Oil Cooler

Surprised nobody has chimed in yet... You asked for opinions, so here's one, for whatever it is worth.

It would appear that at higher speed you don't get a lot of airflow through the A/C condenser - it is sort of a vacuum at higher speed. And of course, the oil cooler is really only necessary at these same higher speeds where it won't see airflow. I've read about several experiments with putting an oil cooler in various places of the Pantera, but have personally not read any where the owner was thrilled with the result.

Consider a oil-to-water oil cooler instead of an air-to-oil cooler. This has a couple of advantages. It will actually help your oil warm up quicker, which will help reduce wear. It can be mounted more or less anywhere, which keeps your oil lines short (less oil pressure loss, and less chance of rupturing an oil line). They have been proven to work in many oem applications. Thomas Tornblum in Sweden just installed one that he pulled out of a Ford Crown Vic. Dennis Antenucci is running a similar unit in his, and so far is very happy with the result.

The problem with a traditional air-to-oil cooler is where to put it where it will get enough airflow to make a difference. This problem is eliminated with a water-to-oil cooler. I'd do some research on them before going much further...

Chalie, Thanks for the advise.
Currently there is a cooler somewhat on the car. The condensor right now is behind the radiatior, doesn't seem to be a very good place for it considering the air has to pass through the cooling radiator first before the oil condensor. But it's not hooked up. I would have to get the adapter that goes on before the filter and just connect the lines. Normal driving temp doesn't seem to be a problem, but when driven a little hard, it heats up quick.
I am also going to upgrade to the laydown radiator with sucker fans. Figured this would be a good time to take off the oil condensor thats behind the radiator and relocate everything if I am going to do something like this. My motor only has about 5000 miles on it since the rebuild, don't want to take any chances.
What do you think ?
Thanks.
Coz

This is the response from the Boss Wrench, Jack DeRyke:

"Don't bother. Only one roadracing Pantera was built with such a cooler mounted here that worked (Mike Anderson of Indiana) and his engine used a NASCAR dry-sump oiling system which itself removed 10 degrees of heat from the 20+-qt oil supply, a huge air-to-oil cooler with big oil lines and looping curved fittings (no rt angle fittings used). No luggage tub is possible with such bulky plumbing back there, incidently. Mike's plumbing description & results are in the Oct POCA newsletter article on water-to-oil coolers, which I recommend rather than any air-to-oil cooler in any position. Mike heavily instrumented his expensive engine for oil temp detection & found that the electric fan & shroud made zero difference even with his heavy, elaborate rig".

Thanks Whiplash. Will investigate water types.