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]

Over the next few months I learnt a bit about how you fabricate a racing oil cooler. Drawings were produced and CAD files created to enable moulds to be made for the end tank castings...

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-28677-1752266589.1.jpg)

...whilst I initially thought these files were produced by scans, that wasn't the case as the information would have been limited and instead all data points were taken by hand and entered into the files manually to give a more accurate result. Impressive stuff!...

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-28677-1752266590.2.jpg)

...once complete a precision casting company cast the end tanks which matched the original exactly...

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-28677-1752266590.3.jpg)

....with the original cooler dismantled it also meant the end tanks could be replicated both externally and internally...

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-28677-1752266590.4.jpg)

...