Installing an aftermarket oil cooler

I was wanting to install an oil cooler on my 90ish cabby (VW didn’t think we needed one) and well we have two choices. Pondering it, I could go with the standard VW cooler. Which in my opinion is not really a cooler but a engine oil stabilizer as the operating temp of the radiator is used to maintain the oil at the water temperature and not cooling it. Then I would have to add the hoses and make a water connection, then there is the possibility of water/oil intermix…

Oh by the way... look what years of using the wrong hose clamp will do... They used the standard screw claps and not the spring clamps. Spring Clamps are the only way to go for certain applications.



Or look for installing a true honest to goodness oil cooler that cools the oil in relation to the air flow over its own radiator.

I priced the kits on ebay and other sites but they were a little too expensive for my cheap
American/Irish/Dutch pocket book.

I went to the yard and stumbled on a Volvo 940 Turbo that had a Wahler Oil cooler on it.
It takes either a 28mm socket, and a 19mm to remove the oil lines and the cooler off the car, if you don't have a 28mm then using a large crescent take the whole shooting match off.

I found a Heavy Duty transmission oil cooler on a Chevy Monte Carlo... so I took that, It was lower profile than the Volvo’s...





There is one large 32mm feed bolt holding the whole assembly to the block a large crescent wrench one smack with a hammer. Remove the 2 feed lines and you are good to go.

Will it fit?


I had to shim the a/c condenser out of the way a tad, like a 1/2 inch.


Used plenty of.


Got the new barbed gas fittings tight.


Mounted the hoses to the unit.


Took 8 small fender washers and covered one side with foam.


Using wire ties I pushed them from the front of the cooler to the back through 2 washers foam side against the cooler fins and back through the vanes to the front (got that trick from a tranny cooler kit I just installed).
I used 4 wire ties and 8 washers 2 each side.

I used denser foam to place between the oil cooler and the frame.





Here is the standard vw oil cooler pipe, next to the Volvo pipe, you have to have the Volvo one.
I used the standard 27mm nut to sandwich it all together, as I couldn't locate a 28mm deep well no where local.



I removed the Oil filter pipe out of the flange, it was a pain in the ass.....but I got it,

I used Brass 90 degree gas pipe fittings, and barbed connections. I screwed them in to the sandwich plate but couldn't get them fully tightened till on the car, and it was 1 more rotation of the 90 degree elbow.

I screwed on the barbed fittings, ran the hose to the battery side of the car, then under the fan motor, and made the connections.




So far I got the car up to 80 degrees at idle in the garage with no leaks, getting ready to see how it goes. The side of the cooler is stamped 95degrees.... I would assume that is centigrade.

Road Test results. Temp out side air temp 50 degrees F...

Cruised the car @80mph for 1 hour.... I couldn't get the oil temp above 110 c on the gauge, it didn't matter if I took the top down, nor if I turned on the a/c. Checked twice for leaks there wasn't any. The water temp was lower than normal to the left of the mark.

When I stopped the idle speed was 950rpm, I had 1.1bar at 110 degrees.
Tore off back home, got in stop and go traffic, the water rose to normal a tad over the center mark.
After driving at a stop I had 105 degrees, and I had 2.0 bar at idle at a stop.

I ran in to Walgreens to pick up some drugs, and Hershey kisses dark and regular ten minutes later.
Car sat off Turned the car on, it was 80 degrees 2.0bar at idle..... A lot of difference for such a little upgrade.

Okay here are the numbers as today is the first time I had my cabby on the road for any lenght of time.... 8:33 am, the car had already been on the road for 4 hours @70-75mph ambient air temp 52 degrees.

Sorry for the blurry pics, still getting used to this new fangled technology.

Write up courtesty of Brian, of www.Mk1Dubs.com

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