Mounting Heat Exchangers - Looking for Suggestions
 

I am in the process of revamping my cooling system (water, air, and oil).

I am installing an ESR Radiator, a Setrab Series 9 25-row oil cooler, and a Fab9 stage 1 intercooler.

My plan is to install the radiator in the normal position and the intercooler in its standard position (low and in front of the rad)

The oil cooler mounting is what I am concerned about. I am leaning towards mounting it above the intercooler, aligning the front of both of them to be even, or as close as possible. I have cut out the front bumper support so I don't have much interfering with my mounting plans. I plan on building a horizontal seal across the bottom of the oil cooler/top of the intercooler and then ducting from the nose through to the rad.

Does that sound like it would work?https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...45c6eaab31.jpg
Fantastic Artistic Rendering

As someone who's currently working on ducting for similar items, do not forget that you have fittings on your oil cooler. Standard 90 fittings are pretty tall to prevent flow loss. Also in your stack you are almost completely starving your radiator of fresh air. Given your radiator choice (not a common one for boosted track cars), I don't know what the efficiency is, but you're going to want to have clean, fresh air going to the radiator. That radiator is designed for a heat load of a 140whp Spec Miata in a draft. Not a 200whp+ car with two heat exchangers stacked in front of it. You're likely going to have to find a separate location for the oil cooler. Either side mounted on the right (less hose length) of the radiator or some other out of the box location. I'm mounting my oil cooler where the latch used to live and its going to have a separate duct feeding it air from either the nose or the radiator ducting.

https://images2.imgbox.com/97/33/vqRL0gFd_o.jpg

https://images2.imgbox.com/9f/12/hN5jRksG_o.jpg

https://images2.imgbox.com/13/8f/F71fzElm_o.jpg

I chose the ESR radiator because I figure if it can cool a Spec Miata in a tight draft with no air coming in the front, that it could handle being behind an intercooler.

I really like your idea of mounting horizontally and above, but I am worried that I won't be able to get the air out of the cooler.

I thin I need to get the intercooler here so I can figure it any further.

The oil cooler will be fully ducted and sealed so that air exiting had to go into the engine bay. Hood vents should pull enough negative pressure, along with the air flow from the front facing duct to create enough pressure differential. @sixshooter uses a similar setup with a larger oil cooler on his 300whp+ track car.

I stacked mine like the OP shows, but no foam. I ducted some of the air beneath the FMIC as well.

I only run 175 HP on track, though, and my FMIC is only 5.5” tall and the oil cooler is 16 rows.

I don’t think you will be able to fit 25 row and the Fab9 and still get air to radiator.

DNM

This guy seems to be successfully running the same setup as I plan to sans the oil cooler.

(Posted this to wrong thread first time)....here’s a 19-row OC setup with/without my homemade shroud. Next version will exhaust the oil-heated air over and out but temps are still good without that mod so far in this dang hot Texas summer.


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...81cb2f7e0.jpeg

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c01e431e2.jpeg

Like the concept, but if I was doing that the forward projecting hose fittings would make me nervous. I know it's behind the bar, but still. I'd be investigating turning it 90* so the hoses/fittings faced down, probably inside the duct. Messier I know, but it is keeping them as far away from impact damage as possible, and with ducting efficiency should not be affected. I also like the ducting on the front of the FMIC - neat!

OP, what makes you think you need that big an oil cooler? Be nice to cut it down somewhat, and free up some more space for air to circulate ...

My fittings go towards the rear and my cooler is placed in a similar location to Midtenn.

Air comes in bumper mouth and goes up through the cooler then rearward towards low pressure of engine bay.

That setup is much different. I skimmed Two-Six's pictures and they are running a MASSIVE intercooler. They also have it ducted from the bumper all the way through the hood as well. The radiator looks more like a Trackspeed or SuperMiata crossflow radiator than the ESR. Their oil cooler is mounted where the passenger side headlight used to be.

If something comes in contact with the fittings at this position I'll likely have other things to worry about. The hoses are pretty stiff and will be tied together, so I'm not concerned about the weight loosening them. I'll definitely be keeping and eye on things though. If I need to go to a larger oil cooler, I'll have to rethink my position a little. Though the end game plan is to remove the headlights and place the oil cooler where the passenger headlight assembly is (similar to Two-Six's)

I will also have it ducted from the bumper opening through to the hood, so I guess that's going to work in my favor. Edens is definitely running an ESR radiator. I spoke to him personally about it. He is running a massive intercooler (I believe Fab9 stage 2) but I'm not sure if that's relevant. He still has 100% of his radiator blocked with another cooler. Do you think that the oil cooler being hotter than the intercooler will make a huge thermal difference? If so, I kinda agree. I am considering mounting the oil cooler in a similar location in the headlight area, but I need to figure out what to do with my brake cooling duct, which currently occupies that spot in the front bumper.

Fab9 just uses Vibrant intercooler cores. I just skipped Fab9 and got a the same Vibrant core Fab9 uses for their Stage 1 kits. As for air temp from air passing through the IC vs. oil cooler, I can't say. It really depends on how much heat each is taking out of the system. I *assume* that an oil cooler is working harder given the oil temps entering can be significantly hotter than air from the turbo.