cornerhans

Trying to keep my air conditioning in service and at the same time looking for a little more cooling for those hot track days.

Has anyone fit a front center mount cooler such as a Setrab on a 964 in lieu of the drivers side mount that eliminates the air condenser?

Bill Verburg

The usual solution is a kit that mounts a cooler similar to the stock one behind the AC condenser

it
looks like this




if you have some fabrication skills you can put together a system that uses a 2nd stock cooler similarly mounted though it's a lilittle harder to run the lines at the top

Blu RS

RUF used to do the centermount oil radiator (as opposed to the fender mount) on some (if not all) of their 964 chassis cars. They even installed a couple of special vents out the top of the bumper cover to exhaust the air. Unfortunately I don't know the precise component that went into their installation but at least they are a potential source of further inquiry. Given the vertical height of the standard fender mount oil cooler, I doubt RUF would be able to use the precise fendermount component in the center unless they somehow substantially angled them as part of the installation.

Bill Verburg

The 2nd oil cooler kit pictured on the blue car is identical to that sold by Ruf for 96 & 993, also available from Carnewall & Cargraphic

cornerhans

Bill, do you find the setup on your car sufficient to control oil temperature to your liking on hot days at the track?

Bill Verburg

I have a 3.8RS in the blue car and w/ the second cooler temps are fine at all times, The air temp on the hottest day was ~ 98F. w/o it temps would soar on anything over mid 80's

race911

On the cheap-*** front I just put another stock cooler in there in front of the a/c condenser. Casualty is the fan for the a/c, so you can't use it in stop-and-go. But considering the RSA isn't a commuter, no big deal.

cornerhans

Ken, trying to understand why your air is unusable in traffic. Did you set yours up similar to Bill's above?
Does the 964 lack the room to include the fan when adding the additional oil cooler, or is it just to warm to cool the a/c condenser in traffic with the air on due the the extra heat generated from the oil cooler?

race911

I pulled the a/c condenser away from the body to sandwich the additional 964 cooler in. That didn't leave enough room for the condenser's fan.

So that presents the a/c dilemma. Watch a/c gauges sometime (especially R-134!) to see how the high side pressure ramps up without airflow past the condenser, either from an electric fan or from airflow at road speed. My comfort zone is about 45-50MPH to see acceptable pressures. As I'm in a temperate climate, and the car really isn't used for urban duty, manually switching the a/c off and on isn't a big deal to me.

The other thought I had was to switch the a/c compressor via a relay into the motorized spoiler. But with an RSA I'm not sure that wiring really exists in the car; in any case I doubt I have the control unit wherever it's installed under the dash on every other C2/C4.

cornerhans

I understand. Thank you.

cornerhans

Bill, Thank you also for the photos.

I plan to take photos of changes made and post.

psiegel

Another solution is to piggy-back a new oil cooler onto the existing.

cornerhans

This method sure seems less complicated relating the the plumbing aspect. I am wondering how efficient it is comparitivly to having the added cooloer on the drivers side.

With the cooler on the drivers side the system would carry a little more oil (more cooling), and be subject to more efficient cooling at least while not using a/c. However if this piggy back method works fine for hot days at the track it should be considered. Did you happen to document the change with photos and a parts list?

psiegel

Todd Knighton at Protomotive is the person to contact. He piggy-backed the 2nd oil cooler when he installed the Turbo to help deal with the increase heat generated by the turbo. I would think if works for this application it should also help out with the additional heat generated on the track. Regarding the efficiency comparison, I would think that there is minimal gain in the additional oil in the system as a result of more lineal length of tubing. I would guess the efficiency may have more to do with, if you use an additional fan with the oil cooler or in the position of the oil cooler itself relative to the outside air, but again this is way beyond my breath of knowledge and for Todd or the other folks on this site that know this stuff inside and out.
All I can say is, my additional oil cooler seems to to the job well.

psiegel

Oh I forgot, I'm not sure if I can get you a decent photo but I will give it a shot tomorrow.
Peter