Remote oil cooler FINAL solution

[Nevadan]

My goal was to retain the oil/coolant heat exchanger while installing a remote oil cooler. There was no way to do it without relocating the oil filter. I have to split this into two or three uploads to get it all posted.

The result turned out quite will and I've run it for over 1,000 miles to make sure it all works properly. Oil and water temperatures now remain fairly consistent at my 80 degree thermostat setting and my oil pressure has increased considerably considering the age of the engine (approx 180,000 miles).

Parts photo. Left to right: Original filter flange that bolts to the block, original oil/coolant heat exchanger, Volvo sandwich plate, remote oil filter adapter. At the bottom are two different versions of the extended pipe for attaching all this to the flange plus two nuts that screw onto the pipe. You can't tell from the picture but the Volvo nut is thicker than the VW nut. The Volvo nut is to thick to use to attach the heat exchanger to the block flange.


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Volvo sandwich plate photo. These are off the turbo Volvos, 80's or early 90's 760's and 960's. On one setup it's easier to remove the sandwich plate than the other since there's a flange that bolts to the block and faces towards the rear of the car and the sandwich plate is attached to the flange. The other setup has the sandwich plate attached directly to the block and it's quite difficult to get a 27 mm socket on. These thermostats open at 95C.


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[Nevadan]

Part two submission.

Cooler location photos. I had to cut the front bracket to get it to fit but it fits in there well and air is drawn past it with the cooling fan when not driving on the highway. The horn has to be relocated but I used the reinforced horn mount to bolt the top of the cooler to. The cooler top mounting bracket fits perfectly into position once the horn mounting tab is cut off. I drilled four holes through the reinforced horn mounting bracket and it bolts up nice and tight. The lower cooler bracket also worked by bending the tab a bit and then drilling a hole through the bumper. I don't have a picture showing the bolt head protruding through the top of the bumper!!!


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Reinforced front bracket after installing cooler. The cut bracket needs to be reinforced to retain its original strength.



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Oil filter location. There may be another place to put it but this works well. The bracket screws into the solid portion of the body and there's just enough room for the oil hoses to pass the starter.

[Nevadan]

Part three of three submission.

Sandwich plate hose routing. I don't have pictures of the two hoses I had made to replace the shorter ones off the Volvo, but I had them made six inches longer than the steel hoses. I used the original Volvo hoses to go from the cooler and attached the lengthened hoses to those and then to the sandwich plate. One change I still need to make is to get a 20 or 30 degree elbow from the sandwich plate for the oil line closest to the fan shroud. This will prevent any rubbing that is occuring now.


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Thermostat inside the sandwich plate. This was faulty on two sandwich plates I pulled from different Volvos. They are not sold as individual parts so be sure and test them in some boiling water before installation. One wouldn't open enough and one wouldn't close enough. I just filed the end of the steel pin so it would close. I've since found a third sandwich plate and that thermostat does work. When the thermostat is closed (cold operating temperature) the stainless pin is pushed into the thermostat housing, the thermostat seats on a lip inside the sandwich plate and the oil flows right back out of the plate. When the thermostat is open the stainless pin is pushed out of the thermostat body allowing the oil to flow into the cooler.

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Modified pipe to attach everything to the oil filter flange. I made two versions. The first one I cut a 5 inch piece of SAE 3/4 inch 16 all-thread and drilled a 3/8 inch hole through it. I didn't use this one yet. My concern is the volume of flow through the hole. For the second version I had a friend weld two pipes together. You can see in the first photo how it had to be welded with the original thinner VW nut in place which allows the heat exchanger to be tightened up against the flange. Another nut is then used to tighten the sandwich plate up against the heat exchanger.



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I suggest, but didn't do this myself, blowing out the cooler to make sure there's no metal or other junk in it.

I'm very satisfied with the result!!! Unless I'm climbing a long mountain road or running 80mph with the A/C on my oil pressure stays above 2bar (30psi) and the temp stays near 80C. Don't ask me how it stays near 80C since the thermostat isn't supposed to open until 95C but I know oil is flowing through the cooler since both the supply and return lines (as well as the cooler) are HOT to the touch. Perhaps my oil temp sensor isn't working correctly.

The part number for the remote filter adapter kit that I got from NAPA is ATP 18428 and it's a Hayden Automotive product, their part number is 6510291. It's also available from Summit Racing.

This is my first actual contribution to the site after using so much information from it.

[Nevadan]

Removed duplicate photo.

[Nevadan]

Oil filter location photo, this is the correct one.


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[CarlosA]

Dude this is great. I have pretty much the same setup but have been avoiding any sort of install because I couldn`t really fit it around the AC condenser. Your setup looks great though, and I could just get a shorter ... 12" or 14" condenser maybe.

[Nevadan]

Carlos, I have A/C, so I know it works with the condenser. As with any install there's always a few tweaks I can still make and one would be to have a 20 or 30 degree (bend) fitting off the sandwich plate so the oil hose doesn't rub against the fan shroud.

