I have been playing with cooling strategies for the 3.2 conversion and was originally inspired by the mike Wills car with the cooler underneath. Poking around I notice that there is room for an oil tank under the left body space, and a similar unused space on the right.

So it seems like I could push air from a NACA vent in the rocker panels and pull it out with a fan tucked in. It looks like it would clear the tires when I move around blocks of styrofoam.

Thing is, I haven't seen a lot of examples. So, maybe it is not such a great idea. What am I missing. Not building it to track, btw.

I don't have any pictures handy
its been done
the ones I have seen were race cars

I think race cars have an advantage that the air flow is a pretty high rate all of the time and not a lot of stop and go of street traffic.


mike hemmingway had the nicest looking one I've ever seen
a few guys have used grills off of the MR2 toyotas... but they never looked as nice as mike hemmingways.


lower down on the rocker panels is another way
for example the current car of the month
very very well done.
and the rocker mod doesn't disrupt the side lines of the car.


I think that in general messing up the side lines of the car isn't helping
and that a front cooler doesn't mess up the lines of the design
plus a front cooler offers superior cooling and superior air flow
(naca ducts don't pull as much air)

Thanks,
I had assumed the vent would be in the rocker panel and ducted upward.
That would be for push at speed. I also was going to pull air out of the space with a couple of 6" fans - same as on a Setrab. Forget the name, but I have them straight from NASCAR.
I did not want to break up the lines of the car either.

Any more help information would be helpful and appreciated.

Also it is so shiny and black I cannot see the rockers on Elliot's car. I looked through a few threads. All the same - lots of sparkle and then dark space. Pretty cool, but hard to glean ideas from. In fact very cool.

I think that Elliots are in a lot of threads about coolers
there must be 20 decent threads out there

here is one:

good elliot pictures

not trying to make another thread about front versus rear...

but I've put coolers on 3 cars now
two were front coolers, and one was rear
one of the front coolers, I changed the cooler exit 3 times

I learned that exiting the air from the cooler nicely makes a huge difference in oil temp... (I was able to drop approximately 20degree's farenheight by changing the exit twice, while using the same cooler, and same motor, at the same tracks)

and on the one car with a rear cooler I gained the least benefit
it had a fan
fan's become an impediance at speed.
they help with airflow at a stop light, but they block air flow at speed.
however without true ram air, or frontal air the fan is all the flow you have
(for example under the trunk)

the sum result for me created a car that instead of over heating at 20 minutes, would now go 30 minutes before over heating on the street

granted my application and specifics are different than yours... mine was a somewhat tired motor that ran hot, in a high elevation climate, with warm ambiant.... but it was a 4 cylinder street car with a 1.7 and only putting out stock or less than stock horsepower...

I forgot to mention that I currently run a trunk cooler on my race car for the transmission (4th cooler)

I'm using a gauge on it to validate as I go also

I've now put 2 seperate air scoops onto this experiment also

I'm pulling air from the passengers side window at this time, which is a 5-10 degree improvement over the firewall flap area, below the motor.

it is my experience that the naca duct grabs a lot less air than an actual scoop
my current passenger window scoop sticks out about 2-3 inches proud of the window glass and directly into the air stream along the side of the car.

an air scoop creates drag compaired to a NACA
but it also grabs a lot more air
and honestly we are not running at jet airplane speeds....
so drag is bad, but drag at 70 - 80- 110mph is minimal compaired to aviation applications.

here is the scoop we built (version 1) for the under the car air intake to the trans cooler....

its been replaced now with a new aluminum scoop in the passenger window

and the transmission cooler it fed:

The front side of the rear wheel may be a positive pressure area. You have to be pretty careful about pulling air from a higher-pressure area, and venting to a lower-pressure area. I recall that Wild 6, early in its development, saw a significant drop in oil temps (over 20F!) by changing where the oil cooler exhausted to--very much like Brant's work has shown.

Can you rig up an manometer of some kind? (A pressure gauge.) If nothing else, a clear plastic tube with water and food color in it can be used to compare the pressures at each end of the tube. (Google knows how to build a DIY tube manometer.)

--DD

Thanks to both you and Brant!. Maybe trying not to alter the front trunk is a bad idea. I know abount manometers from way back, though now days it seems like you should be able to buy a sensor 12 pack and laptop array. Probably can but not at my pay range.

