In this article I'll be chronicling my exploits as I install a Diamond Star Motorsports oil cooler kit onto my 1992 Eagle Talon fwd.
First off the things you'll need to accomplish this that you may not already have.
1 - 1990 style oil cooler housing
1 - Diamond Star Motorsports oil cooler upgrade kit with an fittings
1 - 12" 3/8" rubber line
1 - Oil filter housing gasket
1 - hacksaw
1 - roll of tape (duct tape and electrical tape seem to work best)
1 - drill with assorted bits
Those tools should get you through a normal install. I ended up also using the following during my particular install.
1 - flux core welder
1 - dremel tool with metal carbide bit and fiber reinforced cut-off wheels
Of course having all of the proper safety equipment is important tool such as breathing masks for any painting, welding masks and gloves, and hearing protection and eye wear if using the dremel or any other cut-off wheel.
1. - Foremost you need to jack the car up and remove the driver's side wheel so you have room to work. I actually removed my entire front bumper as its only held on by 5 bolts anyways. If you have the stock bumper core support still on the car this cooler may be a bit large for you but could be mounted with some work.
2. - You'll want to remove your stock oil filter housing unless you already have a 1990 oil filter housing on the car in which case you will only need to remove the lines. If you don't have a 1990 already then you may need to go as far as removing the lower timing belt cover in order to get the filter housing off. My lower cover was chewed up enough (thanks to a walking crank pulley) that I could get to the 4th bolt without removing the shield completely.
3. - Now you should have your 90 oil filter housing out on the workbench and it should look something like this.
4. - You'll want to remove every plug and fitting on this housing so that we can have a clean slate to work with when doing the install.
5. - If you flip the housing over you'll see a small hole in the lower corner. This hole is your oil pressure relief port. When doing a BSE mod you can sometimes see extremely high oil pressures and porting this hole will help keep those pressures from getting out of control. In this picture the oil pressure relief port is the middle hole of the 3 holes on the left side of the housing.
6. - You'll want to open this hole up some as it will allow you to get better flow and let the oil pressure control valve behind it to control the oil flow better. When finished porting it should be a big larger than before, something like this picture of mine. You'll also after this point want to make sure and fully clean the housing as it will now be filled with hundreds of little aluminum shavings.
7. - Now that the filter housing is all clean begin re-installing the stock fittings and sending units and the two larger 16x1.5mm reducers from the kit into the filter housing. I also installed a braided oil feed line and an autometer electric oil pressure sending unit as well.
8. - You'll now want to begin putting the adapters and 90 degree fittings onto the oil cooler unit itself. It's a pretty simple procedure so long as you don't crossthread the fittings like I did. I'm hoping the red loctite and the few threads left will hold everything nice and tight. Normally the adapter fittings would screw all the way down into the cooler instead of sticking out like mine do.
9. - At this point you're going to want to start mocking up just how you intend to mount the oil cooler. The factory cooler mounts with the feeds on the bottom, but almost noone I've talked to reccomends this setup. They all reccomend feeding from the top or the sides. If fed from the sides the feed line needs to be on bottom and the return line on top. This guarantees that no air bubbles will be trapped in the cooler rendering it less effective.
10. - To mount mine I chose the driver's side area where the horn used to mount. I chose this area as the bumper allowed it a good amount of direct airflow and because this unit needed some serious real-estate as large as it was. The following pictures in the next post will show you a progression of stock to mounted so you can see the amount of material I removed in getting the cooler installed. I found that after removing that much material I was left with about a half inch of flexible metal where the bolt holes were which didn't make a good mount so I bent up some small 90 degree re-inforcement plates and welded them to the backside of the metal to strengthen it up some.
Pics in 2nd post
11. - Now that you've got the cooler mounted its time to mount the oil filter housing. Simply install the four bolts and new gasket so that it seats properly and torque the fittings down. If you're upgrading to the 90 oil filter housing from a 91 and later you'll want to remove the rubber lines from the sandwich cooler and take the 12" of 3/8" hose and loop the feed and return lines for the sandwich cooler together. Take the time to remove the stock rubber hose as its probably worn and aged anyways, and don't trust a little connector. Connect the two metal lines with one continouse rubber line and re-clamp it to make it strong.
12. - With the cooler mounted and the filter housing mounted go ahead and put the fittings for the AN line onto the oil cooler so we can begin measuring for the braided lines. Simply set the line at one of the fittings on the housing and stretch it to the cooler. Remember the front fitting on teh housing is the feed line and the rear fitting is the return. Mark this with a marker and then wrap the area in elctrical tape like so.
13. - Now cut through the tape to avoid fraying the lines. Peel back the tape and complete the an fitting on the oil filter housing side. Follow this guide to get the fittings on there correctly.
