Another Front Oil Cooler, 76 914 Now Running Much Cooler Options

[pvollma]

I bought my 76 in 2013, and it always ran way too hot in the summer. Cruising at highway speeds would show close to 240, and getting stuck in traffic could get that up to 250. Since it is definitely a fun car, I wasn't too concerned since I could avoid the most trying of drives, but I knew I had to do something eventually.

I once had a 72 914 2.0 that I ran in SCCA GT-3 racing in S. Texas, and the easy solution was to put a small oil cooler in series in each front wheel well, with the turn signals removed for track use to allow great airflow across the coolers. This kept the oil temps down to 200-210, even in the August heat at Texas World Speedway. For a street car, the turn signal trick obviously wouldn't work. Tony at Translog (York, PA) had found a different solution for his race car, by accessing a walled-off area of the front trunk under the headlights:



This seemed like an interesting solution, as the cooler is protected, and air could be ducted to it if necessary. Unlike a lot of the front cooler solutions, this did not involve cutting into the usable trunk space and providing for both an inlet and outlet for the airflow. So, I decided to let him do the same with mine (with just one cooler in the front passenger-side wheel-well - Tony uses two coolers for the race car). The result is something that is working really well for my stock setup:







Today was one of the first this year with ambient temps in the mid to upper 80's, so I took it for a drive, about 10 miles at 70, then another 5-6 at 45, then stop and go for about 4 miles, then back up to 65 for a few miles until getting back to my garage. The max oil temperature while on the highway was about 190, when I got into the stop and go it went up to near 210, then back to about 200 by the time I got home. Before adding the cooler, I would have been well over 210 on the highway, and gotten up to 240 or more in stop and go traffic. I have seen as high as 260 when stuck in traffic for an extended period, which I believe is the stated factory maximum.

Needless to say, I'm very pleased with the results. For colder weather driving, I plan to look into a second thermostat to control oil flow to the front cooler.