So, You Want To Run With The Big Dogs?
Aug 01 '00
So, you want to add some more power? You've got your Summit, Jegs or PAW catalog and visions of superchargers, chrome valve covers and carbs sticking out of the hood are dancing through your head. Well, before you start dumping your hard earned cash, you have to take a look at the whole car. It's one big transportation system, not a fueling system, a cooling system and a braking system. Any modifications have to integrate correctly with the rest of the systems. Think of it as a chain; every chain has its weak link. Just because you put heavy shackles on the ends of a chain doesn't mean it can pull more weight.
COOLING
Before you start installing that Nitrous Oxide kit, or new camshaft, you need to think about how it's going to effect the whole system. Sure, you're going to get more ponies, but you're going to increase other things as well. Namely, heat.
Heat is a by-product of an internal combustion engine. It needs to be shed. The fastest way to do this is with an oil cooler. An engine oil cooler should be the first under the hood modification. It will give you a good foundation to start with. It will lower your operating temperatures and extend the life of your lubricated engine components. It will also take some of the load off of the cooling system and help protect other under the hood components, like the starter and ignition systems. Less exposure to heat = less failures. There are a few ways to go about installing an oil cooler.
THE KITS
For around $70, there are complete kits available that will get the job done. These consist of:
*The Cooler
*Hoses
*Hose Clamps
*Fittings
*Oil Sandwich Adapter
Most of these bits are pretty self-explanatory, except for the 'Oil Sandwich Adapter'. This part fits (sandwiches) between the oil filter and the engine block. It mounts to the engine block, and the filter screws into it. It has an inlet and an outlet port for the oil cooler itself. It also has a bypass to cut the cooler out for cold starts.
INSTALLATION
First you install the sandwich adapter at the filter. Screw in the fittings to the adapter with a little Teflon tape. Push the hoses onto the fittings and tighten up the clamps. Run the hoses (inlet and outlet) to the front of the radiator. Plastic tie the cooler to the front of the radiator. The kits come with special plastic ties that slide through the fins of both the cooler and the radiator, and squeeze the two together. Install the hoses to the cooler, neatly tie all of the hoses together and out of harms way. Install a brand new oil filter, add one quart of oil, run the engine and check for leaks. Stop the engine and see how much oil is needed to top off the engine. This should be about a quart or so. Bang, about an hour later you have cool oil. This system is fine for light applications, but has a number of flaws for pushing out any kind of big horsepower.
1-Pressed on Hoses and Hose Clamps: Hose clamps are fine for the radiator. The cooling system only holds whatever is stamped on the radiator cap; usually somewhere between five and 15 PSI, while the lube system runs from 20 to 80 PSI. Constant heating and cooling under pressure coupled with vibration makes the connections weaker over time. These hoses always seem to go at high RPM's, and in a matter of seconds, can destroy your engine. Even if you are greased lightning on the key switch, and the engine survives the ordeal, you'll still take thousands of miles off your engines life expectancy.
2-Cooler Location: The cooler mounted up against the radiator is not the way to go. With that kind of installation, the oil cooler is just pumping heat into the radiator. Basically, it is swapping the heat from one cooling system to another; we're looking to dump this heat, not put it back into the system. The plastic ties mounting the cooler to the radiator can, in time, cause both the radiator and the cooler to fail die to vibration and wear.
A SYSTEM TO BE PROUD OF
Forget the kits; all the parts for a really fine oil cooler can be picked up seperately. The oil sandwich adapter can be picked up for about $30. Make sure the inlets and outlets in the one you buy have 1/2 inch National Pipe Thread openings. The cooler should also have the same size (1/2 inch) inlet and outlet. The cooler should also have mounting brackets so you can bolt it in the airstream behind the grille, at least two inches away from the radiator. Permacool makes a real nice unit with three tubes that runs about $100. It's rated for around 450 HP. They make bigger coolers as well. Add one tube for around every 100 HP increase, also add $35 for each tube.
