[DRLane]

Project thread!

I'm prepping the car for the season, for which I'm way way behind. Still have a laundry list of work to complete in April, but I blame the 9 month old taking up all my time .

Anyhow, I want to improve my cooling setup.

Current: DO88 oil, CSF everything else, oil diverter, hood vents, pure water/wetter.

Unfortunately with the SC and Colorado's heat and lack of humidity, I've progressed my pace to a point that I'll put the car in limp mode after a couple laps. Which isn't a problem for TT, but kinda sucks for anything else and for the sake of the internals.

I had plans to run the MS24 angled bracket, ditch PS/AC coolers, and line up the oil, SC intercooler, directly in line with the radiator with some fabricated ducting in / out. Well, I don't have time for this this year. So next best thing is to improve the ingress, eliminate gaps, and explore some exit work in their stock config. Also kinda scared about ditching the crash beam.

First and foremost, the amount of slop and room for air to escape the coolers is wild. I'm running the Zebulon splitter and thus no under tray which results in the bumper plastic flexing to allow / redirect air under the oil cooler with ease. Lots of gaps on the sides and at the top of the radiator support. No way the coolers are running anywhere close to peak efficiency. This isn't just my car, I was looking at Gabe's while on the lift and he suffers from the same bumper slop. Sorry man.

Plans:
Fabricate dedicated aluminum ducting to completely seal the oil cooler, above oil into the SC / radiator, chop up the radiator support bracket to improve airflow from the kidneys downward and again seal the inlet into the main radiator.

Figured I'd share this project in case others have ideas, input, or are curious if I can make any meaningful improvements to the stock orientation.

First up, oil cooler!
- Mocked up the ingress ducting from cardboard. Following the principles of 30% inlet to the surface area of the radiator to accelerate intake. The gentle slope leading to the radiator should slow the air to effectively penetrate the whole cooling surface. Hopefully the slope isn't too extreme as the concern would be detached air, turbulence, and thus reduced cooling surface area. Fingers crossed!!! Second and equally important will be an exit path that again accelerates the exhausting air either under along the splitter or out the wheel wells.

As you can see I'll have to ditch the bottom bumper grated plastic which is fine, and incorporate a mesh to protect the oil cooler. My bumper is beat to shit so I couldn't care less about making a mess. I'll use some foam and bolts to close any gaps between the bottom of the duct and the bumper.

The resulting slope of the top ducting should improve airflow above the oil cooler as I'll be sealing off that as well to improve airflow into the intercooler and radiator behind it.

Part one is mock it up to cut and weld the aluminum.