No point in pushing uphill. I found out that naca vents were commissioned for design after ww1, so maybe we are almost as fast, but their function is to reduce drag. So i think it over again. Tonight it isnt twenty below zero, so i have to get on with planning.

That was the thread i started with, and i have some used ducts just like that. My ability to put two and two together s clearly limited

I have a NACA duct configuration on my '75 914. I put this into an ABS rocker panel on the passenger side. The rocker panels came from Auto Atlanta. Next I purchased an exhaust system from Tangerine Racing (Chris Foley) that places the majority of the exhaust on the driver's side of the engine. This gave me a lot of clear space on the passenger side to hang an oversized auxiliary oil cooler almost in the vertical position. I run an exhaust fan on the backside of the oil cooler which is on a thermostat that comes on at +180 degrees. I ran flex duct from my NACA duct to the front side of oil cooler and built a shroud around to force the air onto the oil cooler. It is VERY effective. I have A/C and run it on the hottest days in the summer cruising at 75 and have oil temps that never get above 210. It's so effective that in cooler weather I have to plug up the duct because I can't get the oil up to 180. I climbed various Rocky Mountain passes with it this summer and the oil temp never got above 220. The whole set-up hinges on getting the exhaust system mostly to one side and getting some room in the engine bay. Down side is the exhaust system gives up one heat exchanger. Who needs heat???

FWIW, I have had my oil cooler set up running since the car was converted in '05/'06 and I have never had temp problems. I stole the location idea from Rich Johnson and to my knowledge, he has never had problems. I know of two other people that have done the same. Again...no temp problems and we all live in hot climates and are all running 3.0's & 3.2's. These are all street cars.

Obviously there are other locations that would be more "ideal" but this system clearly works, even in hot climates. Now, if you are just wanting something different and cool, then that is a different story and I totally get it.

Would sure like to see photos of your setup. I am planning on doing nearly the same thing as soon as Chris gets my headers done. Note: Not pushing Chris, just saying.

Thanks Michael. Since I already have the fans, fresh from a "real NASCAR team" I can just order the Setrab and be done wit it. Then I can stop squirrel caging. Which I have certainly been doin.

I came up with a picture of mike hemmingways car
it was a few different colors and a few different configurations.
but here is one from its later look:

I have a 3.2 liter conversion that has been my daily driver for about 4 years, and I find the stock engine-mounted oil cooler to be more than sufficient. The oil temperature remains around 180 degrees unless I get caught up in a traffic jam on the way to the Golden Gate Bridge, when it might go up to 210.

Thanks. Looks like my kind of commuter car. Folks around here would get out of the way (and call the cops). I decided i was overthinking it and am going with the sum of the under tray advice. Ordered a mocal last night just to be a little different. What is the deal between the tasteful fabric covered and the steel braid hose? Is it abrasion and personal taste?

I did not think a 3.2 had an engine mounted oil cooler??

For the OP, take a look at oil cooler tubing, or finned tubing.
Some examples can be found at summit racing or SoCal speed shop.

Always thought it would be pretty efficient to use this type of tubing underneath the rocker covers with a front nada duct to blow air in to the area, and there is plenty of room to allow it to exit.

Seemed like a safe place for rock damage.
No hot oil in the passenger compartment
Using both sides of the car, you can get quite a bit of thermal cooling
Hot rod guys use them for much larger motors...so you may be able to find one that will do the trick.

Rich

The 3.2 does. The 993's 3.6 does not. I think the 964's 3.6 might have the engine-mounted cooler but I'm not sure.

--DD

[/quote]
What is the deal between the tasteful fabric covered and the steel braid hose? Is it abrasion and personal taste?
[/quote]

Steel braided hose is intended for aircraft. A properly plumbed and supported run of hose would never have issues with abrasion.

Please post up a pic. I have almost the exact set-up. Ran 230F on the track. Lets see it.

I like the idea too Rich, but i decided to follow what has been done. Yeah, i think the engine mounted cooler was dropped for the next step, at least there is one on mine.

I know of another 3.2 car in northern Va with only the engine cooler. The mechanic that works on the car is a good friend. He and the owner have told me even in D.C. traffic he has never seen the temp much over 200. AFAIK he does NOT track the car though

I believe it.
I have a 911 3.2 and it never gets warm, even with hard driving.
I don't track it though.

It actually run colder than I think it should....
Front cooler does not really get a whole lot of air in the fender....