Ok so im at that point (been there actully) where i just cant keep my foot from flooring it every other second and im looking for a little extra protection for my engine and turbo and was reading up on external oil coolers.

I was at the local junkyard and yanked a external oil cooler off some dodge, forgot which make though.
Its a 10 row cooler and its about 1 Inch thick. Is this a good size for our cars?
or at least my set-up?

i would like to get stainless lines but im a little confused on how to tell what kind of threaded fittings to get (pics are below for reference)

From what ive seen in pictures of other members setups here, lots mount right in between the the Radiator and steering rack or in that general area. I have a TIG welder so mounting anywhere is no problem =]

Soo the real question im trying to ask is...where do i tap the lines for the oil feed and return??

ive searched but nothing really clicks for me
Do i have to get a sandwhich plate with a oil thermostat? do i really need a thermostat in the lines?

im a DIY'er so i love doing performance mods on the cheap side but do not mind at all if i must spend the money to get the job done right.

My setup:
16g dsm
fmic
10psi
stock motor
cops

Thank you!

 

Looks to be a standard trans cooler. I think they're a straight flare or o-ring fitting, not NPT. I'll have to check mine to be sure though. You could always call Summit and ask. Pretty standard part. And yes, you need a thermostat.
--Alex

 

Yeah when i disconnected the lines tranny or power steering fluid came out =p

its been completely flushed though so oil can flow through.

 

Most of the time, I see adapters off of the oil filter housing, so after the filter, it goes straight to the cooler.

External oil coolers are great, and especially an important part of a good turbo setup, but even more important is the reason for getting one in the first place: better temperature control.

In other words, get an oil thermostat. The oil will take longer to get up to temperature without one, and oil thats too cool can be as bad as too hot.

This is why I personally prefer oil-to-water coolers. They use coolant to get the oil up to temperature slightly quicker, and also keep the operating oil temp. closer to ideal. Dont have to worry about thermostats or anything. Pretty straightforward.

 

can someone help me out and point me in the right direction for a oil thermostat? how should i hook it up if i dont get a sandwhich plate?

 

There's no way to do it without a sandwich plate. I use a Mocal with a thermostat installed. Bought it at Racer Parts Wholesale.

 

alright, will buy asap.

does everyone think the cooler i have is good to get the job done? or should i look for a bigger cooler set up?

 

The only issue with some trans coolers is the line size. You want at least 3/8" ports/lines - but that unit you have looks to be that if not larger. And the cooler itself looks to be a righteous size.

 

+1.

My initial setup (I have a 1.6) was with an oil cooler slightly smaller than the one railz has, fed by a Mocal sandwich plate with an internal thermostat (the one FM sells). With this setup, my time to warmup was greatly increased. It turns out that most (if not all) oil thermostats, by design, pass a certain amount of oil even when cold. They claim that this is to prevent air voids or some such business from forming. The result however is that oil is always passing through the cooler, even when well below the thermostat temperature. Additionally, my oil never seemed to rise above 170°F or so on the street, which IMO is just a tad too cool.

I removed that setup and installed an OEM oil cooler (water-oil) from a 1.8 engine. Eureka! At warmup, the oil now came up to temperature much faster than stock, and it tends to stabilize around 200-210°F, which is pretty decent.

Cliff's notes: For a dedicated track car, run an air-oil cooler. You need all the performance you can get. For a street car, stick with the OEM water-oil cooler unless you have a documented problem with oil temperature (in which case, something else is probably wrong anyway.)

 

Sandwich Plate

I found them where Savington said they would be..i just dont dont knoww which one to get

 

The Miata uses a 20mm thread.

Be warned however that those are the same plates that caused my oil to be over-cooled.

 

Railz,
Put your location in your profile... and put a complete list of modifications in your signature. I'm curious about your engine management and supporting mods.

The oil cooler should be pretty easy to get running. If you wanted to cheap out, a sandwich plate, plus some threaded barbs and standard rubber oil lines will work just as well as braided steel stuff for 10% of the price. Several of the production oil cooler kits you can buy simply use rubber lines.

Also, have you considered a coolant reroute. For street use, a coolant reroute is a much better "safety enhancer" investment than an oil cooler. For track use, it's pretty lame not to do both considering how cheap they can be accomplished.

 

Sig updated =)

yeah i might have to do the threaded barbs for now, my local auto parts store sells SS lines so i think i might do that too.

ive read about the re-route but doesnt it involve blocking off the heater core? I love my heater on cold nights and no way i can get rid of it =p

 

bam,updated, done =P

 

The tiny (dare I claim "cute?") 1.8 water-to-oil cooler no doubt works, though I've wondered how well. With engines and setups this small and power almost always less than 300, it fits the setup. I'm just curious how well; has anybody had oil temps over 250* with the factory cooler? I'm curious if it is even worth looking for a bigger one if the factory one is more than enough to begin with.

As far as the OP's cooler, I have no doubt its a good buy and will do a great job. The only issue here is getting the oil up to temp first.

 

No, full heater functionality is retained in a conventional reroute. A couple of folks have mentioned that they are going to bypass their heaters in the same threads, but the two are unrelated.