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My DIY Oil Cooler Install (a few pics)

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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....

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

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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.

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

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Oil Cooler Sandwich Adapter from CXRacing.com , $49.49
 
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TMSBOSS

Spending my pension on car parts and track fees.
7,514
5,217
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Illinois
The filter fitting comes with the plate, no need to source separately.
I went with -10 lines. Works well. The extra cost and size of the -12 lines will likely not improve cooling and may make it a bit more difficult to run your lines.
I have Setrab cooler while also retaining the original ford boss cooler. Works well. Warm up is quick with the engine coolant warming the oil through he boss cooler.
 
I don't think size 12 line will help because you are still restricted by the ID of the oil filter adapter plate fittings, which in most cases are smaller than the ID of size 10 line.
 
BigTaco said:
Ford recommends staying with size -10.

TMSBOSS said:
The filter fitting comes with the plate, no need to source separately.
I went with -10 lines. Works well. The extra cost and size of the -12 lines will likely not improve cooling and may make it a bit more difficult to run your lines.
I have Setrab cooler while also retaining the original ford boss cooler. Works well. Warm up is quick with the engine coolant warming the oil through he boss cooler.

06mach1 said:
I don't think size 12 line will help because you are still restricted by the ID of the oil filter adapter plate fittings, which in most cases are smaller than the ID of size 10 line.

I have been back and forth on that all day long. With the reduction from the -12 to the -10 going into the sandwich plate I doubt I would have seen any real benefit to it but I figured well f it lets see what happens. I will probably go with the -10 lines for the reasons everyone stated.

That is good news on the fitting being with the Morso plate at least I won't need that, thanks for confirming Tracy!

If 06mach1 (Mike I think correct?) does make the brackets I might just jump on them but I'm still not 100% certain. I have to go and figure out what kind of cooler to get and figure out where I am going to mount it. I'm not certain if it would be better placed in the front grill opening or down low towards the lower grill opening. I would like to fence in the radiator with maybe a curved bottom coming from the lower grill area so that is something for me to think about as well. We will see what Setrab has to say.
 
Sean, are you going to track your car? If not the stock cooler should work fine. If you are add the cooler. You want to keep that awesome motor build safe!
 
VooDooBOSS said:
Sean, are you going to track your car? If not the stock cooler should work fine. If you are add the cooler. You want to keep that awesome motor build safe!

Yes sir! I am thinking that with the factory oil cooler I could run a smaller oil cooler in series and still maintain the cooling abilities as per Kendall's posts and testings. I have asked them about their multi pass oil coolers and if they think those would be sufficient since they are about the same size as the 172 and might add some better cooling potential.
 

Grant 302

basic and well known psychic
I agree with the suggestions in yesterday's posts.

The Moroso plate comes with the M22 fitting. I believe it is also the piece used in the FRPP kit, which is why I used it.

I wouldn't bother with AN -12.

Mike's braket made my install way faster and far more reliable than anything I would have done on my own. Totally worth it, IMO.

I like the functional benefits of running the cooler in series. But I do worry a little about reliability of the hard lines in the Boss cooler.
 

drano38

Wayne
1,130
318
Sean,
06mach1's bracket works great. See my post #66 on this thread for how I did mine with a 934 cooler. I used the Moroso plate and still have the factory water/oil cooler in. And I installed an Improved Racing thermostat. Since I drive during the early spring and late fall in SD, it lets the oil warm up quicker.
I saw a recent post of someone using a 6 series and mounted it sideways (like the Cooltech kit using a 172). It keeps more of the cooler above the bumper clip. But I can't remember where that post is. He used angle iron brackets for the top mounts.
Lots of great choices out there.
 
Sean: I am running a setrab series 9 - 15 row cooler with Mike,'s mounting bracket in tandem with the factory boss cooler. Mike's bracket is as nice (or nicer) than the one that comes with the FRPP cooler kit and it includes all mounting hardware and instructions. That said, I track my car regularly and would suggest a slightly larger cooler than the 15 row that I chose. The really large coolers start to get pretty expensive (and some may cause a less than ideal drop in oil pressure). When looking at cost / benefit, a 25-30 row cooler (when ran in tandem with the factory cooler) would be a good choice IMO. I would also suggest the AN 10 hoses, as others have suggested. Going too small will restrict flow and too large can cause a drop in pressure. Also, if you're planning to run any sensors / gauges for pressure or temp you will need a sandwich plate with the appropriate ports. Many of us on BMO have gotten ours from EBay for around $25. They work well and are significantly cheaper than any of the other name brand plates out there.
 

