Birth of an Oil Cooler... Options

[Darren65]

Hi All,

I was recommended to 914World by a guy in the UK who purchased a GT oil cooler from me who suggested I mention the coolers on here.

He rates 914World as the best forum around and knowing me from my DDK restoration threads he also said I'd enjoy some of the really cool builds on here as I love a bit of detail! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sunglasses.gif)

Not hard to guess that I'm really a 911 guy however I appreciate all things early Porsche, especially period sports purpose cars and have found myself attracted to all the cool details of the GT lately so that may well become a future project!

Getting the sales pitch out of the way, a friend and I do have a few GT oil coolers for sale. Obviously it would be great if my presence here attracted a couple of enquiries but I only have a limited number which will sell in time, it's not a commercial venture and, like you guys, we're just early Porsche enthusiast that got carried away so highly unlikely we'll commission anymore.

The coolers did turn out pretty good and respected 914-6 guys who know have rated them as the best reproductions produced and have even purchased them for their own cars.

I won't place a sales ad on here but if anyone is interested you can see details here - https://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-914...oil-cooler.html

Sales blurb sorted I thought you guys might be more interested in how these coolers came to be as no doubt it's a slippery restoration slope many on here have been caught by!

When this started I knew nothing of racing Porsche oil coolers, or indeed of how you'd get one fabricated, I owned a 914 Dinky toy as child but that's where my interest in these cars stopped and I wasn't prepared for the thousands of hours of commitment that followed.

But then I was offered this ugly duckling....

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-28677-1752181261.1.jpg)

Indeed (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) ....

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[Darren65]

...fortunately after several years of hard work the ugly duckling is starting to look like a bit of a swan!

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....

[Darren65]

So what does this have to do with oil coolers?

Well the car was originally a 1977 Carrera 3.0. Although a desirable model it hadn't been on the road since 1989, there had been a small internal fire that had ruined part of the interior, at some point it has been vandalised and the engine was in bits.....this car was never going back to standard spec!

On the plus side the car was pretty solid, it had it's original engine and gearbox, it's predecessor was the 3.0RS and the short stroke 6-bolt crank engine lent itself to going back to that model.....a 3.0RS project it was to be!

But then anybody who's ever got into an RS, or indeed GT project will know.....some parts are almost impossible find! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

.....

[mb911]

I saw these on pelican and they look to be very nice.

[mepstein]

A buddy of mine bought one for his (real) RSR. He was very pleased.

[brant]

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Your car looks great!

There are some nice builds around here

And I’ll bet you run into some 911 guys over here you already know

It’s a friendly board without all of the bs

Brant

[sixnotfour]

Hey Darren , I took some bypass pics and measurements. for you ...
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[Montreal914]

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Beautiful car! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

What is the blue?

[Darren65]

Thank you for the warm welcome guys, it's really appreciated (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

The colour is Mexico Blue. Thanks also for the kind comments, I'll certainly enjoy finding my way around here although it may take some time!

@sixnotfour your pics were invaluable and massive help, huge thanks.
@mepstein glad to hear your buddy was pleased with his purchase. It was actually my partner in this venture and another RSR owner Paul Howells who encourage me to have 2.8/GT coolers fabricated, I would left it at getting my own 3.0 cooler sorted but more on this follow.

As I mentioned some parts are impossible to find...

[Darren65]

As I got into the build of my 911, it started to become more and more detailed, the aim then being to create a perfect facsimile of a RHD 1974 3.0RS....albeit with a different spec engine.

One of the items missing from my inventory was the front central oil cooler. I searched for many months without success, there was nothing on the market that remotely resembled an original cooler and the odd original used example that came up was commanding six figures with no guarantee of what was inside!

I figured this was a part that would elude me so decided to try and make my own. I never expected this to be perfect but as it lived behind the front bumper and hardly seen it would be something I had to live with.

With this in mind I turned to Clare and Bob at Concept Racing ... https://www.instagram.com/concept_racing_/ .... https://www.conceptracing.co.uk .... Bob is a highly regarded genius in this field and it's easy work for him although he highlighted that to fabricate a cooler that closely matches an original it would be good to have end caps machined or cast and ideally a 3D of an original would help no end......I set to work....

Sadly, after many more months of searching I'd been unable to source an original cooler to scan and it looked liked I'd hit a dead end.....I was then pointed in the direction of fellow enthusiast Olivier Sauzet ... https://www.instagram.com/0livier906/ ...although I've spoken to Olivier numerous times of the years I hadn't picked up on his endeavours and his ultra cool fabrication of a reproduction 906 oil cooler ......

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.....Olivier is a highly skilled draughtsman who fabricates rare Porsche parts for his 906 project and also for fun although unfortunately the 906 cooler is much smaller than the one I needed and we couldn't use his previous work. However after a few discussions Olivier agreed to help with the fabrication of end caps and believed he could be pretty accurate with the numerous photograph and reference dimensions we had to hand.....

....some sterling work from Olivier and we were close to having drawings and files ready for caps to be fabricated....

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.......but then everything changed!