^^^^^
That is the question. Are any of you running your former AC condenser as and oil cooler? I am thinking about doing this, but am not sure if anyone else has ever tried it. I plan on running a 4AN line up to the cooler and then another 4AN line over to my turbo. It seems to me that the only possible downside would be that since it is right in front of the radiator the water temps might go up a little, but since I don't have an oil cooler installed right now that won't really bother me all that much. Also, I have a flex a light oil cooler up in my room that I was thinking about putting in possibly instead of using the AC condenser. Which one would you guys prefer to use and why?

This is a interesting idea to me, i dont use my AC parts...maybe i could do this 2.....i wanna hear more about this.....

This is what I was thinking: You know how the feed lines go up over by the power steering pump. I was wither going to try and tap them and then use a metric to AN addapter fitting or possibly weld a AN fitting onto the end of the lines.
Has no one else done this, or at least have some advice on it for me though?

gamingguru said:

This is what I was thinking: You know how the feed lines go up over by the power steering pump. I was wither going to try and tap them and then use a metric to AN addapter fitting or possibly weld a AN fitting onto the end of the lines.
Has no one else done this, or at least have some advice on it for me though?

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pretty sure the a/c condensor is to big for this. I also wonder if it would be safe to run oil through it, i'm unsure what they are made out of.

My agument agianst this is that the AC condensor is quite large so there would be some time after startup that is absent of pressure to the turbo. Also having the oil to cool is a bad thing, as stated in Corky bells book " temp ranges should be no lower that 150F and not exceed 230F for mineral based and 270F for synthetic. It needs to be understood that oil tempatures below these minimums will degrade durability just as sure as exceeding the maximums." Invest in a oil temp gauge first then worry about a cooler.

Im not certain but the oil may be to thick to flow through the AC, its a good idea worth testing, but i have a feeling it will be hard for the pump to push it throught.
-Chad

gixrman said:

My agument agianst this is that the AC condensor is quite large so there would be some time after startup that is absent of pressure to the turbo. Also having the oil to cool is a bad thing, as stated in Corky bells book " temp ranges should be no lower that 150F and not exceed 230F for mineral based and 270F for synthetic. It needs to be understood that oil tempatures below these minimums will degrade durability just as sure as exceeding the maximums." Invest in a oil temp gauge first then worry about a cooler.

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I have a temp quage and they are way too high. I guess that I will have to use the flex a light cooler that I have in my room. Anyway, do you guys know if you can get a fitting to go from 4AN on the male side to 6AN on the female side.

thats a good thought, but a bad idea. your oil pump will not be able to push through that big of a space. in order to possibly do that, you would need ither a high volume, oil pump so you would be able to feed the motor its oil, and to feed the condenser. also, you would need to run a bigger oil pan (like a 6qt.) and a longer pickup pick up tube. although good thinking, its not worth it...its a bit overkill. just a small inline oil cooler that you can get from summit racing or jegs will work just fine. hope this helped

Ever look at an oil cooler the inputs are 1/2 npt or larger they need to flow a high capacity of oil. I remember asking if my auto trans cooler would work as an oil cooler at a local stock car shop that I get stuff from and they laughed at me. It has to be able to support the volume. If you search for a thread I wrote about the 6bolt swap, you can see the oil cooler I used it was 90.00 canadian for the cooler. Thats pretty cheap converted to US funds and it works awesome. You can run it hard grap the intake line and its hot and the return is VERY noticeably cooler.

The thermostatic switch in the oil filter housing would take care of the oil temps getting to high/low, but the shear size of the AC condenser might be an issue.

Like others have said, it is way to big and it wont have the flow necessary. If you buy a properly sized cooler set it up to have enough air flow you will be fine. If you arent using the condenser then get rid of it. This will provide more air flow to the radiator and keep things cooler.