Curious if mounting the oil cooler for my build in the rear is an option. I want to try to get 50/50 weight distribution or even rear biased, so I thought putting the oil cooler under the rear of the car somewhere might be an idea. It has fans, so airflow isn't really an issue. I have no idea where I would mount it, just a thought I had today.

Does distance from the engine have any negative effects?

 

You are not running the radiator cooler I assume? I don't see why that idea wouldn't work if it has it's own fan.

The longer the lines, yes you will have more pressure drop, but a few extra feet should be negligible. You can always increase the diameter of the lines to offset the pressure drop.

 

Moving the oil cooler to the rear would have negligible effect on weight distribution and would open you up to long vulnerable oil lines. Sounds like somewhat of a risk for very negligible gain. There are more meaningful ways to eliminate weight or balance weight distribution.

 

Yup; LOTS of maze with almost no cheeeeeze at the end.

How much will THAT MUCH (18 ft? more?) AN or hard line, plus the oil itself, weigh?

What kind of car? How is it used? What have you already moved rearward, and what's left up front?

 

I haven't thought on it past "would the cooler still work". 1999 Trans Am. 99% street driven. I have a UMI K-Member.

 

Given this you are WAY overthinking this. There is nothing magical about a 50/50 weight distribution. If you want to make the car handle like crazy, you work with the weight distribution you have or can practically achieve. Moving the battery to the rear is one easily done meaningful thing you can do.

Also, moving things way to the back, like more than a few inches beyond the rear axle, will just be adding weight to an area that will make handling very unpredictable. If you've ever driven a rear- or mid-engine car to the limit you'll know what I mean.

 

Will guess the battery is in the rear ?
I've been told moving the battery to the rear is about equal to moving the motor back 3"...so good way to move weight (IF not already done)

 

I am going to put the battery in the rear, plus it's the biggest XSPower AGM battery that will fit in the spare tire bay, so I am adding weight to the rear. Plus I will have a sub and three amps in the back.

Of course I say all of this when I don't even have an engine. Lol

 

Get a remote oil cooler with a fan built in. I use a huge double stacked remote cooler with a 10" fan for my transmission that's mounted in the back. You can mount them anywhere you want if there's a fan on it. Then use your ECU to trigger the fan on/off temps

 

That's exactly what I am doing. Setrab with two fans. But I want to know it there are any negative effects to having the cooler that far away from the engine. Pressure drop and overall weight have been mentioned.

 

You shouldn't have any pressure drop. It's a closed system. You could put a sensor inline at the cooler to see if there's any drop at all

 

There'll always be SOME pressure drop, to the extent that the lines and whatnot, act as a restriction. Sized large enough (ahem: HEAVY enough) the effect can be minimized.

I just really think that while this might sound great on paper, once it's put into effect, it will turn out to be 1 step forward butt 3 steps backward, to the stated goal of weight management. Changing the weight balance of the car by .01% or whatever hardly seems justified by piling on 20 lbs more or whatever of lines and oil and adapters and hardware and all that.

 

that's pretty much what I have gathered as well. Good in theory, but not worth it in application.

 

I just read the thread. Moving the oil cooler to the rear is a LOT of work for a negligible result.
Not enough weight moved to change things very much, but a lot of work to get it there.
A front engine rear drive car can never achieve 50/50 weight balance unless you can move the engine/trans back about 2 feet. And I doubt that's happening....

 

I considered a similar set-up for a differential cooler, but then realized I don’t drive hard enough. 🤷‍♂️

 

I will definitely need a cooler because I have piston oil squirters in my new engine. Probably sticking with my original plan to somehow mount it between the k-member and the bumper in that open space under the fans.

 

What about stuffing it in the bumper vents?
I put mine in this hole:


Looks as follows with the bumper off. -10an lines to and from.


I put a fan on it as well, 30 min stints at the road course and it stays nice and cool.

Just realized you said you want 50/50. This wont help.