The last several days have been spent working on oil cooling. Initially, I was going to use the MOCAL oil cooler to cool the oil and had planned to mount it in a similar way to how Chris Wallen had done on one of his previous builds. He was nice enough to share many pics of that build with everyone on the net. After purchasing the unit and finally getting to the point of mounting it I changed my mind. While waiting for the unit to arrive, I kept researching oil cooling for these engines and found what I consider a better (more effective) way of doing it. Actually, I knew about it before hand but went for the new shiny object (MOCAL Unit).
The reality of mounting the MOCAL unit in a very tight space for what has since been reported as minimal cooling numbers (20 to 30 degrees less) swayed me back to the tried and true method of air cooling through a radiator. The MOCAL unit uses engine coolant to cool the oil, it is effective if you only need a little extra cooling. I opted to more cooling using a radiator.
One of the initial reasons for opting for the MOCAL unit was I already had a way to mount it using Chris Wallen's pics. Another plus with the MOCAL unit was that it resided inside the cowling not hanging out in the breeze adding drag. The radiator option required some yet to be designed/fabricated/mounted brackets. The actual oil lines would be routed in a similar fashion with either option. Once I decided to go with the radiator, I set about figuring out how to mount it.
My Kitfox buddies mount their oil coolers in front of the radiator so, I followed suit. They rivet brackets to the radiator and hang the oil cooler off them. I am not a fan of their way for several reasons. I don't want to drill into the radiator for rivets, potential for ruining the radiator (which one of my buddies did). The brackets hang off the front blocking air flow, and their coolers rest directly on the fins of the radiator (potential for ruining both units over time). So, I needed something different. After a couple of misfires, this is what I ended up with. My brackets mount (will be welded) on the front sides of the radiator, there is minimal air flow blockage from the brackets and it positions the oil cooler in front of the radiator not touching the fins. Now to get it welded, polished and finally installed.
