The Mustang Forum for Track & Racing Enthusiasts

Taking your Mustang to an open track/HPDE event for the first time? Do you race competitively? This forum is for you! Log in to remove most ads.

  • Welcome to the Ford Mustang forum built for owners of the Mustang GT350, BOSS 302, GT500, and all other S550, S197, SN95, Fox Body and older Mustangs set up for open track days, road racing, and/or autocross. Join our forum, interact with others, share your build, and help us strengthen this community!

My DIY Oil Cooler Install (a few pics)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Seeing as how I am not made of money, I decided to see if I could beat the Ford price on an Air/Oil Cooler.

Here is my story....

label.jpg
This is the heart, a Setrab 925 oil cooler. Price, $387.08 and $77.77 for the Setrab fittings including shipping

Jegs10anPushlocHose_zpsacc87540.jpg
This is 20ft. of Jeg's -10an Pushloc hose. In my case it was about 8-10 ft. too much. Price, $67.99, free shipping.

Jegs10anPushlocFittings_zps327df3a4.jpg
Jeg's -10an Pushloc fittings, $35.98, free shipping

oilcooleradapter_zps07ce11ae.jpg
Oil Cooler Sandwich Adapter from CXRacing.com , $49.49
 
Last edited:
Here are my build pics...

Pre_Oil_Cooler.jpg

I can't imagine not doing this without pulling the facia. This is what it looks like. It's a fairly easy job. It's been covered elsewhere so I'll skip the details.
Mockup3.jpg

The caption says it. The way I originally mounted it would not allow the facia to go back on.

mockup2.jpg


Here's the mock up. Note how far forward the bottom of the cooler is. This won't work.



frontmockup2.jpg


More mounting pictures,


oilcooleradapterwithhoses.jpg
Here is the oil cooler adapter with the hoses attached
 
Last edited:
I thought I took more pictures than that.

What is not seen, I used -10 stainless cushioned clamps to mount one hose solid to an open hole on the steering rack and -10 clamps on the radiator support. I then used heavy plastic wire ties to attach the other hose alongside the other,

I had use of a lift and many tools. Just kind of pooping around with it I'd say it took me 3 hrs.

There is plenty of room for a 820 oil filter.

I think that's it. The legal disclaimer, this was my install, not an instruction sheet or template. Anyone trying this carry on at your own risk, I am not liable, there are a lot of sharp edges under there that without common sense could hurt a person or cut a hose and loose a motor.

Thanks for reading....
 

TMSBOSS

Spending my pension on car parts and track fees.
7,514
5,217
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Illinois
Nice

Only difference between your install and the CoolTech piece is the hose manufacturer, thermostat and about $600.00.

Will definitely look into a similar solution in the spring.

After installing my oil temp gauge, temps went over 270 while playing with a P car at Blackhawk.

Higher than I am comfortable with.
 
Nice work and thanks for sharing.

I'm going to update this post with parts and links but don't order anything until we have consensus:

Setrab 25-Row, Series 9 Oil Cooler

http://www.improvedracing.com/setrab-oil-coolers/setrab-25-row-series-oil-cooler-p-193.html

Combined Thermostat/Sandwich Plate, need M22 x 1.5 We need more info on this.

http://www.mishimoto.com/mishimoto-thermostatic-oil-sandwich-plate.html

http://www.mishimoto.com/rear-mount-thermostatic-sandwich-plate.html

No sensor ports

http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/product/13462/Mocal_Sandwich_Plate#reviews

Sandwich plates

http://www.glowshiftdirect.com/oil-filter-sender-adapter-18mm-15-thread.aspx

http://prosportgauges.com/oil-filter-adaptor-plate.aspx

Inline Thermostats

http://www.improvedracing.com/thermostats/mocal-remote-oil-cooler-thermostat-p-55.html

http://www.improvedracing.com/thermostats/high-flow-engine-oil-cooler-thermostat-180f-p-212.html

5.0 GT Radiator Hose Replacement

Motorcraft BR3Z-8286-BA orKM-5052 or KM-5136

http://www.fordpartsgiant.com/parts/ford-hose-asy_km-5052.html

Not sure on the hoses and connectors so any comments and links are appreciated


Cooler AN 10 Connectors

??

