Well today, I went ahead and installed a custom oil cooler setup from parts I had purchased a while back.
Essentially, the oil cooler helps prevent oil temperatures from skyrocketing out of hand and possibly allowing damage to occur in the engine and turbocharger.
Being that the Turbonetics Single Turbo kit is oil lubricated/cooled and not water cooled, I thought, living in Florida, that it might be wise to aid in the cooling of the oil to help make sure it was within good operating temperature to allow for sufficient lubrication of the engine and turbocharger.
We have a couple of options as 350z owners for direct Oil Cooler kits. First being the Nismo Oil Cooler ( Nismo 350Z Engine Oil Cooler ), but at $1,250 give or take a few bucks from the different vendors, it's quite expensive for minimal effect.
I elected to use parts that I found listed elsewhere. Now, the only part specific to the 350z (and I believe it actually works on other Nissans) is the Mocal oil filter sandwich adapter.
Here's the list:
Earls Oil Cooler Part # 21610ERL
10' of -10AN size Aeroquip socketless hose (this stuff is great!) # FCV1010
(2) -10AN to 1/2" fittings # 220047 (these are blue and screw into the adapter plate)
I personally purchased most of those parts from one of the big-name muscle-car online places, which shall remain nameless because they're not cheap, but the Mocal Sandwich Plate was best located at Racer Parts Wholesale (google it).
One thing to keep in mind is that it might add anywhere from 1/2 to 1 full extra quart of oil to capacity once the thermostat opens and allows oil into the cooler.
Difficulty of installation: 3 on a scale of 10. Really not much to it, just taking the bumper off is the biggest pain, and finding a good place for the cooler with an intercooler in the way, and slapping the bumper on to check for clearance. Mainly requires patience, that's it. If you're proficient at changing oil and some other basic stuff, YOU CAN DO THIS!
On to the pictures!
First, we have placement of the Oil Cooler itself. This required some trimming from the fins of the stock grille on the bumper. Also we had to drill into the aluminum bumper and use some typical hardware to bolt it on. No big deal.
Next, you'll see the install of the Mocal Sandwich Adapter Plate (behind my pretty Hotchkis sway bar which I'll tell you about later) with the appropriate fittings. These Aeroquip fittings are trick light pieces that are super strong and will work under extreme conditions.
And now the Aeroquip hose on the fittings, and while the hose clamps aren't necessary, I always opt for a little extra insurance to prevent leaks!
Finally, what it looks like behind the grille. Keep in mind, I painted the Oil Cooler with a very light coat of black paint to keep a stealthy image.
So who has some questions that I might be able to help with?
Actually, the oil pressure went up significantly when I drove around. At higher throttle or 3-4k rpm under load pressure was between 70-80psi according my stock gauge.
well maybe you guys can give me some heads up i just like last week bought an 87 300zx but i think it needs work it was a 1000.00 dollars but the longer i rag it out the lower the oil pressure goes and the engine is suppose to be over hauled
that's fairly normal, depending on the oil and engine.
on my freshly built engine, it runs about 30-40psi at idle when the engine is cold, but drops down to about 8-10psi when at normal operating temps.
I don't run it above 3000rpm until it gets warmed up, but by 2500rpm, oil pressure is up to nearly 100psi when cold.
when the engine is warm, I'll see about 15psi for every 1000rpm I go up. at idle, 10psi. 2000rpm, I see 25-30psi. 3000rpm, 40-50psi. etc etc.
If your pressure is low, you might look at switching to a slightly thicker oil to see what happens. if you run a stock 5w30 oil, you might want to go to a 10w30 or 15w40 and see what happens.
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