easyrhino

Curious if anyone has had any experience swapping out the factory water cooled oil cooler for a forced air heat exchanger oil cooler? I plan on tracking the car here and there but no serious plans to race it. Car is an 02 Bugeye STI wagon.

I recently acquired a Mishimoto air oil cooler for a good price. I was thinking about swapping it in place of the factory water cooled unit that has started to leak. The prime install challenge is that the Mishimoto air unit mounts behind the upper grill where my power steering cooler sits. I will have to fabricate a bracket to mount the air cooler in the lower bumper inlet area.

I understand that I’m gaining some oil capacity with the forced air heat exchanger but also a reduction in over all oil pressure. The Mishi unit I have has the thermostatic sandwich plate which is nice and what made me grab it.

Is there a downside to eliminating the water cooled factory cooler? Looks easy enough to block off the 3rd port on the water pump and eliminate the plumbing and water cooled unit.

So which is more effective? Water or Air cooler?

Gambit

iTrader: (6)

Just keep the std oil cooler in place and add the mishimoto one as additional oil cooling

You say the current std oil cooler is leaking? Where from? Can only be the seal or the pipe connections. Anywhere else internally and youd be getting oil mixing into the coolant.

John 37

The standard one does 2 things. It cools the oil when it's hotter than the water and heats the oil when the water's hotter than the oil. The latter is particularly useful just after a winter start up. The only reason to change it is if you have high oil temp and need more cooling.
if the standard one's leaking, check the seal between it and the engine. Its the same as an oil filter seal.

easyrhino

It’s leaking at the seal to the block. I figured since I was going to go through the trouble of draining coolant and removing it to replace the seal, I’d also refresh the 3 hoses and crossover pipe. Then I thought if I could just eliminate it altogether and replace it with the Mishi unit.

I understand the multiple benefits of the the liquid cooler but I didn’t consider running both coolers. The Mishi sandwich plate is thermostatic so it would only route oil through the air H/E unit as necessary. My oil temps are typically in the high 80s low 90s. In the summer on some spirited drives it’s hit close to 100C. I have the Defi gauge light set to 100C. I would say the stock unit is effective enough for the street, but I plan on doing some track days and want to be prepared for the abuse.