Details on my new oil cooler setup

[Trevor]

Its not in yet but I figure I can give you guys the breakdown on my plans since the coolers have finally arrived at the speed shop I ordered them from last month. It's not like this is top secret cutting edge stuff or anything...3rd gen RX-7 guys have been running multiple oil coolers for years.

The oil coolers are going to Setrab STD 125 series.
http://www.setrab.se/setrab.htm
http://www.setrab.se/downloads/en_STD.pdf
If you've listened to Todd Shelton's (StealthTT) oil cooler posts I'm sure you've heard of them. Setrab (and Mocal too) produce THE best oil coolers on the face of the earth. Formula 1, CART, Nascar...most cars use Setrabs. Their design and manufacturing techniques run circles around the run-of-the-mill coolers. Problem is you pay the price for them. The coolers I got measure 7.5" high, 8.25" wide, & 2" thick. That's the most cooler I could fit where the stock IC's used to go...after all I still have FMIC piping going thru that area. I made up cardboard mockups to test fitment of the coolers and the 125's were it. They were $165 each and the four -8AN fittings were $25.

The lines are going to be -8AN all the way around. I got some info on the line setup from Jeff Lucius' AWESOME site that I go to practically daily (thanks Jeff!).
http://www.stealth316.com/2-fmoc.htm
Thanks to Todd Thomas too for writing some of the article. Here's the low-down on the parts I already have sitting in the garage:
1 - EAR-406008ERL 6' -8AN line
1 - EAR-410008ERL 10' -8AN line
8 - EAR-800108ERL -8AN Straight fitting
3 - EAR-809108ERL -8AN 90 Deg fitting
1 - EAR-812008ERL -8AN 120 Deg fitting
2 - EAR-982408ERL -8AN "T" fitting
2 - EAR-9919EFJERL 16mm-1.5 to -8AN adapters

Total Cost: $371.95

So here's the setup...see if you can follow me.

The metric to -8AN adapters out of the oil filter base followed by two 90 degree fittings angled towards the front of the car. 11" of hose then two more straight fittings into two "T's" then it splits.

Passenger side will have two straight fittings, 43" of hose, then two more straight fittings into the cooler which will be mounted with the outlets on the cooler pointing inboard.

Drivers side will have two straight fittings, 22" of hose, then a 120 deg fitting on line and a 90 deg fitting on the other. Cooler on this side will be mounted with the outlets facing up. The 120 degree fitting on the near cooler outlet will route the line down and behind the FMIC piping and the 90 degree fitting on the far cooler outlet will route the line infront of and over the FMIC piping.

In case this helps here's my sketch:

Excuse tha mad scientist chicken scratch...I get excited.
I know this doesn't have a whole lot of solid info since I haven't actually done it yet but I figured I'd go ahead and post in case somebody wanted to start ordering parts of something. I'll post as it comes together. The coolers are supposed to ship to me tomorrow.

[John Monnin]

Why are you installing them?

Usually only road race 3S have overheating problems, but it is damn hot were you live too

[hitemup21]

trevor, you are crazy, and truly a pioneer for the platform. good luck.

[Trevor]

Damn hot where I live.

Actually I have been battling overheating problems since I installed the front mount. Things have been getting better and better as I did mods:
- Switched from Evans coolant back to 12.5% anti-freeze, water wetter, & distilled water
- Installed a 21.3 psi radiator cap
- Switched to a 3SX dual pass radiator

After all that it's still not 100% though. Occasionally when I'm running the A/C and its 100+F out my oil temp will start steadily climbing to the 240-245F range. Of course the coolant temp follows suit and soon I'm staring at 235F when I shut off the A/C. As soon as I shut off the A/C everything starts dropping off and returning to normal. What's weird is on most days I'll drive what I think is the same way with the A/C on in the same ambient temps and oil will stay under 230F and coolant will stay under 221F. That's hot...but not cause for too much concern. Kinda strange. My hope is with the new ducting in the nose, this overdone oil cooling setup, and a new oil thermostat my oil temps will stay at 180-212F and my coolant temps will never see the high side of 221F. That's the plan at least.

[John Monnin]

I noticed that you were running the oil coolers in parallel. It would be interesting if you tried runned them in parallel and in series to see which is more efficent.

Running the oil coolers in parallel, If one cooler has more restricted path, like having to go to passenger side of the vehicle, the oil might want to only go through one side.

Running the oil coolers in series might be more restrictive to flow.

At work we somtimes install auxilliary heaters in trucks. The stardard method is to use a bunch of y-fittings and plumb them in parallel with the main dash heater, our testing showed this got the most heat from the water. Some customers insist on running the heaters in series becasue their real world testing showed that series was more effictive. We never took the time to figure out why, we just give the customer what they want. The theory we have is that with a parallel routing that if the hoses are not routed carefully most of the water will flow through only one heater.

[Trevor]

Yeah...ther might be one that does a hair more work than the other but hopefully the 90 and 120 degree fittings on the drivers cooler will restrict flow as much as the longer hose length on the passenger side. Who knows. I'm not going to burn many brain cycles on it...I don't think it's going to be a real issue.

The bad thing about running them in series is the pressure loss. With them in parallel there's going to be some additional pressure loss compared to the stock cooler but in series I think it may be enough to drop most cars' pressure at idle under the magical 11 psi service limit.

[pengulns2001]

2 - EAR-9919EFJERL 16mm-1.5 to -8AN adaptors, what are these 16mm-1.5? that make sense to anyone?

thanks for the info ill probably be setting up the same when i recover from my now empty wallet

[gofastman]

Originally Posted by Trevor

- Installed a 21.3 psi radiator cap

who makes this?, where did ya get it from?

[Trevor]

Those adapters are 16mm & 1.5 thread pitch.

TRD makes a 21.3 psi radiator cap that fits our cars.

Here's pics of the setup installed now:
http://www.3si.org/forum/showthread.php?p=2422322

[VR-4=More~]

Can you mount 2 OEM oil coolers on the left side?
Mount one behind the first and hose them togather
to act as a duel cooling unit. Or would this be
restrictive on the oil flow?