oil coolers??

[nezzi21 27]

im in the process of building a mk2 vr6 track car and its been suggested to me that i should fit an uprated oil cooler. now my question is whats the advantages of fitting 1? and whats the best 1,s to go for? also is it advisable to fit 1 to my vr6 road car?

cheers in advance

[xyber 1]

Well worth it to keep all the temps down, mocal or setrab are the main suspects, 13 row is good, 16 row for track use. Ive got a 16 row that I cover a few rows with a thin piece of alloy for normal road use as in cold weather it does run a little cool, then when needed just take the piece of alloy away for extra cooling

dont forget to use a thermostatic sandwich plate aswell, but most places supply them in the kits now anyway

Bin off the original heat exchanger aswel, then the oil and coolant wont be interfering with each others temp

Bought mine from The Phirm, it arrived the morning after ordering

Fit a Neuspeed low temp coolant stat aswel

Mine is charged and even when Im playing I very rarly get above 94-96 oil temp and road use it sits around 80

[rodney 17]

what he said and I got mine done at phirm....... Stealth will do you a kit also.

[Phat VR6 3]

13 row is good' date=' 16 row for track use. Ive got a 16 row that I cover a few rows with a thin piece of alloy for normal road use as in cold weather it does run a little cool,

[/quote']

Doesn't it come with a thermerstate so it only sends the oil to the cooler when it needs to??

[xyber 1]

yep, but when it opens, with having the large cooling area of a 16 row, the temp drops down dramatically when the stat opens, even more so in the sub zero weather we are having recently

13 row starts to cool at 80, oils sits at around say 90

with a 16 row the oil temp will sit bang on 80 at normal road use, so i cover a few rows just to up that a bit

[nezzi21 27]

what kinda money is in the 13 row kit??

[xyber 1]

TBH there not much between the 2 kits, around £150

if you should go for the 16 row and are fitting it on the passenger side behind the small bumper vent ask for all the fittings to be 90 degress angles instead of 2 x 90's and 2 x straights

with the 90 fittings on the bottom of the 16 row, you lift the hoses up away from the road and up above the bottom of the bumper

with the straight fittings on the bottom of a 16 row they and the hoses are dangerously close to the road by the time the hose loops around without kinking

[Lizard Racing 0]

Am I right in thinking you run your cooler inverted then?

[xyber 1]

yeah, as its so low down you dont get any problems doing it like that, its easy to fit in that position with lots of room and really good airflow and isnt in the way of the airflow to the rad. Just made up a T shape bracket out of alloy angle and bolted it to the front chassis leg with plenty of underseal at the fixing point. works a treat

[Phat VR6 3]

if you smooth off the 2 vents at the side can you put it infront of the rad?

[xyber 1]

yep, itll just about squeeze in(think theres more room on the passenger side as its on a slant), you may need to cut 2 holes for the hoses going to it, in the rad cowling but its not too much to work around

if you take the front bumper off, loosen the screws on the slam panel and pull it out abit (about 1.5inches mine went) it gives you more room to manouvre, if you get the front wheels on ramps or axle stands aswel, even better

positioning the thermoplate and reassembling can be abit cack handed, so lying on your back in a comfy position helps no end

[nezzi21 27]

any pics of 1 installed?? im defo getting 1 for the mk2 but i wasnt sure if it would be worth it for my mk3 daily.

[rodney 17]

mines in front of the rad. See supercharging FAQ for how mine went in.....

[rigs 0]

We ran a 19 row cooler on a ~200bhp vr6 mk2 track car and it was just about adequate for prolonged ragging in warm/hot (by English standards) weather.

Go with as large as you can fit in a place with decent airflow

Covering it for road use is a must - the thermostatic pickup plates dont seem to completely shut off the feed to the cooler - with ours not covered the oil temperature would drop below 50 degrees if it started raining etc...

[nezzi21 27]

what can i use to cover the cooler for road use?

[xyber 1]

Ive used all sorts, at the moment ive got a strip of cardboard box cable tied around it

[rigs 0]

Ideally get a sheet of reasonably hardly plastic, drill some holes in the corners and cable tie it

Cardboard will get wet in the rain and disintegrate eventually - which sounds like unnessessary faff to me

[xyber 1]

yeah its only a temp fix, got a small sheet of carbon fiber coming to do it with, just gotta wait till the guy has an off cut