Repurposing Those Old Doghouse Oil Coolers
When we install full flow systems with remote oil coolers on street or race engines, we sometimes find we have an expensive doghouse
aluminum oil cooler and adaptor to shelve. I personally have a collection of them, and I've often hoped to find a way to reuse them.
In Joe Cali's THE TYPE IV UPRIGHT CONVERSION MANUAL he gives us the answer, illustrated in the dog house cooler image above.
The shape and construction of the doghouse coolers is actually very similar to the dual coolers Porsche used in the 1950's era Spyder,
which were mounted in the nose of the car and fed air by inlets.
Above: Air inlets for the oil coolers.
Above: The Spyder lacked space for a big cooler, and used two smaller ones.
Following Joe's tips, you can mount a doghouse cooler away from the engine, even two of them inline, and save money by not buying
an aftermarket cooler.
Just keep in mind the aluminum VW coolers should be protected as big pumps can swell and burst them on cold starts. It's smart to
add an external oil thermostat (Porsche did) to only divert oil to the cooler(s) once warm.
FJC
