What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

SW 8432R Oil Cooler Source

Capflyer

Well Known Member
I'm looking for a 8432R oil cooler at a decent price for my -8 project. I purchased one about 6 years ago in the very low $400 range and was astounded to see the price from AS at now over $700! Does anyone have a good source for this at a reasonable price?
 
Pacific Oil Cooler and Aircraft Spruce are two of the main vendors to buy SW coolers. Yes, they have gotten breathtakingly expensive over the past few years and that's a typical price for a two-pass SW8432R. I paid around $600 for a new SW10599R almost 3 years ago and Pacific Oil Cooler gave me the best price I could find.

A cheaper alternative, which is also a 2-pass cooler with physical dimensions almost exactly the same size, is the Aero Classic part# 8000343 for about $590. It's a "drawn cup" construction, more similar to the way that Niagara NDM coolers are made, than the welded-on end tank design of the SW coolers. An even cheaper alternative you might consider is the Aero Classic part# 8000081 which is a single-pass, 10-row drawn cup cooler that is only about $250 and will fit on the cyl #4 rear baffle on an RV-8 and should be able to adequately cool even a heat-monster engine like an ECI Titan IO-360 with piston oil squirters.

Aero Classic also makes their new "HE" line which look to be constructed much more like the SW coolers. They're considerably more expensive than their regular drawn-cup coolers, but cheaper than the equivalent name brand SW (now made by Meggitt Troy?) coolers. Spruce and Pacific websites both have cross ref info for these on their respective websites.

Whatever one you choose, I'd at least give Pacific Oil Coolers a call and see what they can offer. Back when I bought the SW10599R, they beat Spruce's price by nearly $50.
 
Dual pass

We bought one of the first aero classic knock offs of the 8432R and it has been great, solved our oil temp problem immediately. Highly recommended knowledge and service out of those guys as well.





Pacific Oil Cooler and Aircraft Spruce are two of the main vendors to buy SW coolers. Yes, they have gotten breathtakingly expensive over the past few years and that's a typical price for a two-pass SW8432R. I paid around $600 for a new SW10599R almost 3 years ago and Pacific Oil Cooler gave me the best price I could find.

A cheaper alternative, which is also a 2-pass cooler with physical dimensions almost exactly the same size, is the Aero Classic part# 8000343 for about $590. It's a "drawn cup" construction, more similar to the way that Niagara NDM coolers are made, than the welded-on end tank design of the SW coolers. An even cheaper alternative you might consider is the Aero Classic part# 8000081 which is a single-pass, 10-row drawn cup cooler that is only about $250 and will fit on the cyl #4 rear baffle on an RV-8 and should be able to adequately cool even a heat-monster engine like an ECI Titan IO-360 with piston oil squirters.

Aero Classic also makes their new "HE" line which look to be constructed much more like the SW coolers. They're considerably more expensive than their regular drawn-cup coolers, but cheaper than the equivalent name brand SW (now made by Meggitt Troy?) coolers. Spruce and Pacific websites both have cross ref info for these on their respective websites.

Whatever one you choose, I'd at least give Pacific Oil Coolers a call and see what they can offer. Back when I bought the SW10599R, they beat Spruce's price by nearly $50.
 
reviving an ancient thread - hoping to find some current info.

I'm looking for an oil cooler and cannot find the OEM data for the SW cooler. I've found many references to SW compatible coolers, but none to the original. I assume Stewart Warner is out of the business now?

I know Vans sells "stewart warner style" coolers made by Niagara, and that Aero Classics make replacements for SW coolers as well as others (McFarlane, etc.). Spruce also lists Airflow Systems.

Pacific Oil Cooler told me that the Aero Classic 8001602 is way more efficient than the Niagara 2002A. This site is full of stories of people removing the Vans cooler and replacing it with others, often a SW8432A.

I want to make a data driven decision, but its hard to find the data!
 
Pacific Oil Cooler posted the SW cooler specs for a long time. However, I'd hate to see them disappear, so I've also put them here:

https://www.danhorton.net/Misc/SW Oil Cooler Specifications.pdf

I think they are now Meggitt Troy.

The dual pass cooler is popular, but note the pressure drop at a 7 GPH flow rate. That deltaP appears across the vernatherm opening, and would exacerbate a leakly cone issue.

Cooler brand not mentioned so far here is Airflow Systems.
 
Thanks Dan - that is exactly what I was looking for. I read (and learned from) your thread about the dual pass coolers. That's why I was looking for the curves.

Its really funny how people report such huge variations. My old slow Beech Super (200 HP IO-360) with a cowl mounted oil cooler runs 180 +/- 10 over an OAT range of about 10-90F, with no winter kit, etc.
 
Something to keep in mind is the SW 8432R oil cooler is used as an aux or secondary cooler on Robinson R-44's. I got my like-new one off ebay for ~$200 from a parted-out -44.

Anyone priced out a new one lately? Spruce has 8432R's for $949 now and 8406R's are $1229!!!
 
Last edited:
Back
Top