Oil Cooler 4

Having fitted the oil cooler radiator in place, it is time to find a suitable method of fixing the thermostat in place. This is connected on both sides by two thick braided hoses one to the oil cooler rad and the other to the adaptor that fits between the oil filter and the engine.

The thermostat needs positioning so that the hoses don't foul on anything that moves or is hot and the ideal place in on a  bracket mounted to the nearside front chassis members that support the wishbone.

I made a template using thin card held in place then folded around the chassis members. I then cut along these fold lines to create a template that I could transfer on to a thin piece of stainless I had brought off a local stockholder.

The template was cut to size and clamped in place to mark the position of the fixing holes and then returned to the bench for drilling along with the holes required to attach the thermostat to the bracket itself.

Once I was happy with this I then clamped the bracket back in position and drilled pilot holes through into the chassis.

This is yet another job I should have done before the body was on as access was awkward to say the least!!!

After drilling the pilot holes, I then gradually increased the size until I cut fit rivnuts and attached the bracket.

The thermostat was then fixed to the bracket and the hoses attached. Overall I'm quite happy with the set up but I think the front hoses need to be shortened a little as they dont sit quite right at the front of the car. Ideally I would use some 45deg adapters to ease the angle at which the hoses connect but given the price of them I think I'll make do for now!!!!

Job Done

Oil Cooler 3

With a hour left before needing to head home for the day, I decided to fit the oil cooler into the nose section of the car. I could then determine the best fixing position for the thermostat and, if necessary, cut the hoses to a more suitable length.

I had bought a mounting bracket and fixing kit off GD rather than messing about trying to fabricate my own. As usual the holes in the bracket don't quite align with the holes in the cooler so these needed opening up.

To determine the position of the fixing holes which would be drilled in the undertray I marked a centreline on both the undertray and the oil cooler and lined the two up. I fitted the bracket to the top of the oil cooler and put this in place in the lip of the nose cone. I then marked the hole positions and drilled them in place.

NOw the GD fixing kit comes wiht spacers which are designed to be fitted between the undertray and the GRP below. With this in mind, I drilled right the way through the GRP but when I went to put the spacers in place this seemed pointless. The gap between the tray and the GRP was a lot bigger than the spacer and there were only spacers for two of the four fixing bolts.

I bolted everything up in place and to be fair it fits really firm and I cant quite see why I need to fix through to the GRP so I will probably leave this as it is now.

The only thing that needs sorting now is to get a couple more button heads as there were only 6 in the fixing kit and with my method of fixing I need 8. For the time being I have used a couple of socket cap heads to get the job done. No one will ever notice but I will know they don't match so I will have to change at some point - I've noted it on my snagging list.

Oil Cooler 2

Having had a word with Andy at GD, I ordered a fixing kit off him for the oil cooler radiator.

This comprised of a stainless steel plate/bracket and a bunch of nuts, bolts and spacers.

Thought this would be a fairly quick job, so I decided I would fit it today but when I had a closer look it was yet another job that needs some tweaking.

The spacers seem redundant as the top of the oil cooler is already above the level of the bottom of the mouth of the car, the bracket seems to fit at an upward angle not flat and the small fixing holes need to be re-drilled in the correct position.

Once for another day given I'm a little short of time.

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