Toby:
I had water temp problems on my ' 67 Midget vintage race car because of the
oil cooler placement. When I built the car, I placed the 13 row oil cooler
on two home made brackets above the sump where the horns would have been.
The brackets placed the bottom of the oil cooler at the same level as the
bottom of the radiator core. There was about two inches between the back of
the oil cooler and the front of the radiator. This ran fine until I did
some mods to the engine to make it work harder and need more cooling.
Rob and Dave at Winners Circle told me to move the oil cooler right up
against the radiator and not have any gap between the two. Seems that the
air doesn't flow through the oil cooler and right into the radiator. I
don't know the reason, but they sure were right. Things worked better and
the water temp was back to where I wanted it. I didn't then and still do
not have an oil temperature gauge. It will be one of next winter's projects.
Most of my fellow vintage racers have cut a rectangular hole below the
grille and mounted the oil cooler at the bottom of the horn sump,
completely below the plane of the radiator. This arrangement allow the oil
cooler to get its own shot of cool air. The exit air from the oil cooler
rises up out of the sump and joins the cool, unobstructed air coming
through the grille towards the radiator. I think this is better than
forcing the warmer air from the oil cooler into the radiator directly. This
arrangement also meant cutting a hole in the sheetmetal and I thought long
and hard about that, believe me. But I eventually did it. I also used a
piece of gutter screening to form a grille inside the opening to prevent
stones and chunks of rubber from getting into the oil cooler fins. The
grille and rivets are painted body color and are almost invisible because
the opening is so low. I know you probably wouldn't want to do this to a
street car (I haven't done it to mine), but at least place the oil cooler
smack dab against the radiator. I think you'll get better results.
At 12:11 AM 04/28/2000 -0700, Toby Atwater wrote:
>I have seen oil coolers in front of radiators but I am not sure If I am
>comfortable with that idea. Doesn't it just block flow to the radiator? I
>was thinking of cutting a hole in the fan shroud\radiator holding thing
>below the radiator to mount the oil cooler. Again I am afraid that all the
>oncoming air will go though the oil cooler and not flow upwards towards the
>radiator. Any ideas? Suggestions ? Thanks.
>
>Toby
>69 Sprite
>
Regards,
Bob Spruck
Sharpsburg, GA
' 67 Midget Vintage Racer
' '72 Midget Weekend Car
4 parts cars in the woods
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