NOW, HERE COMES THE TRICKY PART
We're going to set this up without a single hose clamp. You can mail order the stainless steel hose that you can assemble yourself from the speed catalogs, but this will cost a fortune. OR, you can go find your local heavy equipment dealer or industrial supply outlet. Everything you're going to need is there. Go on down and tell the parts man what you're doing. I'm sure he'll be very helpful, because he's been planning on doing this to his own car forever.
I recommend this method for fitting the hoses: for the sandwich adapter, get two straight 1/2 inch National Pipe Thread (NPT) to 1/2 inch JIC adapters. This is flare type connector they use in hydraulic systems. Then, get two more of the same type adapters with 90 degree bends in them for the cooler. Don't have the hoses made at this time. Just pick up the JIC hose ends and have the parts man show you the hose you will be using. Check the hose for flex. Use 1/2 inch single wire hose that's rated to around 1,000 PSI working pressure. With this hose, you could lift the engine out of the car. It will never fail, and is worth every extra second and cent it takes to have them made.
Now, you have your pipe-to-JIC adapters and hose ends. Go home and install the adapters with Teflon tape on the pipe thread side only. On the cooler make sure you use two wrenches, so as not to crack the header. Screw the hose ends onto the adapters handtight. Go into the garden shed and get that old garden hose you never threw away. Push one end of the garden hose onto the JIC hose end, and run them up to the cooler. Don't make and bends harder than the hose you are going to use will bend. You can either cut the garden hose to the length you want, or take measurements. Go back to the parts guy, with your garden hose or measurements, and have your high pressure hoses made. When you do your final installation, make sure the final hoses aren't hanging, rubbing or otherwise in harms way. And don't use Teflon tape on the JIC hose ends. They seal with metal-to-metal contact, and Teflon will make them leak.
You can get either rubber coated or stainless steel hoses depending on your wallet. The stainless looks better, but remember, there's beauty in function. Figure around $30-$40 in hoses and fitting (not counting the old garden hose) depending on your local prices.
THE HARDCORE METHOD
I don't recommend this for everyday drivers, especially for cold weather starting situations. It's basically the same installation method, but with an oil filter relocation for those of you too lazy to crawl under your car for an oil change. Instead of getting an oil sandwich adapter, you need what is called an oil filter bypass. Just unscrew your oil filter and screw it in where the oil filter was. It has an inlet and an outlet, but no filter adapter. You can get this bypass for $10 or $15, depending on what kind of car you drive. You'll also need a remote filter bracket. You can get these in single filters or dual filters, and they run anywhere between $10 and $30. The remote filter bracket usually uses Fram #PH8A filters, about the most common filter out there.
It's really the same installation as the Permacool cooler, with an extra hose. Just make sure the oil flows from the engine to the remote filter, to the cooler and then back to the engine. Heated oil holds dirt and contaminants much better than cooler oil. This is why you change your oil while it's hot. This is called detergent suspension. The faster the molecules are moving the better the dirt and contaminants stay suspended in the oil. Again, I don't recommend remote filters for frequent cold weather starting. Remember, you have to push that cold, thick oil through all of those hoses and the cooler. This leads to engine oil starvation. With an oil sandwich adapter there is a bypass that cuts out the cooler in cold weather starts, and makes that system much more suitable for an everyday driver.
Always remember that the car is a number of systems working together. To get any kind of performance out of your engine, all of the systems need to be addressed. There's no sense in dumping thousands into an engine and then frying it. Installing an oil cooler is a good foundation for further modifications. It only involves one system and it won't effect the rest of the systems. You won't have to come up with new timing setting or re-jet the carburetor. It will give you a good idea of what's to come. The skill needed for the kits is around a four, and the better do-it-yourself setup about a six, with "One" being you cross thread light bulbs and "Ten" being you have nine and a half fingers and a small mortgage to the Snap On truck.
The kits are easy and a quick installation, but a really nice cooler set up with neatly laid out high pressure hoses will catch eye, and there's nothing like the feeling when some one asks you where you got the cooler, and you can answer, "I set it up myself".
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All prices are for domestic American cars. Double the prices for Japanese imports, and triple them for European.
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