:. Projects/Mods .:. Setrab Oil Cooler .:
| Tools |
Get From: |
| ·Drill and drill bits |
any hardware store |
| ·Hacksaw |
any hardware store |
| Materials: |
|
| ·New Oil Cooler |
$130-150 - Baker Precision |
| ·2x45 degree -8AN fittings |
$30 - Jegs |
| ·2x90 degree -8AN fittings |
$30 - Jegs |
| ·2x Metric-to-8-AN adapter fitting P/N FCM2243 |
Baker Precision, Earls, AN Plumbing |
| ·6-bolt filter housing (if not a '90) |
~$75 - Conicelli, Mile-High Mitsu |
| ·(OR) 7-bolt filter housing |
~$75 - Conicelli, MHM, or TurboTrix |
| ·~7" of Steel or Aluminum "L" |
~$5 - Home Depot, etc. |
Introduction
Most DSM's, from '91 onward, came with an air-to-water oil cooler. The lucky few of us with '90's got a nice air-to-oil setup. If you road race your DSM a lot, or just generally want to try and combat high temperatures, upgrading to a proper air-to-oil setup can go a long way towards keeping oil, and indirectly, coolant, temperatures down.
An additional benefit of moving to the air/oil setup is in reliability. Whereas the air/oil filter housings are cast as one unit, out of necessity, in the air/water setups, the oil filter stud screws into the housing, and has been known to back off, resulting in complete loss of oil, and ruining an engine. Further, these housings are known to break internally, and cause a difficult-to-find oil/coolant mixing problem.
Choosing A Cooler
When choosing an oil cooler, there are a few considerations to be made. First is cooling capability, and second is the issue of pressure drop. Keeping good pressure is vital to keeping your motor alive, and especially with some higher mileage DSM's, those oil pumps are starting to get a bit tired. As such, you want to avoid the type of cooler that has multiple rows that snake back and forth across eachother, such as in most PermaCool brand coolers.
As well, this type of cooler is not as efficient as the factory type cooler (which actually does a pretty good job). The real top-of-the-line nice coolers are the Setrab units available from Baker Precision and other vendors. They have nice, sturdy construction, look good, come in a variety of shapes & sizes. They are known to have good cooling and pressure drop capabilities, so it's hard to go wrong with one of these. On my car, I chose to run the '125-8' model, which can be seen here.
As far as fittings and hose, you will want to go with -8AN hose and fittings. After speaking with a few folks, they generally agreed that -6AN was not ideal, and the extra cost for -8AN pieces is minimal. Additionally, you'll want to keep the lines as short as is feasibly possible - remember, we need to get the oil to the cooler, but we want as little drop in pressure as we can get.
Installation Notes
Installation varies a bit on what year your car is.
Unless you have a '90, the first thing you'll have to do is replace your stock oil filter housing with an air/oil style for your block. If you have a 6-bolt block, you can just order a '90 oil filter housing, and bolt that up. If you have a 7-bolt block, there is a Mitsubishi part number for an air/oil housing as well, or you can buy it directly from Turbotrix, at the link I've provided near the top of the page. Lastly, if you have a 6-bolt, you may want to consider the forward-facing oil filter housing, since it might help you fix some problems with downpipe or wastegate clearance on some setups. (I've not used this part, but that seems to be its intended audience).
Once that piece is installed, the install is basically the same for all of us from here on out. Since the threads on the oil filter housing are metric, and we have AN fittings, you will need to install a metric to AN adapter so the AN fittings will thread directly on. This adapter is available from Baker Precision (see PN above), or from Earls, AN Plumbing ("M16x1.5 to -8AN" - PN#: 9919EFJ), or several other sources. I have read some bad experiences with Baker (although they've been perfect for me), so you may consider those alternate sources.
Regardless, when you thread in the adapter, put some pipe dope or similar sealear on the threads to ensure against leakage.
Next you'll want to mount the cooler. Fortunately, the Setrab coolers have a number of holes and tabs to mount them on. I mounted my cooler using some aluminum "L". I ground off the various tabs & protrustions on the bottom of the cooler, so that the aluminum could lay flat on its surface. I then drilled four holes in the aluminum to match up with the four slots/holes on the setrab cooler, and put four bolts and nuts through to hold the cooler securely. I just used a few spare 10mm head bolts that I had lying around off of some of my parts cars.
To mount the cooler to the car, I just searched for a few holes in the body where I could thread in a bolt. With your foglights gone (they are gone, right?), there should be several holes in the body you can bolt your new bracket to. I found a few 10mm holes that were close together, and they're in very sturdy metal on the body. The oil cooler does not move whatsoever. To dull the look of the shiny silver aluminum, I spray-painted the bracket black, so it wasn't quite so noticable.
As far as considerations for mounting the cooler, you MUST mount your cooler so that at least one of your ports is "up". This prevents air being trapped in the cooler and hurting it's efficiency. Both ports "up" is great. So is mounting it sideways with one port "up". Both ports down is BAD because of trapped air. (that tidbit courtesy of NABR).
Before finalizing any holes, make sure that all your fittings will clear your front fascia, and other under-body work. My cooler is a reasonably tight fit under the front fascia, but I've got an inch or so to spare on each fitting, which makes getting them on and off a snap. The smaller 19 row cooler is a much easier fit.
That is basically the extent of the installation. Cut your AN lines to fit, leaving a skosh of slack, and push the hose ends on them. Be sure to snug down everything, take it for a quick (short!) run to make sure that nothing is leaking.
And then enjoy your cooler-running, cooler looking, and one-less-fail-point DSM.
|
cooler installed.
under car, looking towards drivers side.
under car, looking up.
ooo red and blue.
clearance for lines on the fascia.
|
Final Pricelist
| Item |
Cost |
From |
| 125-8 Cooler |
$150 |
Baker Precision |
| AN Fittings & Adapters |
$80 |
Jegs, Baker |
| -8AN Hose |
$0 |
(Had Extra) |
| TOTAL: |
$230 |
|
|