[Nevadan]

I'm refitting the oil hoses from the Volvo sandwich plate to the cooler and will have photo's and specs soon. The original hoses were to restrictive and didn't allow enough flow, even though it did work. I'll have a low budget solution which uses hoses from a Mercedes 300D turbo together with 1/2 inch oil line and a more costly solution with custom made hoses made from hydraulic line. I'm also going to drill out the orifices in the remote cooler plate, remote filter bracket, Volvo sandwich plate and the main threaded attaching tube.

I've got my oil pressure sensor on the block flange which senses the pressure after it goes through all the above plumbing but I want to make sure there's as much flow as possible. The threaded tube from the stock VW setup is 1/2 inch inside diameter while the threaded tube from the Volvo is a little over 3/8 inch. There's also 3/8 inch holes in the Volvo sandwich plate and remote filter plate and bracket. I'll get photo's of before and after on these changes.

I made a temporary higher flow hose setup yesterday and did a 200 mile 80 mph trip and was very impressed with the oil and coolant temperatures, they were consistently stable at 80 degrees Celsius. It was a cool day yesterday, only 60F degrees, but I pushed the car hard and it ran nice and cool.

[Fatmobile]

I have a volvo sandwich, cooler and lines.
The lines flow enough to keep it cool.

[Nevadan]

I'm beginning to think everything has already been done on our little diesel's.....if I just searched enough I would find it!

Part of my reduced oil flow problem is I had some hydraulic hoses made using 7/16 inch hose but the hydraulic hose end fittings were only about 1/4 inch inside diameter. See my "sandwich plate hose routing" picture above. The hoses I had made were to replace the steel Volvo lines which are 1/2 inch OD and a little over 3/8 ID. For my temporary low budget replacement I used the ends of the Volvo steel lines, cut to about 3" lengths with a little flare on them and just used 1/2 ID flexible (soft) oil line. I retained the original rubber/soft Volvo lines from the cooler to my low budget lines. It definitely has enough flow with this setup.

[CarlosA]

I`ve been thinking about this setup a bit lately and keep forgetting to ask this.

How you deal with the extra oil sitting in the pan until the temp is high enough to start pumping through the cooler?

I thought maybe the thermo valve would close trapping oil in the cooler until the rerouting happens, but not sure.

[Nevadan]

That's a good question and I don't have an answer. The thermo-valve closes but I'm guessing the oil still drains back from the cooler into the sump, past the vacuum created by the valve being closed or through the valve before it closes from cooling. What I've been doing is checking the oil level immediately after shutting off the hot engine. I've also been checking it with the engine hot and running but don't have any conclusions from using either method. It's a bit of a mystery right now. I'm estimating the total extra oil volume from the cooler lines, remote oil filter lines and cooler itself is less than half a quart. My estimate is based on observation of the oil draining from that part of the system in various disassembly projects over the past few month.

I'm still going to post some more photos showing my modifications to increase oil flow.

[Nevadan]

Here's the update on increasing flow through the oil cooler system. The stock Volvo sandwich plate has approx. 3/8 inch orifices. The oil is ALWAYS flowing through the Volvo plate, hot or cold. I drilled and dremmeld all three holes out to a little less than 1/2 inch. You can only see one of the orifices in the photo.


This next photo shows the SAE 3/4 X 16 threaded attachment pipes. The one with the larger 1/2 inch passage is the stock VW pipe the other one with the approx. 3/8 inch hole is the stock Volvo pipe. I drilled the Volvo pipe out to 1/2 inch.


This next photo shows three different hoses. From left to right: my original custom made hydraulic hose with the 1/4 inch opening, my next attempt at custom made hydraulic hoses with the approx. 3/8 inch opening and finally the stock Volvo steel tubes with the 1/2 inch OD and little larger than 3/8 inch ID, which is what I currently have on the car.

[Nevadan]

This next picture shows, from left to right: a hose off a Mercedes 300D turbo oil line with a huge 1/2 inch ID, next is the stock Volvo steel line and finally the custom made hydraulic hose with the approx. 3/8 inch ID. The Mercedes hose and fitting will attach to the oil cooler and I intend on using it by cutting the steel line after the 90 degree bend, adding a little flare and attaching some flexible oil line and route it right to the Volvo sandwich plate.


This next photo shows the hose ends, left to right: original hydraulic hose that's to small, then the larger hydraulic hose, then the stock Volvo steel tube with a little flare on it and finally a stock Volvo line after trying to bend it to fit.


This photo shows the hose mounting to the cooler using the larger hydraulic hoses (which I am presently not using.)

[Nevadan]

My observations after using the stock Volvo steel lines with 1/2 inch flexible hoses (and the drilled out attachment pipe and sandwich plate) is that there's definitely enough flow to keep both the oil and coolant at a stable 80 - 85 Celsius when the outside air temperature is below 80 degrees Fahrenheit and the A/C is not on. With the A/C on and the outside air temperature above 90 degrees fahrenheit the oil and coolant temperature rise to about 90 degrees celsius and hold there stably. I haven't done any major mountain climbs yet, with or without the A/C on, but will note that when I do. When the outside air temperature is 50 - 60 degrees fahrenheit the oil and coolant temperatures never go above 80 degrees celsius, which is the temperature of the thermostat I'm currently using. I'm very pleased with the results!