Hi World Techs—

I’ve owned a 2.0L ’75 914 for nearly 20 years. It’s a beautiful car that I use on back country roads and two/four-lane droning around my home in Wisconsin. During my ownership I’ve gathered all of the parts needed to build a conversion car except an oil cooler (including two engines, a ’77 time-cert 2.7 and a ’78 3.0 L). I haven’t purchased a cooler because the cooler locations I’m aware of have always been an issue for me. I’d like to keep the car fully functional and hate the idea of cutting it up which would seem to eliminate locating a cooler in either the front or rear trunks. Under engine locations may work, but I wonder if they’re really effective considering varying ambient and engine temps, crosswinds and speeds. I know that people have installed fan and coolers on some installations but I’ve also read that there are oil temp issues even with a fan. I also worry about road debris damaging an under-engine cooler.

So Techs, here are my questions, is there a way to mount an effective 2.7/3.0 L oil cooler without cutting up the car? Also, Porsche used trombone style coolers in the min ‘70s on 911s. Has anyone successfully mounted trombones or other types of coolers under the front/rear fender (s) and/or along the longitudinals? I’d also consider mounting a cooler behind the front or rear bumper if either location have worked for conversion owners.

Thanks,

--John (Norton)

What do you consider " cutting up". I'm running a front cooler using the factory holes in the front of the nose and removing the two factory plugs in the trunk. So besides some small holes to run the lines, that's all the cutting up I'll do.

Hi mepstein--

What size engine do you have? How do you use the car? What are the summer temperatures like in DE. Have you measured the delta pressure across the cooler under varying conditions? Also, do have a way to determine the temperature drop when you added the cooler? Do you have room for the spare tire?

Thanks,

--John

I have a 3.2
I have the aircooled racing engine oil cooler delete.
Only oil cooler is the one at the front of the car.
I bought the setrab 20 pass cooler with a twin fan pack.
I showed it to Bob Russo, our Porsche 962 crew chief/mechanic.
He said it would be more than enough.
If Bob says it's good, I'm good.
I'm getting my guys to install the engine this sat
I'll let you know.

mepstein--

It sounds like your car will be a lot of fun! Can you let me know area of the cooling inlets, exits and the surface area of the cooler are?

Thanks!

I'll work on it but you have to get the gist of how I work -
Bob, what do I need?
Mark, buy this
OK.

Bob just brought in a chevron to the shop to go with the mirage and the 962. I really don't question him much except to learn.

Do the conversion, depends how much you actually drive the 914, I am guessing not much like 100 miles in one sitting is a lot..you maybe fine with No extra cooler... just sayin if you really drive it youll need an extra cooler...sounds Fun get it running...watch your oil temps...

fwiw, iirc, the stock 914-6 2.0 reportedly ran 10 degrees warmer in the 914 than in the 911 with the same amount of engine cooling. As mentioned, if not high temp/high rev use, you might get away without any additional cooling. cooling.

I ran mine in the front trunk, removed the "plugs" to get fresh air between the bumper and flexdam. Did cut exit hole in bottom of trunk.

Not sure it fits with a 6, but with a 4, I ran a small cooler on the underside of the engine lid for a bit.

Pretty car or not just cut the darn hole...you can still retain the spare. Performance and engine care should take priority over what you are concerned with - the factory did it - you can too. Its a -4 car - it will improve its value - not detract from it!

Tony

OT: PUUURRRTY CAR!!!

T

Thanks for the input guys.

My vision for the car is a driver under all road conditions. Based on your comments, I understand that you can probably drive a 3.0L car for around 100 miles before the oil system temperature soaks and the engine temp raises above some safe level but, what if I'm caravanning with a group of P cars and the plan is to drive 200 miles? Does body plug removal and cut it up suggestions include well sealed duct-work against the elements. Does the duct-work allow tire storage? It rains, sometimes quite hard in Wisconsin, what happens to the water if the duct-work isn’t well sealed? Does the water just drain away or does windage carry it around the trunk wetting everything including the heater duct-work, instrument panel cover and soaking the instrument panel?

The comments about running without an external cooler gives me hope that some type of cooler mounted in the fender wells could control the oil temp. Also, a World forum member has suggested mounting a cooler behind the front bumper like the LeMans 914/6 GT. I do like that idea because, if engineered properly, it would keep the engine cool under all operating conditions including autocross or track days, leave the chassis intact and a stock bumper could always be mount if I wanted to.

Thanks for the input, keep the comments coming,

--John

Do a search. Tons of oil cooler threads on this site.
I'm using the fan pack in case I'm stuck in traffic.
The unit was $400 on eBay.

I have seen installs with the cooler out front of the front bumper, inside a fiberglass 75+ "big bumper". Hard to imagine it working with the small early bumpers.

Administrator--

Please close this thread.

--norton

You know John, I had a Boxster S and it was a great car...

T

Mr Norton- Check this thread out. Build thread for Brant's racer.
On page 1 he shows his cooler mounted in the headlight bucket and exit through the fender well. Believe it worked so well he closed off the second one.
So fender well exit would be effective, you just need to figure out your entrance.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...=19706&st=0

Hi Bob (bulitt)--

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

--John