Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 15:09:19 -0700
Reply-To: Randy Bergum <organslave@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Randy Bergum <organslave@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject: Re: Oil Cooler Upgrade I did...
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
What year is your van? If water cooled, you are giving up an efficient way
to reject heat, using the coolant to carry it to the radiator, and the heat
exchanger has turbulators in the fluid path for maximum heat transfer. An
air to liquid cooler mounted behind the seat metal would be about worthless
because there is no forced convection and not even any airflow during most
speeds.
If you are convinced to add something, I would recommend a front mounted
radiator with the proper ducting - see the book "Fluid Dynamic Drag" by
Hoerner for more details. Theoretically, you could even gain a very tiny
amount of thrust from the added heat energy put into the airstream by the
radiator (well within the noise of measurement, tho.)
Randy Bergum
1990 Carat
BSME
Joseph Tu wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am just putting in what I did for an add on oil cooler for my van. The
> factory oil cooler is great, but I feel that it has too little surface
> area and the is too small for sufficient heat transfer when the fluids
> pass by. So I opted to add another one. It was an air to oil cooler and
> it is made by Setrab. I purchased it through the autotech guys, since
> they are located pretty near where I live. Anyways, as for location, I
> chose to put the cooler in the area just fore of the transmission, the
> angled surface that is the back of the storage space under the rear
> bench. Although This isn't the best location for air flow, it presented
> the least difficulty in mounting, which was my main goal. I thought about
> mounting it up front, near the radiator, but then I thought abou the
> length of hose the oil would have to travass and possible pressure loss,
> which would mean a higher flow/pressure oil pump, nada for me! I want to
> also have some metal ducting added on to route air traveling under the
> van through the fins of the cooler. I would recommend using a quality
> cooler like Setrab or maybe Earl's(not sure if this is a nationally known
> brand). Its not a cheasy aluminum fin cooler, with the pipe running
> through it. It's similar in design to the factory oil coolers on the air
> cooled bus/bug etc. Anyways, thats my 2 cents.
>
> Joe Tu
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