Selecting the correct engine oil cooler
Selecting the correct engine oil cooler

The very first item to consider is space. Do you have enough room to add an oil cooler? Most oil cooler additions go up in front of the radiator and down low so as to not block too much cool air from getting to the radiator so start looking there. All of the top-quality coolers on the market are about 2 inches thick and from there, it really all comes down to how tall and wide you can go. Obviously with higher-horsepower engines, you ll need a bigger cooler.

And if you want the radiator heat exchanger still working, should you plumb the cooler before or after the radiator heat exchanger? Most aftermarket transmission oil cooler manufacturers recommend a position in front of the rad heat exchanger, presumably so that a minimum temp will still be attained by the fluid. However, some others suggest the opposite - mounting the new cooler after the rad heat exchanger!

Make sure you have enough space to run your AN hose lines (either stainless steel or nylon/nomex) and that you have something to secure the oil cooler to. Once you know the general dimensions of what you need simply check out our Setrab and Earls oil coolers to get an idea of the oil cooler dimensions that are available.

The next item to consider is the amount of heat you need to get rid of. With all things fun (read: horsepower), there is a cause and effect situation. Horsepower generates a lot of heat and many times the factory set-up is not geared to eliminate excessive heat that comes with sustained high-rpm driving or climbing a steep rock with no airflow going across the radiator.

As a general rule of thumb, oil temperatures should be about 10-15 degrees above your coolant temps. One of the finest manufacturers of oil coolers (Setrab) has an excellent pdf on their site that lists their various engine oil coolers and the horsepower ranges that they can accommodate. They also list the BTU s per hour that the cooler will remove for those of you that are scientifically-inclined.

Lastly, you re going to have to get oil to and from that awesome-looking cooler that everyone can see. Where do we start? With an oil filter adapter. This adapter will have 2 ports coming out of it to route the oil to the cooler and then back and it threads onto where you oil filter resides. Remove the oil filter, install the adapter, install new oil filter, and presto...a way to route the oil to the cooler. Next up with be the aforementioned AN hoses and fittings you ll need. Choose quality AN hoses of either stainless steel or nylon/nomex.

In conclusion, please don t consider this brief article to be the be-all end-all for information on oil coolers. The oil cooler manufacturers have tech lines for assistance or you can simply call us and we ll be glad to provide assistance. http://www.zj-jinlang.com/en/about.asp