14. - Now repeat for the other lines and the cooler sides of the fittings.
First off the things you'll need to accomplish this that you may not already have.
1 - 1990 style oil cooler housing
1 - Diamond Star Motorsports oil cooler upgrade kit with an fittings
1 - 12" 3/8" rubber line
1 - Oil filter housing gasket
1 - hacksaw
1 - roll of tape (duct tape and electrical tape seem to work best)
1 - drill with assorted bits
Those tools should get you through a normal install. I ended up also using the following during my particular install.
1 - flux core welder
1 - dremel tool with metal carbide bit and fiber reinforced cut-off wheels
Of course having all of the proper safety equipment is important tool such as breathing masks for any painting, welding masks and gloves, and hearing protection and eye wear if using the dremel or any other cut-off wheel.
1. - Foremost you need to jack the car up and remove the driver's side wheel so you have room to work. I actually removed my entire front bumper as its only held on by 5 bolts anyways. If you have the stock bumper core support still on the car this cooler may be a bit large for you but could be mounted with some work.
2. - You'll want to remove your stock oil filter housing unless you already have a 1990 oil filter housing on the car in which case you will only need to remove the lines. If you don't have a 1990 already then you may need to go as far as removing the lower timing belt cover in order to get the filter housing off. My lower cover was chewed up enough (thanks to a walking crank pulley) that I could get to the 4th bolt without removing the shield completely.
3. - Now you should have your 90 oil filter housing out on the workbench and it should look something like this.
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4. - You'll want to remove every plug and fitting on this housing so that we can have a clean slate to work with when doing the install.
5. - If you flip the housing over you'll see a small hole in the lower corner. This hole is your oil pressure relief port. When doing a BSE mod you can sometimes see extremely high oil pressures and porting this hole will help keep those pressures from getting out of control. In this picture the oil pressure relief port is the middle hole of the 3 holes on the left side of the housing.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
6. - You'll want to open this hole up some as it will allow you to get better flow and let the oil pressure control valve behind it to control the oil flow better. When finished porting it should be a big larger than before, something like this picture of mine. You'll also after this point want to make sure and fully clean the housing as it will now be filled with hundreds of little aluminum shavings.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
7. - Now that the filter housing is all clean begin re-installing the stock fittings and sending units and the two larger 16x1.5mm reducers from the kit into the filter housing. I also installed a braided oil feed line and an autometer electric oil pressure sending unit as well.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
8. - You'll now want to begin putting the adapters and 90 degree fittings onto the oil cooler unit itself. It's a pretty simple procedure so long as you don't crossthread the fittings like I did. I'm hoping the red loctite and the few threads left will hold everything nice and tight. Normally the adapter fittings would screw all the way down into the cooler instead of sticking out like mine do.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
9. - At this point you're going to want to start mocking up just how you intend to mount the oil cooler. The factory cooler mounts with the feeds on the bottom, but almost noone I've talked to reccomends this setup. They all reccomend feeding from the top or the sides. If fed from the sides the feed line needs to be on bottom and the return line on top. This guarantees that no air bubbles will be trapped in the cooler rendering it less effective.
10. - To mount mine I chose the driver's side area where the horn used to mount. I chose this area as the bumper allowed it a good amount of direct airflow and because this unit needed some serious real-estate as large as it was. The following pictures in the next post will show you a progression of stock to mounted so you can see the amount of material I removed in getting the cooler installed. I found that after removing that much material I was left with about a half inch of flexible metal where the bolt holes were which didn't make a good mount so I bent up some small 90 degree re-inforcement plates and welded them to the backside of the metal to strengthen it up some.
Pics in 2nd post
11. - Now that you've got the cooler mounted its time to mount the oil filter housing. Simply install the four bolts and new gasket so that it seats properly and torque the fittings down. If you're upgrading to the 90 oil filter housing from a 91 and later you'll want to remove the rubber lines from the sandwich cooler and take the 12" of 3/8" hose and loop the feed and return lines for the sandwich cooler together. Take the time to remove the stock rubber hose as its probably worn and aged anyways, and don't trust a little connector. Connect the two metal lines with one continouse rubber line and re-clamp it to make it strong.
12. - With the cooler mounted and the filter housing mounted go ahead and put the fittings for the AN line onto the oil cooler so we can begin measuring for the braided lines. Simply set the line at one of the fittings on the housing and stretch it to the cooler. Remember the front fitting on teh housing is the feed line and the rear fitting is the return. Mark this with a marker and then wrap the area in elctrical tape like so.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
13. - Now cut through the tape to avoid fraying the lines. Peel back the tape and complete the an fitting on the oil filter housing side. Follow this guide to get the fittings on there correctly.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
14. - Now repeat for the other lines and the cooler sides of the fittings.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
