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) ....

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-28677-1752181262.2.jpg)

[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 ......

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-28677-1752236025.1.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-28677-1752236025.2.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-28677-1752236025.3.jpg)

.....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....

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-28677-1752236026.4.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-28677-1752236026.5.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-28677-1752236026.6.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-28677-1752236026.7.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-28677-1752236027.8.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-28677-1752236027.9.jpg)

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