Oil Cooler

Not sure how necessary an oil cooler really is for my car but they just have that 'cool' look when you see the big gaping mouth on a Cobra and it kind of looks incomplete without one so this was something else on the options list I decided to tick.

So today, I made a start on fitting it...

First things first, I laid out all the components in the kit to see what went where and it all looks quite simple.

Oil filter has to come off to allow an adaptor to fit between the mounting point on the block and the oil filter. Two braided hoses then run to/from a thermostat and then two more hoses run to/from the thermostat to the oil cooler itself (which is in effect a small radiator).

Sounds simple enough but, and there always seems to be a but with every task on this build there are a number of things that aren't that straightforward. First off, the oil filter needs to be changed for a shorter one as the one supplied with the engine wont fit once the adaptor, which is about 35mm thick is fitted, as it fouls on the lower chassis rail. Next off the hoses runnign to/from the thermostat leave it needing to be mounted in thin air, so a bracket has to be made to locate this. Then there is no clear way of fixing the oil cooler in place in the nose of the car.

So, a new shorter filter was ordered and fitted and the hoses connected

Shows adaptor, one hose and shorter filter fitted

Adaptor and hoses fitted

As I mentioned earlier the thermostat ends up resting in mid air somewhere between the two wishbone uprights (see pic below). I havent ordered a braket for this yet as I want to see where the return hoses from the oil cooler end up once that is fitted as I may end up having the hoses shortened or replaced wiht longer ones as required. More on this to follow.

Oil Cooler Thermostat - requires mounting