I had replaced the stock Vans oil cooler with the Aero Classic 8000081 in 2010 after our first summer back in Texas. It did pretty good and fit the baffle fine. Sometimes in the heat of summer oil would get to 215 or 220. We just installed new baffles and snorkle on the -8 because the baffles were in bad shape. As long as we were doing that I decided to go to a larger oil cooler and mount it on the firewall. (Mission creep) The firewall mounting was not working out too well - the dip stick tube was in the way - so I changed to mounting it on the motor mount similar to what Dan H. did but on the left side instead of the right. The same only different, if you know what I mean.
I used an Air Flow Performance 2006X oil cooler, their PN 08-007477 90 degree duct cut it down to fit the oil cooler. According to the charts, the 2006X has about 40% more heat rejection than the previous cooler at the same pressure drop (5" H2O). The duct connects to a 4" diameter scat tube which connects to a slide door system made by Grizzly Products for a vacuum system used in wood working shops. The slide door is mounted to the baffle behind #4 cylinder where the oil cooler usually goes. Someone else here on VAF came up with the Grizzly idea. I'll find the part number and put it in the post later.
The test flight will happen in a couple of hours. We're putting the last of the baffle seal onto the new baffles now. Here are some pictures of the oil cooler installation. I have more that show the oil cooler mount better that I need to upload yet. It's basically triangular pieces of aluminum with adel clamps holding it to the engine mount.
Bill at Air Flow Systems was great to work with. He's thinking about incorporating a butterfly valve as an option in his ducts. I think that would be great and would have made this installation simpler.
now N281CT
Linear Mode
