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The RD radiator is very efficient and really pulls heat out of the coolant so when the coolant passes over the oil cooler in the right side tank it pulls a lot of heat out of the oil. I had mine in two C5s for 8 seasons. A very good system with -10 lines. The problem with the RD/EOC is it over cools the oil for street driving. In 40 deg ambient temps the oil temp will never go over 150 unless you let the car sit and idle for an extended time and then as soon as it starts moving the temp will drop. When I took my C5Z for half hour highway drives in 40 deg weather I would put it in 3rd gear and run at 70 mph and that would get the oil temp up to about 170. Same speed in 4th and the oil temp would sit right around 145. That was with a stock thermostat. On track in high 80/90 degree weather the coolant would ride at 200 degrees and the oil temp at 230 degrees.
I Had an oil cooler assy from a large Vette HP vendor that came thru with the braided nylon lines by mistake it worked for 1/2 a season but I had a really nice oil fire on the front stretch at the GLEN after 15 minutes on track the line melted then burst from the exhaust heat the line was no where near the pipe about 2.5 -3 inches this was stock exhaust w/ cats. They spec braided and their vendor made a few kits with the nylon.
The reason I am not giving their name it they were VERY stand up about it and cut a check for the damage, but if I had not driven into the tall wet grass in front of the fire truck the car would have been GONE.
Q: How many feet are necessary for each hose (assuming cooler will be mounted in front of the condenser on a C6) and what would be better for a car thats still going to see street duty; a 180 T-stat or a 212?
Im looking at running a setrtab 25 or 34 row 6 series
Thanks!
EDIT:
Will this be overkill on for the operation of the stock oil pump (2007 LS2)?
I researched this a ton for the last 6 months on and off. If you want something legit you can go a bit cheaper but if the car is street driven the cheapest way to do it is to:
1. drm 625 kit(619 isn't big enough from what i have read) and an improved racing thermostat. together shipped its $715+210 so $925ish.
2. dewitts left side in radiator, this is likely the least cooling option but best packaged. Also will act as an oil heater in cold weather if you drive the car like i do, any day there isn't rain salt or snow. Fits with very minimal modification, and you use gm lines to attach the cooler. I talked to bunched of people including dewitts and on a c5z (what i have) it suposedly gives 20-25 degrees of oil cooling. Its $900ish before the sale.
I personally wouldn't use this with a standard block and lines that push all oil through it.(dewitts does sell one but they recomended the gm lines) It might get you a bit more cooling but there would be flow/pressure loss issues, and there are a number of posts on these forums that it likes to drain back and causes dry startup for a second or 2. The GM hoses have a bypass which limits the flow, and cooling, but keeps pressure drop minimized and stops the system from draining back from the best i can tell.
3. Ron Davis is about 1400 with a thermostat block. Requires some putzing to fit, but probably has good capacity too cool as the oil is on the right side(cold side) and doesnt require putting a cooler in front of the radiator.
4. I priced out my own 634 setup and i could do it for around 900 with the IR thermostat block and quality 10an fitting and hose. with the koul tool for hose assembley and the setrab brackets and using zip ties to mount, which i was not super happy about.
The dewitts is on sale till maybe the 26th, so considering that and the fact that 100 days a year the oil heater will be benificial, and I think I may be able to squeek by with the oil cooler on track. I went with the dewitts for $775 shipped. I figure if nothing else if it doesnt work i know i need a 634 or 172 at that point and will just build a huge stand alone. Also i will have a more than adequate radiator at that point so blocking/heating the radiator with a large stand alone oil cooler won't be a concern. And i only end up out $300, as its currently 15% off, actually only 255. SO its worth the risk for the minimal total cost even if i stop using the oil cooler and just go huge standalone.
Understand there is no correct answer to this question unless you have a trailered dedicated car that only drives on track. Then just get a huge standalone. For a multipurpose car that is actually driven hard enough to heat the oil high enough to be an issue, you have to decide what compromise you want to make. At this point i would rather compromise that i can currently run 10-12 minutes full on, i am thinking the dewitts will get me to 15-18. Relative to the gorup i run with and how they break up traffic, i am very fast in the street tire group or very slow in the intermediate group with many people running rcomps or slicks. So my chances of running unobstructed for 15+ miniutes are minimal. Having some ability to get the oil back down when I am stuck behind people will allow me to likely run without cooldown laps mid session. All year on the street it will allow my oil to get up to 180 in under 20 minutes as well. A 634 or 172 with a IR block would allow me indefinate run time i imagine, assuming it didn't block too much of the stock radiator to cause the water to overheat. From all i heard in any coldihs weather the ron davis is cold on the right side on the street, which makes me think with a thermostat it would work well. But it sounds like a pain to install as a number of things have to be tweaked to get it to fit and at the end of the day, i can do a standalone that i know for sure will work along side a dewitts for only a couple hundred more.
