911ish oil cooler for a 914-6? Options

[hasaramat]

Anyone seen an oil cooler set up put in the front fender forward of the wheel alla 911 Carrera style? Thinking of this for my 2.7 conversion on a narrow body. Pics would be really nice (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[0396]

Great idea..but how would you get enough air flow through it ?

[Mark Henry]

Great idea..but how would you get enough air flow through it ?

How does it get air on a 911? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

[type47]

Great idea..but how would you get enough air flow through it ?

How does it get air on a 911? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

thermoswitch controlled fan...

[hasaramat]

I was thinking that there should be close to the same amount of air moving around up there as a 911 so it should work. I don't really want to cut and weld in the nose like a GT.

Carrera style cooler

This would be fun. A man can dream can't he?

[brant]

the fan would help with existing wheel well air...
but a 911 has removeable front fenders and the turn signals allow air to pass into the fender well

there is a lot more through air on a 911
still a fan and front cooler would help, but I doubt it would be more effective than a rear cooler

it would be more complicated and expensive (bad) but also move a tiny bit of weight forward (good)

brant

[Cap'n Krusty]

the fan would help with existing wheel well air...
but a 911 has removeable front fenders and the turn signals allow air to pass into the fender well

there is a lot more through air on a 911
still a fan and front cooler would help, but I doubt it would be more effective than a rear cooler

it would be more complicated and expensive (bad) but also move a tiny bit of weight forward (good)

brant

I'm not exactly clear on your statement about the "removable front fenders". What difference can that possibly make? They don't move off clearing a path for the air. Or do they? As for the turn signals, they're solid plastic lenses, making the passage of air problematic. Early cars had small horn grilles, but few early cars had front coolers. As for the fans, they didn't appear until the late '80s.

The Cap'n

[GeorgeRud]

The 911 has a much more open area behind the front headlight than the 914 does, and so I believe there is more airflow. On mine, I seem to remember that there was also a small notch in the front bumper to provide some airflow as well.

The coolers themselves went through several versions. The early ones were just a simple loop (often called the trombone cooler) that allowed the oil to flow back through the lines back to the engine. However, the lines themselves provided surface area for cooling as well. Then Porsche went to the radiator style cooler, and finally added a fan to pull additional air through the cooler. In addition, there were aftermarket kits (Turbotrol by Lemke Design) that added a cooler to the early cars that did not have coolers (mid 70s if I remember correctly).

Though it does require some fabrication, I think that a front cooler using the GT style front bumper and valance is the easiest and most effective location for a cooler in a 914. It's really not all that hard to run the lines and put in the front cooler, the parts are readily available.

[ME733]

........Just by having oil lines running to the front , they alone will act as an oil cooler,and then with an oil cooler, with a forced air blower, this will be an effective engine oil cooling system. You will need some fine mesh stainless steel screen on the front and back side of this setup to protect the oil cooler from rocks, and road crud. I recommend aero-quip for the oil lines. Keep them seperated. It will dissipate heat, provide excellant abrasion protection, and will not be subject to cracking from vibration.

[GeorgeRud]

Actually, running some metal cooler lines along the chassis would dissipate heat better than the aeroquip lines, but are certainly harder to fabricate. Since these are usually hidden behind the rocker panels, or run inside of the chassis, it probably wouldn't make a whole lot of difference.

[Mark Henry]

My take is you would have a fair bit of cool air from the spinning action of the wheel coupled by turbulence of the airflow over/under the car.
When you drive in rain isn't a pile of water streaming out from the fenders?
Wouldn't it be the same (but invisible) for air flow?

...I doubt it would be more effective than a rear cooler

Wouldn't the rear cooler (not talking stock cooler) have a lot more warm air surrounding it as apposed to a cooler in the front fender?


If you had a custom air dam couldn't you duct some extra air into the fender from the dam?

[JmuRiz]

I'm sure it can be done, maybe move the horns and route air through the fog-light grills to it.

I know the 911 SC guys don't have a lot of cooling and their tiny scoop mod helps a lot.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/www.vertexauto.com-50-1291995082.1.jpg)

[patssle]

My '74 911 has the trombone cooler in the front fender, no radiator. I've read it's the lines running to the front and back that provided most of the cooling. Porsche didn't add a radiator until the later years, 80s?

[Cap'n Krusty]

The coolers themselves went through several versions. The early ones were just a simple loop (often called the trombone cooler) that allowed the oil to flow back through the lines back to the engine. However, the lines themselves provided surface area for cooling as well. Then Porsche went to the radiator style cooler, and finally added a fan to pull additional air through the cooler. In addition, there were aftermarket kits (Turbotrol by Lemke Design) that added a cooler to the early cars that did not have coolers (mid 70s if I remember correctly).

Actually, the radiator style front cooler came several years before the trombone style. In fact, it was available as an option for folks who didn't think the trombone provided enough cooling.

The Cap'n

[SirAndy]

For what it's worth, we ran two of those on the 911 race car for a short while to see if we could get away with it. And that was with the headlight buckets re-purposed as air intakes.
Didn't work very well, so we went back to a front mounted cooler.
Then again, the car has a warmed over 3.2L engine ... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/shades.gif)


For a street car, as long as you keep the stock cooler on the engine, you should be fine with those ...
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

[brp986s]

I didn't want to hack up my car so I put a thermostatted fan and cooler in place of the battery. With a 3.2 my 914 runs cooler than my 3.0 911 with trombone. Highest I've seen in the 914 is 210 vs 225 in the 911. Probably not suitable for a race car. The cooler is ~ 6" x 10". Major pita for newbie.

[carr914]

How are you getting fresh air (cooler air) to the Oil Cooler in that location. I know you have a fan, but it seems that would just be moving around warm air.

[brp986s]

I use a GT lid. Figured I'd arrange some ducting if too hot, but it seems to be ok as is.

[JmuRiz]

Cool idea, any pics?
I'll just keep my under rear trunk location, but always good to see/hear more ideas.

[brp986s]

I posted 1 pic on a recent oil cooler thread. I'm at work and should be (IMG:style_emoticons/default/type.gif) Maybe put up some pics later.