New oil cooler is installed, it was as much of a pain in the ass as i expected. things got a little custom.
had to cut away at more of my crash bar which i didn't want to do, but at this point, ill either be going with a custom crash bar, or just modifying mine further. details below
first off, this thing is fucking massive. when i was researching this core, i was getting forum posts of GTR owners running these, RX7 builds, all sorts of cool shit.
old vs. new, 34 row vs. 9 row
bit of a size difference there.
switching to this new setup meant starting fresh, from the sandwich plate all the way to the core. i used a setrab thermostatic oil sandwich plate, and their add in sensor adapter plate.
built all new -10AN lines using some vibrant goods,
i bought every type of fitting possible, i will be returning what i didnt use.
So, my pressure sensor fit right in no problem, but i KNEW the temp probe wouldn't fit, its too long and it hits the center. below you can see the adapter and you can understand how that long temp probe was hitting the center. a solution had to be devised as there was NO way in hell i was going to drive home without having my oil temps reading after all this. F that.
solution? my buddy the machinist came to the rescue. we drilled out a 1/4" hole(in my brand new beautiful aluminum part), tapped it for 1/4" threads, stuffed this guy in the hole,
and gooooooood to go. it actually turned out to be the best possible solution, and was very clean,
look at that. probe fits beautifully.
and now the oil filter area...the filter hangs down to about the bottom of the pan, gotta keep this in mind while driving, its not too bad but yea, good thing im not THAT low.
and now for the core itself, get ready to LOL
absolutely massive.
it blocks more of my fmic then id like, and going forward the crash bar will be redone to hang the oil cooler higher as it sits RIGHT at the bottom on the bumper. any contact with a curb, or the ground(hard trail braking this will happen) and thats it for the cooler. we just ran out of time to redo the crash bar and at least this way i was able to test and see how it works.
so, results? my BATs have increased by about 10c on average, which fucking sucks but its to be expected. now the oil cooler is spaced about a half inch from the intercooler, with some weather stripping in between them in case they decide to meet each other. the oil cooler is mounted with 4 bolts at the top, and 4 bolts at the bottom. this thing is SOLID. its not going anywhere. wish i took photos of the mounts.
to address my bats, i want to move the oil cooler up about 6", and space it about 1" away from the fmic as i think heat is just transferring from the oil cooler to the fmic. in the future, id like to explore other mounting areas for the cooler, theres tons of room for activities in the wheel well, might go there. Coolant temps dont seem to be too bothered yet, but maybe thats cause of this next piece of info.
i have GAINED ~22psi of oil pressure on cold start, and at operating temperature. Gained ~22psi+ across the entire rpm range. that was unexpected and is amazing. at first i didnt know why, but it makes sense. this massive core is FAR less restrictive then the little guy, also im using better fittings(the mishi kit had HARD 90 degree fittings at the sandwich plate which really fucks up oil flow). so this is great news.
on the street id do a couple 4th pulls, oil temp would be around 230 and just live there. now? i tried a couple 3rd-4th wot pulls, back to back, couple of them. oil temp lives directly at 180f. hottest i could get was 190, then the thermostat opens, and temps drop back down to 170. basically oil temp lives from 170-190. amazing.
i will be hitting the track saturday for a full day, its going to be hot. perfect test day.
