jns

That little stock oil cooler looks like a real headache not to mention hard to access. I see several posts of leaking seals, milkshakes and consequential bearing damage, OPRV problems, etc. I had a car called a Bricklin which was cool(gullwing doors, Ford 351W V8) but it was heavy and ran hot from the factory. I ran an oil cooler from the stock oil filter location using a Summit adapter which screwed on in place of the filter and had inlet and outlet hoses. I ran these hoses through the cooler and then through a dual oil filter assy. which made access from the front of the car a breeze, held a quart more oil than stock and allowed me to fill the oil filters before screwing them in.

My point is....I'm trying to see how this could be done on my 88 951. Just run lines from the block through the cooler and remote oil filters and back in like on the Bricklin I had. How could the whole oil cooler assy. come off and have the coolant holes plugged and run the oil lines from the block. Is the OPRV and oil thermostat really needed or could a different pressure regulator be used? I'm trying to get ideas so I can modify it for my next project.
Thanks for your input.

Zero10

Bricklin's are cool.

Don't know much about moving the oil filter, but I thought I would say that

Dal Heger

I never had a problem with the oil cooler assembly. As long as the o-rings and gaskets are good you won't have a problem, the don't fail for any other reason but age. So Replace them every 150k miles and you're good.

As for the cooler, it works just fine for everything but long hot track running, then the oil could get a little warmer than you'd like.

The OPRV is necessary and so is the thermostat. The oil pump is capable of blowing the gasket on any oil filter without the OPRV (it normally runs at 5 bar when hot, I wouldn't even want to think how much pressure it could push with cold oil). The thermostat for the cooler is also very necessary for the life of the cooler. Just try pushing 72+psi of cold oil through the cooler without it bursting over time. Remember the oil pump on these cars is a very high volume pump. It increases the output as the revs climb. Even on a hot engine the OPRV starts to bleed off pressure starting at about 3500 rpm or so (once it hits 4.5-5 bar).

As for filter relocation, sounds good to me, if you can find a good place in the engine bay. Personally I'll keep it stock and 100% reliable. No need to introduce a point of failure.

Dal.

HansB

Additional oil cooler is imho only needed at the track.
A simple affordable setup you can find here

Do a search on KISS oil cooler on this forum, and you will get all the info you need.

Tom M'Guinn

It is not set up in such as way that you can just cap off a few fittings, re-route the filter and forget about mixing problems. The oil passes through a coolant-filled oil filter housing via a short aluminum tube, which wears o-rings on both ends to keep the oil and coolant from mixing. If you relocate the filter via something that screws on in place of the filter, you will still have the filter housing and the possibility of mixing inside. If you pull the filter housing off altogether, then you would really need to get creative to seal off the coolant ports on the block, and attach oil fittings to the block. You'd also lose the oil thermostat inside the housing. Here is a picture of the block with the housing removed (stolen from another thread) to give you an idea of what you're up against. Not to mention that you need the housing to install the OPRV. In the end, even if you could do it, I'm not sure what you accomplish?

Ahmet

I disagree with the replace it every 150k comment. I've seen more than one 944 turbo with over 200k miles and original oil cooler as well as lines, no problems. Infact, I have not seen a single 944 turbo with oil cooler problems yet.

Some N/As have milkshake problems due to their oil/coolant heat exchanger, but those cars don't have have too much in common with the set-up in 944 turbos. The oil pressure relief valve has failed in several 944 turbos but I would not consider this a "common" failure point either. The best solution if you're that worried is the above mentioned cooler addition in my opinion. However I don't think it's necessary for any application but for track prepping a car that is somewhat modified (as in beyond just chips and 15psi of boost).
Ahmet

jns

Thanks for the info and great link. That's the kind of info I was looking for on that oil cooler link. That's a mean oil pump in there so I can see why the relief valve is there. Luckily my cooler isn't leaking yet so this isn't a critical problem. I'll just have to eyeball my oil's condition every day for the dreaded milkshake.

tjbreen

I had to do my oil cooler seals at 105K. It wasn't mixing it was leaking. All dry now.