Originally Posted by Socko
Which drm kit do you run? Are you running a dewitts radiator as well?
Originally Posted by Socko
Getting the cooler mounted in a manner that it isn't going to destroy anything and that it actually works, is fairly critical. I had intended to talk to drm and see if they would pull the oil block from the kit so i could save the $130.(I got that number in my head, i may have made it up or they may sell their block seperate for 130?) imo their bracket is the most valueable part of the kit, as setrab states using their brackets you should use 2 and they are $25 each. Besides the fact that I have seen so many an hoses leak, it was worth it to me to get something preassembled and measured jsut makes it so much easier.
Suck it Socko...
This works just fine....
ECS Block, Setrab Cooler, Hand fabricated shroud and brackets and mounted into the impact foam. There is over a inch of room behind the cooler for air to flow through. This location works great and this whole setup cost less than $400 to put together.. If it works in this 1000hp car it will work in your 400hp car!
Engines getting ready to come out in a couple weeks, clear your schedule douchewhistle..
For bracket there's a good DIY on here for in front of condenser. I used thin steel pieces from home depot, formed them in vice and $10 welds at muffler shop... very sturdy, doesn't move at all.
This was the approach I was considering for my oil cooler.... I broke my last Setrab OC from Lingenfelter. I blame myself for being a complete and utter noob. My best guess is the bigger LG radiator and T1 swaybars made the space designated by Lingenfelter for the OC to become abundantly smaller, inevitably cracked the OC.
After placing the OC around under the car last night, my best solution thus far is to get a couple pieces of steel as you described and bolting each end to the front frame and bolting the OC to those.
oil cooler and mount (Lingenfelter) along with the adapter (Lingenfelter, you can see the part # in the pic), made the lines myself. $460. Cooler, mount and adapter were used off the forum here. I am on the hunt for a 50-634-7612 series cooler though; new motor will be making more horses.
OP, did you ever make a decision on this? Just wondering because I'm in the same boat. Pretty sure I'll end up getting the Innovate Motorsports block adapter with 212 degree thermostat, a Setrab 625 oil cooler and then fabbing my own lines and mounting bracket. I'm a bit worried that I'll need to upgrade my radiator too, after I put the oil cooler in front of it.........
Anyway, let us know what you decided and how it works out.
I bought the DRM kit with the 625 setrab, for simplicity. If I built out my own kit, it would take a bit of fiddling and, in my case, fumbling. My builder Jerry Onks (Vettesport.net), who is installing it for me (and my Dewitt radiator, also corner balancing and aligning) said don't worry so much about the thermostat. I won't drive mine in super cold weather, generally.
That looks to be breecher 7's setup. Mine is similarish. It's fully shrouded and seals up nicely so any air that comes in must go through the cooler.
The front is held up by these metal straps which are screwed into a boss used by the foglights.
The rear held in with this angle metal that is bolted to some rivnuts I installed in the front bumper.
Some heat wrap and a lot of clamps to support the lines.
As you can see, I almost went the same route as breecher. It was my plan A, but I didn't like the idea of the foam holding it in place.
This was plan B, but it put the cooler too low for the air to hit the cooler directly.
I was also concerned about ground clearance and oil flow with that 90 degree fitting. Then I found out that Pfadt used to sell kits that orient the cooler like mine, so I just went with that instead. Sucked because I already had mounts fabbed up that screwed into the frame and all.
I put a lot of time and time into deciding how to make this setup and then going with it. I wanted the oil to warm up in the winter, and I wanted the cooler to have its own flow separate from the radiator.
Last edited by Supercharged111; 08-17-2015 at 06:46 PM.
It's final configuration is laying down. The only way it sat right standing up was in the bumper foam. With the fittings on top, it was below the hole and would require a shroud. In the laid down version, I bent up some sheet metal to make a shroud. I also had to full back in some of the foam I removed which I did with sheet metal and body panel retainers.
On any install with braided lines make sure the lines cannot rub against each other. I had the Pfadt cooler on my 02 C5Z and it worked very well but during my install I overlooked a spot where the lines touched and eventually one stainless braid line moved enough against the other to make a pinhole. Cut short my time on track and had to plumb the uncut line back into a loop to drive home. Replaced the cut hoses and wrapped with thermal wrap to insulate and protect.
I actually wrapped all my lines with heat protection wrap I got from summit. It makes them a little bigger, but they are protected. Also, the ECS adapter works better than those that are installed with the allen wrench. I did not put a tstat in mine as I didn't want to have more connections. During my first winter, I just removed the center air dam as my oil never got above 155*, but that only got temps up to 170ish. My cooler is now hooked up like type A in this drawing:
Now I just remove the cooler and use connector for the two lines. Gets oil up to 215ish.
01-22-2015, 08:04 PM
