Oil cooler location revisited, How 'bout the hell hole? Options

[East coaster]

Has anyone installed an oil cooler in the battery tray/hell hole area?? I was looking at this area and thinking that if the battery is relocated this spot could be used for an oil cooler/fan combo with the hot air being spent into the passenger side wheel well. Keeps the oil lines close and keeps both trunks unaltered (except for relocated battery!). I don't know how much ambient flow would occur with this installation, but a fan(s) should be able to push enough air??

Here's a really quick and really bad photoshop pic of what I mean:




My apologies to whomever I stole the hell hole pic from....it's not easy being green (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[davep]

I'm not sure there is enough airflow or space for an adequate size cooler in that location.

[brant]

here we go again..
any location is dooable...
I've seen this done.. I've seen everylocation done...

for the hell hole, its usually done by installing a scoop of some sort in the fender and pulling air in from the side of the car....

thing is.. a location with out direct air flow does not work as well as a location with direct air flow...

my friend that did the hell hole.. he later changed it to a front cooler... most people do.. you get more cooling out of a front cooler...

The one non front cooler that I've seen that I actually liked.. was a cooler installed onto the engine lid, where the guy would go to driving events and had long enough oil lines that he would bolt it onto a mount he made for the ski rack location... caused the cooler to stick up above the roof, directly in the air flow...

at the end of the day he would take the cooler down and put it back into the engine bay and return to a street set up that had no cooling benefit over stock.......

Maybe you don't need an additional cooler?
do everything you can to boost up the stock cooling...

if thats not enough (with a temp gauge)... then seriously consider doing a front cooler or something with direct air flow. I say this because I know a lot of people who when through the cooler dilema twice.
brant

[East coaster]

Definately need a cooler..........It's a 3.6 conversion and they have no built in cooler! I was looking at pulling the cooling air from the engine compartment and spilling the hot air out through the fenderwell, as opposed to putting a scoop or something in the fender and trying to pul the air flow the other way.

I'll probably wind up doing the front cooler, but wanted to explore other options. I also would feel better with fans on the cooler regardless of location. Without an engine mounted cooler I don't know if it would have enough cooling capacity when stuck in traffic without fans??? Most upfront coolers I've seen are merely supplementing the factory "on engine" cooler.

I'm also not a fan of hacking out my front trunk floor, but hey if it's gotta happen...it's gotta happen!

[seanery]

you can do one up front without totally hacking up the trunk. My buddy had one put in up front (of a 911). Kevin (in burbank) did a real nice recessed area in the front pan so the air cooler would work effectively without the huge hole in his trunk. I'll see if I can find som pics.

[tat2dphreak]

correct me if I'm wrong, but if you are going to put a scoop in the body to make the oil cooler work in the hell hole... isn't that MORE cutting and noticable than the front trunk?

I've seen guys mount radiators(larger than oil coolers) in the front trunk without HUGE cuts... and the fron trunk can be repaired fairly easily if you want to go back...

[brant]

Yes.. cutting into the fender is cutting...
but without it you can't pull in much clean air.
the problem with that area is that you won't pull in to much air (none clean) through the engine grill...


plus your fighting the engine for air
plus the hot air exit will be re-filling the engine intake with pre-warmed air...

So what oil cooler/and what air flow did the factory use on that 3.6engine?

If they felt it needed a cooler in a clean air path then it probably does...

you don't have to totally waste the front trunk if you do it right...
talk to someone who has done a 3.6 conversion... (I haven't).. but I'll bet they require a front cooler.

b

[ynotdd]

I did a 3.6 in a 914 a few years ago! I used the stock 3.6 cooler in the front of the car with out the stock fan and never had a cooling problem.I had what they call an IMSA front spoiler. I see your in NJ I'm in long Inland NY the shop that did the conversion for me was PSH 631-321-5100
ask for Keven great guy 30 plus years of just Porsches hes done a few 3.6 /914 conversions

Tony (IMG:style_emoticons/default/drunk.gif)

[SirAndy]

I don't know how much ambient flow would occur with this installation, but a fan(s) should be able to push enough air??

all that would do is push hot air over hot oil.
why? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

you want a external oil-cooler? mount it where it gets enough cold air to actually DO something for you.
the front is the only way to go.

those little electric fans won't help ya cause you still move hot air over a hot cooler.
same for the under-rear-trunk location.
or the inside-rear-trunk location.

this just does not work ...
Andy

[SirAndy]

It's a 3.6 conversion

outsch! just read that ...

