Alfletch

I would like to retrofit my 85.5 NA with an external air cooled oil cooler if there is such a unit. Anyone knows?
It's such a pain to think of and then see the oil and coolant mixture in the engine system.

931guru

Yep, you should get one for an 86 944 turbo, plus the hoses and the oil filter housing.

Alfletch

Is it a direct fitting? Have you done this retrofitting? If so can you give a few pointers? If not are there any links you can direct me?

KevinGross

I've done this, repurposing the parts from an '87 944 Turbo to my '87 944S. The parts we used were everything from the manifold (ie, filter base) through to the radiator. It is not strictly a bolt on, in particular you will have to make a bracket for the radiator. We located mine behind the RH fog light, removing both fog lights and cutting the PU dam behind the fog light to let air flow. The power steering cooler loop was also bent out of the way, up into the wheel well.

There are lots of alternatives, including use of a sandwich plate on the stock manifold rather than the 944 Turbo manifold, locating the radiator as in the S2 rather than Turbo, custom hoses, etc.

Kevin
Catellus Engineering

Alfletch

Thanks. This is good news. Help me understand the items I will need:
1) The radiator and the hoses. I understand.
2) Need to re-position fog light and make brackets. I understand.
What I don't understand is what is the item that bolts on to the engine? I would not be using the old oil cooler that is prone to leak? True?

Alfletch

OK I found out that the Turbo oil filter housing bolts on exactly over the where the oil cooler would have been. I think any oil cooler/radiator small enough to fit in the available space in the 85.5 NA 944 should work with the proper fitting hoses. What do you think?

V2Rocket

easiest way would be to bolt on the complete turbo oil cooler setup. the filter mount bolts to the NA block and the oil cooler itself bolts to the NA radiator frame no problem.

that said, the turbo-spec oil cooler is really tiny and not super efficient. it would probably be OK for an NA car but they are marginal on a turbo.

when i did the conversion i skipped over the turbo oil cooler entirely and found a much bigger, nicer unit in the local junkyard (off an old mercedes turbodiesel)...and got new hoses made while in there.

KevinGross

Spencer, I use the turbo cooler on my 944S track car and it has the cooling capacity needed to keep temps below 240 F or so. I think it's sufficient.

Kevin
Catellus Engineering