Oil Cooler Questions

[mike67cam]

I am getting ready to order all of the necessary parts to add an oil cooler and remote filter to my 67 Camaro but I have a few questions. First, what is the appropriate line size to use? Most adapters seem to come with a ½ pipe thread which has an i.d. equivalent to around –8, but Canton manufactures an adapter with –12 o-ring fittings. Is –12 too larger? Also, any recommendations on the size of the cooler? I was looking at using an Earl’s cooler.
The engine is a 509 big block with a Procharger that will be mostly street driven but I want the cooler for an occasional track day. I am going to run an oil thermostat with a 215 opening temperature.

Thanks!

Mike

[Blown353]

The ORB (o-ring boss) fittings are preferred because they have nice tapered bellmouth entries which make for good flow characteristics, whereas a lot of the NPT threaded adpaters have reduced ID's at the threaded portion and aren't as conducive to good flow. Restrictions in the oil plumbing are never a good thing. Try to avoid angled NPT adapter fittings, as they're quite restrictive; use a straight adapter and a curved hose end instead as the hose ends are nice mandrel bent tubes.

-8 seems on the small side to me. On the dry sump and cooler systems I've seen, they always use -12 or -16. Going too big on the plumbing will only hurt your wallet as the cost of the fittings is high. Going smaller on the plumbing may cost you a motor due to poor flow and starvation. I'd run the -12 stuff.

Troy

[CarlC]

-10 for the lines is generally the accepted size for wet-sump applications like ours.

I fully agree with Troy on the fittings issue. Use as many straight hose ends as possible. If you must use a curved fitting, Aeroquip makes a larger radius tube-type fitting that has a larger radius bend than others on the market. I've never had an Aeroquip line leak.

I've never liked NPT fittings. There's none on my setup.