1stZ

Hi all!

I thought I'd share with you my project of upgrading my C6Z's stock oil cooler. Thanks a bunch to my friend/mechanic Dennis Chizma (ALMS '05 tech of the year! - check pic below) who insisted on upgrading both the radiator (We went with Dewitt) engine oil cooler separately.



Below are a few pics of both stock oil cooler & upgraded oil cooler:

stock OC:


Below is a pic of oil cooler removed which was infront and at the bottom of the condenser which is also in front of the radiator.


According to my friend/mechanic, it is the removal of the oil cooler that was blocking the clean air that goes into the radiator that should help me a lot from cooling. Aside from of course adding both a bigger radiator and engine oil cooler. According to him, this was a poor design, having the engine oil cooler sitting in front of the radiator. Make sense if you think about: by the time the clean air gets through the oil cooler and the ac condenser to the radiator, the air will be a lot hotter by the time it hits the radiator.

Few pics of the upgraded oil cooler

Rear view that shows the fan
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/b...0pics/PRC3.jpg
Top view of the OC that shows how much thicker it is than stock


We put the new OC directly behind the Lf. fog light on the driver side. I agreed and OK'd the decision to remove the fog light to allow air flow to the new OC. Check out the pic below!


Another pic (close up) that show the screen we made to make look better.


Oil cooler installed. We had to re-route the brake ducts.

Another pic from the side view


I'm looking forward to test as soon as I get the car back from the paint shop. As you could see from the pic below, the WC hood needs paint .

The last time I was out at the track with 105* ambient temp. with already upgraded Dewitt radiator and running 30 minutes session, oil temp went all the way to 295* & water coolant went to 250*. I plan to test next week which should still be hot here in vegas (about 100-105*) and will try to push the car to a 30-45 minute session.

I'll post again after testing. Wish me luck

klasik-69

That's a great post and fantastic pictures. Too bad you didn't have a shot of the re-routed brake ducts. On the subject of brake ducts, do you think the re-routing will be detrimental to the brake cooling on that side ?

1stZ

I'll post again after I run the car in a couple of weeks with regards to the brake ducts. I'm told that the same amount of air flow should continue to get to the rotors. I'll also post my oil & coolant temps after of course.

redvetracr

what are the black hoses and hose clamps for?

abc 123

I love it when people mount this stuff up front where it is not protected and then have an issue punching the wall at track day and blowing fluid everywhere.

1stZ

to the rigth of the OC are the stock OC lines that we continued to used without much modification. The one's at the bottom are the fan wires.

ABC,

Obviously, I don't plan on anything on the track. If you hit anything head on, you'd be spilling fluids all over as well. But, thanks for the warning... I guess!

redvetracr

I`m confused...the factory uses hose clamps?

VetteDrmr

You mean like the stock radiator? Where else are you going to mount coolers?

Have a good one,
Mike

abc 123

It's bad enough having to clean coolant up, but I've been tat a few track events where a vehicle has been stuffed and leaked oil over the track. At least the rad is somewhat tucked away, but mounting a cooler in the front corner of a nose....

kelp

I'm doing the same thing, with one on either side.

It's a mess and right in the middle of it.