I am moving to arizona to go to UTI and i need to make the porsche reliable in the heat. I have already bought a fuel pump relocation kit and now i am looking to buy an oil cooler i just do not know were to begin. I found a couple of kit online one by autoatlanta but it seems to small and one by empi that seens alright. I just had some questions about where to mount the cooler and if i should just replace the stock cooler with a big bastard or just to put an auxilary cooler on the car and if there are any other things i need to do to it so it will run good down there? Thanks,
James

I lived in the low desert of Calif for eleven years. 125 is not uncommon duering

the summer.I put an external cooler and this helped. I also run the engine a little

fat, this also seems to help. Other than that I try to keep my foot out of it and it

has survived so far.

I have had two 914 with external oil coolers mounted on the engine compartment lid. Adds to the oil volume and seems to do a good job of cooling. Draw back is you no longer have the rain tray.

Oh wait, that isn't an issue as we never get rain in Phoenix.

What is the best was to run the oil to the oil cooler what kind of adapter?

Pelican sells an adapter that mounts where the oil filter is located and you run you cooler lines from there. PM or email me when you get to town and I can show you my set up.

i would think a GT style engine lid would help too.

k

Sorry Greg, but I don't think this is good advice. Yes it adds oil capacity, but mounted in that location it preheats the intake air. This can negate any cooling benefit you are getting by running the oil cooler. I burned up a VW Bus this way.

Assuming that an external oil cooler is even needed, it should not be mounted where it can heat the intake air. I've seen some pictures here of someone who mounted one on the underside of his rear trunk with a fan to ensure air flow.

I think you'll get far more benefit from making sure that your cylinder fins are all clean and allowing good air flow and from making sure your engine is correctly timed and the valves adjusted than you will get from running an external oil cooler.

Relocating the fuel pump to the front is a very good idea. Change to steel fuel lines while you are at it (although the fuel lines have nothing to do with living in a hot place). I made this change myself after a vapor lock problem when I took it down to Phoenix.

Say, worst case scenario it's 120F. Does an extra 40deg F of ambient temperature make that much of a difference to an engine that sees over 200F?

I've run my 914 all day in 90F weather with no issues. The only thing that sucks is that it doesn't have a good A/C system.

I think I'd be more worried about the desert sun eating up the rubber and paint. I hope this isn't your only vehicle. I've been in Phoenix in the summer and you'll be suffering without a newer car and a good A/C system.

Try these:

Aaron's Oil Cooler Install

Front Cooler Openings

Front Coolers