Grant 302

basic and well known psychic
Improved Racing has a deal for 50% off one of their brand of oil coolers with the purchase of one of their T-stats. They have one that is similar to the Setrab 172 that lists for $450. $225 for one of these sounds like a great deal.

Use the drop-down on the T-Stat page for the available coolers and sale price.

Also have a 5% code for entire order on cyber monday: BF2015
 
Grant 302 said:
I agree with the suggestions in yesterday's posts.

The Moroso plate comes with the M22 fitting. I believe it is also the piece used in the FRPP kit, which is why I used it.

I wouldn't bother with AN -12.

Mike's braket made my install way faster and far more reliable than anything I would have done on my own. Totally worth it, IMO.

I like the functional benefits of running the cooler in series. But I do worry a little about reliability of the hard lines in the Boss cooler.

I think so too, I may grab the bracket from him in a bit once I can figure everything out regarding this. I have been thinking about the Setrab Multi Pass oil coolers but they don't appear to have the same heat removing potential like the 172 or the large 6 series or large 9 series. I would think that since I should be in the 600+ Flywheel HP range I should stick with those larger coolers or else I would have jumped on the Improved Racing deal.

drano38 said:
Sean,
06mach1's bracket works great. See my post #66 on this thread for how I did mine with a 934 cooler. I used the Moroso plate and still have the factory water/oil cooler in. And I installed an Improved Racing thermostat. Since I drive during the early spring and late fall in SD, it lets the oil warm up quicker.
I saw a recent post of someone using a 6 series and mounted it sideways (like the Cooltech kit using a 172). It keeps more of the cooler above the bumper clip. But I can't remember where that post is. He used angle iron brackets for the top mounts.
Lots of great choices out there.

That is the same way I was looking to mount mine. From what I can tell the Boss 302S seemed to run them sideways now according to a couple of posts that I have read somewhere in the many places I have been reading. Do I also need the thermostat for this when keeping the factory cooler?

KBBOSS1086 said:
Sean: I am running a setrab series 9 - 15 row cooler with Mike,'s mounting bracket in tandem with the factory boss cooler. Mike's bracket is as nice (or nicer) than the one that comes with the FRPP cooler kit and it includes all mounting hardware and instructions. That said, I track my car regularly and would suggest a slightly larger cooler than the 15 row that I chose. The really large coolers start to get pretty expensive (and some may cause a less than ideal drop in oil pressure). When looking at cost / benefit, a 25-30 row cooler (when ran in tandem with the factory cooler) would be a good choice IMO. I would also suggest the AN 10 hoses, as others have suggested. Going too small will restrict flow and too large can cause a drop in pressure. Also, if you're planning to run any sensors / gauges for pressure or temp you will need a sandwich plate with the appropriate ports. Many of us on BMO have gotten ours from EBay for around $25. They work well and are significantly cheaper than any of the other name brand plates out there.

Thanks for the tip! I was thinking the 172 when ran in series with the factory oil cooler would be good because I haven't heard many complaints from the guys running the Cool Tech kit which uses the same oil cooler but I am constantly back and forth on the 172 or the 948 (I think it is) due to the power potential of the motor especially when I see some feedback on this. I ordered some -10 AN lines and some hardware and what not but not the sandwich plate. I plan to run an oil temperature sensor from my Moroso oil pan so I wouldn't need the sandwich plate with the ports I would think unless that is a big no-no, but I do see a lot of people getting temperatures form their pans rather then from the sandwich plates.

Thanks for all the help from everyone!
 
I've got the exact set up for oil temp into the pan ( using Killer B Adapter )

Remove useless oil level sensor from pan:

IMG_20171021_233104.jpg





Acquire M20 - 1/8 NPT adapter

IMG_20171021_211602.jpg



Attach 1/8" Temp Sensor:


IMG_20171021_211610.jpg




Profit.

IMG_20171022_185558.jpg




One issue I found was routing the wire comes CLOSE to the header so I wrapped it in silver foils from Thermo-Tec


IMG_20171025_221816.jpg
 
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