunk for ram air, but I assume it does the job for your size motor. So the sandwich plate adapter with the thermostat built-in will only send oil to the cooler when it reaches a certain temp? I assume any additional cooling is good for a 2056, but not necessary if your motor wasn't so 'hot'?
Sorry for the noob questions, just learning.
Finally, the rest of the pics, showing ground wiring, loom shielding, flag terminals, and the end product.
Where did you put the relay??? You should never run the load of a fan through the thermo switch. It will eventually burn out from the amp load and the fan will come on and stay on.
I always wire the relay to receive power from the battery positive post on the starter. That makes it completely independent of the rest of the electrical system. The fan will continue to run after the car is off until the thermo switch temp drops below the set point.
So what engine size/capacity would this nicely done and documented set up work for?
“It depends”.
Yes, understood, but best hunch?
Thanks for the write up @http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=1438
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