Cheap oil cooler kit - $140
 

Hi Guys,

I was wonder if you guys think this kit is OK for use in California (San Jose).
http://store.miataparts.org/cooilcone.html I really don't need to relocate the oil filter but I'm not sure if I need the thermostat or not.

Thanks,

t.t.

I personally would avoid hose clamped oil lines. There's several threads here discussing oil cooler setups.

Yeah I read the threads and the options are expensive. :(

Better to do it right the first time at a higher cost..

get a bar and plate cooler, not tube and fin. I rock the blue hose for my oil cooler. If its good enough for porsche, its good enough for me.

I don't think Oil and Cheap should be in the same sentence. Ever.

Does that "kit" include a sandwich plate or other means of actually connecting it to the engine? It's not shown, and the instructions are not posted.

From what I can see in the picture, you're paying $133 for a $40 tube-and-fin cooler, $15 worth of hose and fittings, and some zip ties.

Plus, factor in the cost for the engine rebuild after the hose slips off the fitting.


What year is thy car, oh Original Poster?

Joe: My miata is a 90.

Yeah the picture is kinda sketchy... The picture on Cool-Tek's site does have the plate to connect the hoses.

http://www.cool-tek.com/

I can check with gomiata to confirm. I guess I can also check to see if there's an extension plate for the 90's.

If I did piece together my own kit do you think I need the thermostat?

For those of you NOT using stainless steel (hustler) (8 feet of -10AN sort of doubles the cost, so I went with high-temp silicone), how have you connected the fittings? I was thinking barb fittings and hose clamps. I'm using a bar/plate cooler from RPW and a Mocal sandwich adapter. All 1/2" NPT Female fittings right now, and I'm headed to RPI tomorrow to pick up all my fittings.

If i was going to cheapout on the lines themselves, i would atelast get press-in -AN fittings. I have never seen the press-in style fittings leak and you won't have to mess with hoseclamps.

Someone told me the 2nd jen RX-7's have a good oil cooler in them? Anyone ever use them? The 20mm adapter is available from summit for $30

Well the connectors and cooler look like they have barbed ends. Is that what you meant by "press-in"?

'90. Yup, you need the barrel. And the longer threaded tube. That's why FMs 1.6 kit costs more than the 1.8 kit.

I've got a barrel I'll sell you from when I removed my FM sandwich plate. You'll need to provide the tube. I found that even with the FM plate (with built-in thermostat) that I was really over-cooling the oil. So I bought an OEM water-oil exchanger off a junked '95 engine and installed that.

Some folks claim that this cooler is not terribly effective due to the fact that the water cooling it is pretty hot. There's probably truth in that, though it does have the benefit of helping the oil come up to operating temp a lot faster. There's something I always wanted to try with it, so let me postulate a theory to you:

You buy an OEM cooler from a junked engine. You install it in the factory-approved manner, except that on the water line going into it, you install a small water-air cooler, maybe even an old heater core. In a series / parallel configuration with that is a Y-valve that lets you switch the cooler in and out of the loop. This way you get fast warmup and no over-cooling in town, but if you're hitting the track you turn the valve and let the water flow through the cooler.

Opinions? I'm thinking that this achieves most of the functionality of a traditional oil cooler, but it will probably cost less and it avoids having to run external oil lines. Safer.

No, I mean the press in fittings that can't be removed without cutting the lines. They're a reusable fitting that requires you to cut the line to remove them.

Could you add in a thermostat to turn off the water automatically at a certain temp? Something similar to the oil thermostat.

there are plates (hadyen) that use a threaded tube to bolt up to the existing filter mount, and then provide a new mounting point outside of the plate.

That leaves $100 for a cooler and lines. I have seen a bunch of leftover circletrack oil coolers (like tru cool) go for $30. You can do the same for ss lines or go for ss hydraulic lines and pipe thread adapters if/where needed.

hmmm. I'm surprised everyone's against the oil lines with hose clamps method. I've installed a couple of B&M transmission coolers and they use barbed fittings with 2 hose clamsp on the fittings, and I've never seen one fail. The hoses are a tight fit onto the fittings, and with 2 clamsp, I believe the hose would bust before the line came off that fitting. I can get used transmission oil coolers from a junkyard for 7 bucks each, and was planning on clamping my lines with barbed fittings. I'll report when it's done. Has anyone here had a barbed fitting fail on them?

Edit: FWIW, it seems like I could get a cooler for 7.00, the lines for 15.00, plus whatever a sandwhich plate cost. May be a cheap DIY oilcooler.

I simply refuse to use barded lines on anything other than fuel or water. Spend the extra 50 or so $ a line and do it right rubber lines suck at heat, teflon is where it is at. For about 170 or so $ i could make one to go inline to the turbo and still be able to drop oil temps a good bit, summit racing and parker store FTW :D Also i use a cool tek rolacation on my ride it makes changeing the filter uber easy.

A couple of us should go in on one of the ebay auctions from the nascar teams and pic up one of those 17ft lengths of -10an line. They usually end at like $100ish. That should be enough to make a few kits. Split the cost and we could have some pretty cheap 10an lines.

How many are using a hosebarb and clamp on their oil return line?