Sandwich Plate AN 10 Connectors

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-220758n/overview/

??

Hose

2x http://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-220789-b/overview/

??
 

steveespo

Lord knows I'm a Voodoo Child
Moderator
4,007
1,924
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Cookeville TN
Great work! It's pretty much as simple as that and you save a lot of $.
Rick, that adapter has 2 1/8" NPT fittings that are good for gauge senders.
I have a 180 degree thermostatic plate from Improved Racing (Chevy place but they make quality pieces) that cost $159. My plan is to eliminate the Boss water cooled section and just run the large Setrab heat exchanger with t stat control. After Gary had his failure with the Boss cooler I figured I'd eliminate that risk.
Really nice job again.
Steve
 
Smilieboy said:
^^^ It inspired me to go this route. Plus a buddy of mine is doing something similar with his track car so i figured we could work together to make both ours cheaper.

Thanks everyone, I wish I had taken more/better pics.

I'm all for making a profit but come on, every vendor I bought from made a profit and I came in just under $700. I used the Setrab mounting brackets ($50.00), no special modifications or bracketry was fabricated.

Again thanks for all the compliments....
 
367
1
Great write up :D
I'm going to go precisely this route.
Question - is the oil cooler secured only by the 2 bolts on the rad support?
There's nothing else securing it from the bottom side? Just wanted to see how people are mounting something as vital as an oil cooler.
 
2012Boss302 said:
Jegs10anPushlocFittings_zps327df3a4.jpg
Jeg's -10an Pushloc fittings, $35.98, free shipping

oilcooleradapterwithhoses_zps10d5fe09.jpg
Here is the oil cooler adapter with the hoses attached

It looks like you have a 90° fitting, but in the installation photo, it doesn't look like it is used. What angle fittings did you get exactly? Thanks!
 

Domestic Product

Big fat tires and everything !
Looks nice, good job. So you are running this along with the stock oil water cooler?. If so is it possible and or desirable to get rid of the stock oil cooler and its hoses altogether?
 
Domestic Product said:
Looks nice, good job. So you are running this along with the stock oil water cooler?. If so is it possible and or desirable to get rid of the stock oil cooler and its hoses altogether?

I think some people here have removed the factory cooler. The Air/Oil cooler I bought was a little bigger than what Ford sells ( Google Setrab 925 series cooler ) so it would probably be fine alone
 
patrickshelby said:
So you keep the oil to water system to warm up things on the cold starts?

In one of the other topics there was a link to some testing that one of the vendors (who make an air-oil kit) did. I cannot remember who it was, but their testing found that the stock oil cooler resulted in slower warm-up of the oil. I am guessing that is because the coolant gets up to temp faster and the thermostat opens up. Once that happens and you get that huge mass of cold coolant in the radiator now flowing through the oil cooler.

So, has anyone tried a radiator bypass hose with an in-line thermostat? Is it too risky? If it is too risky, is it better of getting a higher temp thermostat? It would definitely aid in heating the oil up quicker and that is always a plus.
 
WinterSucks said:
In one of the other topics there was a link to some testing that one of the vendors (who make an air-oil kit) did. I cannot remember who it was, but their testing found that the stock oil cooler resulted in slower warm-up of the oil.
Cooltech
 

TMSBOSS

Spending my pension on car parts and track fees.
7,514
5,217
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Illinois
neema said:
I feel like an inline oil thermostat would be the easiest option to address oil warm up, no?

I have a 25 row Setrab cooler and plumbing coming next week. I will do the install.

I considered adding the thermostat now. Since you can add at any time, I'll see how the warm up and overall operation of the cooler is before dropping $150.00 on the thermostat and fittings.
 

TMO Supporting Vendors

Top