1990 oil cooler orientation

[GVR-4]

What's the OEM orientation of the '90 oil cooler? Any photos would be appreciated. I've searched and was unsuccessful.

TIA.

 

[donniekak]

The cooler is attached to a bracket with 3 studs in front of the ac condenser, on the driver side. The lines come off the bottom of it and loop under and up into the engine bay.

 

[belize1334]

I've considered several times how a cooler "should" be mounted. If the lines come out the top then you won't be able to fully drain the system during an oil change. If either (or both) lines come out the bottom then you can get drain-back which will cause the oil to read high if you check it cold. I ultimately concluded that the viscosity of oil and (presumably) air tight seal of the system will keep the oil from draining back out of the cooler between runs (think toilet) so that having the lines down is the preferred arrangement. This is supported by the fact that Mitsu did it that way from the factory and didn't feel that it was necessary to publish any kind of bulletin about potential drainback.

 

[GVR-4]

That's what I was thinking. I've been searching and everyone is concerned about air in the system. But I think I'm more concerned about getting as much oil out of the system as I can when I change the oil. The more I consider it, the more I think Mitsubishi got most things right in the design of these cars/engines. I'll probably mount it in the orientation it was mounted from the factory. I'm sure others will share their opinions.

 

[belize1334]

With water you might worry about having a bubble in the top of the cooler that doesn't get flushed out much the way you do when thinking about liquid to air heat exchangers (eg radiators or L2A intercoolers). But with oil the viscosity is a lot higher so any channel in the heat exchanger that doesn't have oil in it is going to be much less resistive and whatever is in there (air) is going to move much faster through the heat exchanger, negating the gravitational effects which promote bubble formation. I don't see an air bubble lasting more than a few seconds in an oil system.

 

See if this thread helps at all. Search +oil +cooler and a bunch of stuff comes up. I also added links to other threads. I've made some changes and have not updated my thread yet but its basically the same. Difference is I went to barbed push-lock style fittings (xrp) and I made a bracket that moves the oil cooler up and to the left so that my lines and fittings don't hang below the frame.

Here

 

[GVR-4]

Thanks, guys.

 

[ktmrider]

Also a TON of pics and write-ups on Tooners and DSMTalk...