The NASCAR shop that helped me claimed an extra 10 degrees of cooling over plain rubber hoses. I chose to use braided stainless steel covered hoses for their abrasion resistance, trick appearance, and the extra cooling the cover material supplies. Be very sure whatever hose you use is rated for engine oil with its chemistry, heat, and pressure. These kits usually include black rubber hoses for connections. Just be sure to put the filter in line before the cooler to prevent clogging. You can buy complete filter relocation kits and add the cooler in the lines. Oil filter adapter with integrated thermostat My system added almost a quart to the total oil capacity, which can only be helpful. It also puts the filter in the air coming through the radiator, carrying away a little extra heat. That allows easier oil changes as the filter is now the highest point in the system and little dripping occurs. I mounted mine with a simple adaptor (to help with an accessibility clearance problem at the engine), and a separate oil filter mount on the inner fender panel. A few adaptors sandwich the hose section between the block and the oil filter which gives you the option of running two filters or adding only the cooler. Some simply screw on to provide ports for the hoses, but I really like the type made by Canton and some others that are held by a bolt, thus allowing the hose ports to be rotated to the most convenient angle. You’ll also need an adaptor at the original oil filter location. It can be put under the car but airflow will be reduced and debris damage could cause a leak. On cars with a bulkhead mounted radiator, you should have room to put it to one side. You’ll want to get the cooler in a place where it gets direct airflow without sending waste heat into the radiator, which would be a self-defeating location. Don’t try to use a transmission oil cooler for the job as neither the fittings nor the cooler body itself are up to the pressures of engine oil. Many sizes exist to fit your particular space. Complete kits such as the one pictured from Flex-a-lite will have all the parts needed for the job. You’ll find them in your favorite hot rod warehouse catalogs as well. It was pretty easy to pick up a cooler designed for engine oil at the local race car shop. That leaves the oil to do the job on the bottom end. Look at any block and you’ll see that the water passages for the coolant are concentrated at the top where combustion takes place. It seems that as the day’s drive continues, the large mass of the engine block and crankshaft picks up a lot of soaked in heat. The highest we’ve seen was 220 degrees when shutdown after a long, hard run. Where the car used to run at 230 degrees at highway speed, it now runs at 185. As he suggested, an oil cooler was added, which seemed to have the greatest effect of any of the “fixes”. We finally recalled a conversation with a friend who had similar problems with a small block Chevy-powered ’37 Ford. We went to a 25 psi racing radiator cap which didn’t help the temps but at least kept the coolant in the radiator so the car could be driven, although with a constant eye on the temp gauge. The car would run at 230 degrees at highway speed and bury the gauge whenever we stopped for fuel. All of which helped but never really solved the problem. We tried trick water pumps, a clutch fan, trick coolant and additives, even added small electric fans to the inner fender panels. The heat soak after engine shutdown was so bad that we ruined two of them. When preparing for another cruise across America, louvers were added to the hood to let trapped air escape, along with a metal shroud to replace the plastic one that actually sagged out of shape due to the heat. We’ve discussed the difficulties of cooling the 500c.i.
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