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Adding Oil Coolers and Heat Exchangers

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  • Adding Oil Coolers and Heat Exchangers

    There are several areas that you should focus on when picking an "oil cooler" or heat exchanger.



    These are often needed on OEM cars that are run on a road course, especially when power levels are increased. Here's some tips we mined from a recent email to a customer...

    PICKING THE RIGHT OIL COOLER

    Before we found Derale heat exchangers, we utilized a number of brands and styles of heat exchangers for engine oil coolers. You want to get the right shape and thickness to fit the space you have AND to deal with the BTU rating your engine / system needs.



    We utilized this wide / skinny Setrab on a number of builds - but we also had a number of them crack / leak. Then we found Setrab 1000 series plate-and-fin coolers.

    DERALE 10000 SERIES


    On this application (CTS-V race car) we had rolled the radiator and didn't have room for the lines to go in/out of the top of the engine oil cooler. Always some compromises.



    The small cooler is for power steering, 51906 Derale. The larger one is for the oil, Derale 54078.




    The grill openings on this car were pretty huge but again, with the rolled radiator we were cramped on vertical space and it is not 100% perfect.




    We have the same Derale 54078 on our time attack shop 454" LS7 powered Mustang.



    On this one we did have room to plumb in/out from the top, so the cooler stays "full of oil" after engine shut off, and cannot drain back and leave a slug of air inside the cooler.




    This might not be enough for the output of this 454" engine so we left space to run a SECOND identical cooler, and we will run them in series if the oil temp data pushes us that way.




    But for more cars a single cooler is enough. This is our endurance E46 V8 swap build above, and again - space constraints made the plumbing placement compromised - these will go in/out on the sides.

    STACKING HEAT EXCHANGERS VS NOT

    Lots of debate on this but there is no clear answer - it depends on the space you have, the grill opening sizes, and the size and shape of any "front side grill" openings.




    On this Roush supercharged S197 Mustang we had FOUR heat exchangers stacked...



    Front to back: VMP intercooler, then Setrab oil cooler, then the stock AC condenser, then a Mishimoto radiator.



    We maximized airflow through this 4 stack of coolers with a ducted hood and even a waterfall deflector behind the radiator, to point air upwards. Of course forward ducting to the grill is always important (see below).



    For this widebody E46 with a 468" LS7 we went with two smaller coolers on the sides. This placement is less than ideal but we had a unique front nose on this car which has ducted inlets for just this type of mounting.



    These were smaller Setrab coolers (before we found Derale) and like the other cars we build has completely forward structures to duct air to the front sides of all heat exchangers.



    This isn't your typical BMW nose, of course, so in most cases for an E46 we would try to utilize the central lower grill opening for airflow to the oil cooler.




    Derale also makes some nice pre-packaged cooler / fan combos - we're using this for a differential cooler on the Mustang below.

    RADIATOR FORWARD DUCTING

    We have found over the years that focusing on getting air from the grill openings to the heat exchanger(s) on the FRONT side is more crucial than any ducting BEHIND the last exchanger in the stack.




    We spend time making templates to "Box" in the ducting from the front of the first heat exchanger to the grill opening. In this case shown we had to accommodate hoses, a tubular bumper, then match the shape of the inside of the bumper cover.



    The more time you spend on the templates means your finished (plastic or aluminum) ducting will be more effective. We have a secondary duct on this car to feed the cold air box from another upper/side grill opening (normally closed off).



    The best airflow to the front of almost any car is the CENTRAL grill openings, and if you have a splitter the LOWER opening gets higher pressure air than the upper or side grills. Keep that in mind when picking the spot for your heat exchangers.



    Another often overlooked spot for heat exchangers is underneath the car. The OEMs are doing this more and more, too.




    We added an engine oil cooler to this C6 in the only spot that gets good airflow - right in front of the factory rolled radiator right behind the front grill opening. We had to use a long/skinny Setrab unit to fit this space, as they had the perfect shaped unit.




    On this C6 Corvette we gained a big "void" when we removed the transverse front leaf spring.



    So another long/skinny Setrab unit was tucked up inside that void and a giant power steering cooler was mounted. It worked great and all of our p/s fluid temp issues disappeared.



    We spent some time on this C6 getting all of the fluid coolers mounted correctly for good airflow. We also have our newly developed C6 brake cooling deflector on this car, as well as modified front brake inlet cooling scoops to enhance that flow - but that's a discussion for another tech thread.



    SUMMARY

    We hoped this quick "tech article" will give you some new ideas for mounting heat exchangers. Remember - there are no "hard and fast" rules for this, and different cars and grill openings will have different needs. The only metric you should look at is - DATA. Measure the temperatures before and after any change and follow the science, not the internet opinion

    Cheers!
    Last edited by Fair!; 08-30-2023, 02:51 PM.
    Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
    2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
    EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev
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