Thanks for the response. The Fab9 kit comes with the Mocal sandwich plate (180 deg), -10AN hose and fittings, and the 25 row Setrab cooler. Seems like a good kit and I believe it sells for less than I can buy the parts for separately. Looks more track focused than the other Miata coolers I've seen.

 

Buy it from a reputable Setrab dealer, buy the sandwich plate, and have some hoses made by a local hydraulic shop. Fab9 doesn't stock anything and just orders and drop ships when you order. And they have crappy customer service.

 

FTFY

 

Just looked at the Fab9 kit. Appears to be 100% OTS parts.
IOW, you can replicate it on your own.

 

Thanks for the info on Fab9. I'll likely end up building my own. I've got a few spare oil coolers in the garage I may try to adapt, although they might be too big. Pretty surprising that there aren't more options for quality kits considering how many Miatas see track time.

 

Tend to agree with Josh. Bespoke is the best plan for oil coolers. Too many variables in routing for an OTS kit to be optimum for everyone.

-Only use -10AN. -8 too small
-Must have a tstat
-Pay attention not just to air intake but also exiting the core
-Try to route hoses so they have only one gradual change in elevation between core and adapter. No roller coaster.
- If you feed core from bottom, you can drain core and lines during oil changes. Not absolutely necessary, but it helps replace all old oil.
- Setrab >*

 

Can you elaborate on the "exiting the core" considerations that you are aware of?

I plan to have a dedicated air path to the oil core but only ~1" gap to the coolant radiator. Maybe you mean more about exit air management rather than temperature considerations?
I'm in the midst of mounting now and my constraints are more based on my lack of fabrication skills.

 

Just that big pressure differentials are handy at getting good air mass through a heat exchanger. Blasting air in, with no place for it to exit or pressure differential negates some of its potential efficiency. Personally, I wouldn't exit an O/C into the rad.
O/C airmass might be 240-280° and radiator wants to see <150° air to do its job. Exacerbated by your downflow rad where the hottest coolant is fed in from the top. It will all work better than no O/C but it can be improved. I think William has his mounted horizontally behind the rad.
Bullet was under headlight with ducting. Vegas is horizontal below radiator with some ducting. In each case, O/C exit is not feeding radiator.

my .02

 

If you've got no headlights because racecar, put the cooler where the old headlight bucket used to be and duct the turn signal opening into it and let it exhaust into the engine bay. Having hood vents will help this a lot.

 

I'm hoping this works out with the need for additional ducting to the lid (mostly for aesthetic reasons), but I already have a plan for a version 2 if need be that seals to the lid with a vent. The tube from the turn signal will be sealed off to the duct.

 

I think I might have to go back to the drawing board with my mounting. This was my old setup and sounds like it was probably more effective. Need the figure out how to repackage the with a different core but I'm digging that upward facing concept.
Fun fact: this core started as a FM steering rack mounted core.

 

I like that better, for all the reasons mentioned earlier. In Bullet and I think, one other build, we mounted it under the headlight bucket. Air ducted in from main rad inlet, through core and out into wheel well. Screen to keep rocks from wheel out of it. If lower half of bumper skin is cut off, a bunch more room to build and service ducting and O/C core.

 

Are -10 lines any benefit if the oe heat exchanger is retained? I’m not sure a thermostat plate is really required for turbo applications with a limited oil sump volume. Mine seems to heat the oil up fairly fast. FWIW I personally prefer to mount all oil related components low to prevent air accumulation.

 

-10 are definitely beneficial, you can see substantial pressure drop across -8, especially if you are running the core in front of the radiator.

I am surprized people haven't gravitated more towards the series 1. The flow characteristics are much better, as are the port locations IMO.

 

Have you seen any issues with drainback and time-to-prime with a bottom fed core? A bottom fed oil cooler usually allows for a slightly larger one given that most of the time the lines from a BP will come from below, but I am concerned with time-to-prime if left for any significant period of time.

On a side note, it seems like an opportunity for setrab or someone to install a drain plug at the bottom of one of the end tanks and temp sensor bosses in both end tanks to get temp delta info, I'm surprised that doesn't exist on the market.

 

Here's my current setup, similar to the one found on the BMW M5 (F10). However, on the Beemer the air exits through the undertray, while on the Miatini the air exits above my Dibond undertray (not pictured) into the engine bay, just like the water radiator. Works so far and runs a lot cooler than my previous setup (behind the water radiator with a sealed 15 mm gap)

 

I may be completely wrong, but that seems like a horrible mounting location. Any sort of off track trip or hitting some rough curbing looks like the oil cooler is being hit first. Then no oil pressure for motor. I know a compplaint I have heard over the years is the FM mounting location and it being hit with rocks and such. This just looks so much worse to me.

 

Except that it is completely shielded from below with a 4 mm Dibond plate and sits higher than the subframe etc

 

Update: I took the advice given here and assembled my own using a Setrab Series1 25 row cooler (part# SET-125-7612), a Setrab sandwich plate, and fittings. Went with -10AN fittings, push lock style with Oetiker clamps. Mounted in front of radiator.

Just got back from a practice day where I hammered on it for 6 sessions in 90F weather and it never exceeded 240F.

Big improvement, thanks for sharing your set ups and ideas

 

Here's the new BMW M5 and its radiator design. Interesting to see the horizontal oil cooler with a flap, like they already did with the F10 M5