DUDE, are you willing to piss away $7k on a new 3.6 just because you want to do something "cool" like putting a TINY little oil-cooler into the hell hole, thinking that TINY little fan will pull enough air to cool a 3.6 which has NO oil-cooler whatsoever ????
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif)

if you have that much money, give it to me and i show you how to do a 3.6 conversion and keep it cool. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

no, seriously, you will need some serious cooling for that sucker.
front mounted is the ONLY way to go on a 3.6.
the more the better, even if it's just for the street.
run a thermostat, so you can get the engine warmed up on those cold winter days, but get some BIG BIG BIG coolers upfront for the summer time and the race-track ...

just my 0.02 euro ...
Andy

[East coaster]

I'm sorry guys, but your losing me on the "hot air" reason. Doesn't the engine get it's "cold" air from the engine grill, why has it all of sudden become hot air?? The factory built in engine oil coolers rely on this air source and from what I've read in other threads it's perfectly adaquate for even up to 3.2 liter motors without an external cooler.

As for the comment: "plus the hot air exit will be re-filling the engine intake with pre-warmed air..." Maybe you miss read the air flow, it would be dumping out through the fenderwell and away from the engine bay.

[seanery]

built in engine coolers are on the bottom of the motor, not the top.

[Dman]

I have a mesa cooler there with a permacool fan pulling air into the fenderwell from the e bay. It heats the fender up real well! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

I couldn't tell you how much effect it really has though, my car is a four and doesn't run real hot. On a long freeway (~75mph) drive last weekend in 85 deg weather my temp guage never hit 12 o'clock with it on.

It is a convienient place to put one though easy pluming!

[East coaster]

Like I said, I'll probably wind up putting a front cooler in. I don't know how you can install it "properly" without hacking alot of trunk out though. I've designed aircraft cowlings and as a rule of thumb for proper cooling you should have a ratio of 3 times exit area to entrance area. I've seen very few front cooler installations even come close to that. It did seem achieveable with the rear fender exit concept, although it would be very reliant on fans for cooling flow.

Andy.......I do hope you realize the picture of the cooler is just a goof! I'm certainly not planning on running anything like that! I was looking at a Carerra or mocal cooler with a thermostat.

Another front cooler install mystery to me is why the thermostat is usually installed at the rear by the motor. I thought part of the task of the thermostat was to prevent cold, thick oil from blowing the cooler apart. With the T-stat back by the motor won't that let the cold/think oil resident in the cooler and lines still subject the cooler to stresses?????

[East coaster]

Dman......Cool install, that's kinda what I had in mind. I figured it would require a heat shield in the fenderwell to keep from cooking paint and making the fender hot to the touch.

[brant]

just rambling now...
delete...

brant

[Hawktel]

If you place a scoop on the side of the ride, when your moving your going to have ambient air moving over the cooler.

For this to work though, your scoop has to stick out far enough to get into the air stream. And I think you would want a larger cooler. Maybe a bigassed cooler on each side of the vehicle.

If I ever manage to do a SBC conversion, I'm going to attempt the radiators on the side. Big Fat boy 4 core radiators, with heavy duty electric fans. But if I was doing a 3.6 I'd go with the front GT cooler look.

[si2t3m]

How about something like this:

(IMG:http://fly.hiwaay.net/~jonlowe/MVC023F.JPG)

Get the oil cooler mounted at angle in the rear passenger fender with ducting to route the air flow. Some mech screen to protect the cooler from road debris . As for the air intake, one from a boxster grafted into the fender.

Come to think of it, it's probably about the same price as fitting it up front.

I did see a 914 with a boxster air intake on the passenger side rear fender. The guy had flared the rear fenders during the process. It look pretty good IMHO.

Marc-André

[hars914]

JD,
I have just installed a front oil cooler with two 6" fans. It is a Setrab that is about
16"x7" and has the fans built into the cooler.I ducted the air out with 6" 90 degree
elbows.I will post a picture later today or you can stop by and take a look at it.

[East coaster]

Harry, Cool! I'd like to see that. I'll stop by if I can. What are you doing with your car? I heard rumor of a six???