oil cooler mount

[Branson]

anyone know where I can pick up the mounting brackets and hardware for mounting a oil cooler in the nose of a spridget? Moss wants to sell me the hoses too which I dont want since Ive got a 12a rotary in the car and the hoses are probably not the right length.

 

[JPSmit]

Ebay?

 

[George Zeck]

Tack / Spot weld it in. You can chisel if out in 20 yrs if she goes.

 

[Branson]

ebay didnt turn up anything guess I will have to make my own

 

[nomad]

Lots of bolts down there in the nose to attach brackets to. Just a bent up flat strap will do. I have the cooler and eyed the application but never got around to it.

Kurt.

 

[dwgwater]

I used galvanized plumbing strap when I installed a cooler 15 or 20 years ago. So far, so good.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Branson,

Think about airflow as you mount this in the nose of a BE. This will block some of your cooling capacity if you stick it right out in the airflow and right in the nose. I mounted the oil cooler in Bugsy up in hte nose and needed to cut holes in the side of the radiator support brackets so hoses could pass through. In my case I padded hoses with rubber, multiple layers of inner tube tie wrapped around cooler hoses to prevent chaffing and rubbing against the hole in the raqdiator upright. Now I was just trying to get it to work with stock hoses. A later Spridget mounts the cooler at the bottom of the valence with openings cut in the valence for airflow. Time for the Racer X guys to tell us how it's done on a racecar. Try to avoid reinventing hte wheel.

 

[BuggerAll]

Just bend up some 1/8" aluminum (by 1" or 1 1/4" wide) into angle brackets, drill holes and mount in front of the rad with the fittings upright. ALternate mounting often used on racers is to mount vertically to the left of the radiator (when looking from the front), but that takes away your ability to use the factory ducting for the heater air inlet. On my racer I have two oil coolers - seriously. One 16 row in front of the radiator and another square section cooler behind the RF headlight, plumbed in series. Keeps the oil (I use Amsoil Dominator 15w/50) at about 230 degrees sump temp even on the hottest days, which here in the Mid-Atlantic were pretty hot last season. On cool days I seal off part of the front of the 16 row with racer's tape. Between the two coolers, the one-quart filter and the two quart Accusump, a fill is the better part of 7 quarts of $12 oil...

 

[Branson]

thanks guys! its for a '65 sprite so I was going to mount it in front of the radiator just above the valance. Moss sells an installation kit but I just need the brackets and bolts, not the hoses and grommets and all of the other stuff that drives the price way up. even if I could just get the brackets that would be great but so far no cigar

thanks!!

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Branson,

I just used a couple of pieces of aluminum L brackets and cut holes to fit. It wasn't tough to do.There were some exisitng bolts down there and I repurposed for the mount. I later discovered hoses would not clear BE Bonnet so I drilled holes in the side of the shroud for the radiator support bracket, made sure nothing sharp on holes and added multiple layers of inner tube to protect against chaffing. This one was really pretty easy to do. Now I think I raised this cooler mount 1/2 way up as again it did not fit the bonnet. Oh I made 4 very small cuts like about 1/2" deep on the shroid for the radiator opening in the bonnet so it would clear the support brackets/horizontal mounting tabs on the oil cooler. The oil cooler will not fit where pictured with a BE Bonnet.

Alan Fisher, can you take a picture of how I set up the oil cooler for Branson and post please.

 

[Branson]

Thanks Jim!

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Branson,

The spot shown above would not fit when I put the bonnet on. I needed to move Oil Cooler up about a foot from where it is located here. Not a lot of room under there with Bonnet in place.Ping frogeye@cox.net Alan Fisher to take a picture of where the oil cooler is currently located on Bugsy I

 

[Guest]

I'm not a fan of that location as IMHO it defeats the purpose. While you do cool the oil, you are also preheating the incoming air for the radiator. You are simply taking heat from one area of the engine and moving it to somewhere else in the motor. VW did this with the early style dog house and cooked #3 cylinder. They finally wised up and moved the cooler out of the dog house and routed the exhaust air out away from the cylinders.

Where would be a good place to mount it then? I'd mount it under the radiator in the shoud. I have a cooler here and planned on cutting my rad shoud/housing and mounting it on the backside. it''l be out of the way of a flip top lid as well as incoming air for the radiator there. That will make the hoses shorter too. Depending on how your cooler is made you may be able to bolt it in directly in this location without any brackets.

 

[BlueMax]

Mine doesView attachment 27087

 

[bug_sixty]

OEM race cars had it standing on end where the fresh air vent cowl is.... I put mine on the opposite side...cut a duplicate openning in the cowl and formed sheet metal specfic to the cooler's rectangle. I run the oil hose's behind the radiator.

 

[bug_sixty]

By the way I invested in aircraft grade connection and hydralic hose 25yrs ago and to this day have never had a leak....

 

[BlueMax]

I used to have the cooler were the fresh air duct was located but wanted in front of the Griffin aluminum radiator. The electric fan behind the radiator will help keep both cool. I too will be piping the return hose behind and below the steering rack. I plan to use Aeroquip hoses and fitting through out, I'm using a 16 row cooler rather than a 10 this time.

 

[bug_sixty]

yea, forgot the name but that's it Aeroquip, On on another note, the Factory thought #4 cylinder cooling was lacking so they took the heater connection on head and routed hose to the rad...where the temp gauge is normally. (on 1275 temp is better place in block...more accurate)....I'm more on side that water temp control is far more important than oil... In fact, unless your stressing the engine.. ie racing... the oil needs to be GETTING to temp more than not...you have to be on a mountain trip running at 4-5 grand on a 6% or traveling in 90+deg at 70 mph... sorry but I'm getting to old for that fun experience...haha

 

[bug_sixty]

Also with todays oils viscosity changing oils and tolerance to viscosity breakdown at high temps....the old idea that oil that got to hot was REALLY bad is in the history books

 

[BlueMax]

1380cc all billet bottom end. Scatter pattern cam 1.5 ratio rollers, 10.03 to 1 cr, ported big valve head. Power ban starts to drop off at around 7k. You can bet I’ll be quite sure to get oil warm enough, sure don’t want to blow an filter o-rings out among other damage with too cool of oil. Oil thermostat works well too..


View attachment 27096