gumming up was prob the wrong word,, what i meant is after a while they dont work properly anymore,,,
Hmm... I've just been out in the garage and un-did the hoses from the original non-thermo sandwich plate and it looks as if the fittings will swap over to the new thermo one ok, they appear to be the same size and thread. I say they 'appear' to be because without the aid of a vice or more tools than I have at the moment I can't get the fittings out of the original sandwich plate and don't want to damage it, the fittings are very tight. I will have to have a better look when I have more time, I take it 3/4 UNF and 1/2 BSP are not equivalent then (I know nothing about threads!)? About the price, well, yes, I thought the thermo one would cost more, but as the neither the site, or the guy from Rally Design who emailed me about ordering it originally mentioned any price difference I had to assume the price quoted was what I would pay. I will see what they say, they really ought to quote the correct prices on the site! Noted about the front bumper - cheers Deako, no doubt more questions to come when I attempt to fit it! I hope the thermostat plate is worth the hassle (and extra cost), I know a lot of people say they don't work too well but surely the 'stat must go someway to speed up warm up times and prevent over-cooling? Edit: also, just another thought, does it matter which way around the oil cooler pipes connect to the sandwich plate - ie. is there an 'in' and 'out' on the cooler and plate or will either way around work the same? I should have taken note when I just took the old plate off! Oops.
There is an outlet and inlet. Im pretty sure oil travels into the center of the oil filter first (past the sandwich plate), then gets pumped out of the smaller outlets outside of the central section. Then they travel up into the sandwich plate. If you look at the two fittings in front of you (with the rubber seal on top) you can see that the oil would then come out of the one on the left. It would then head into the cooler. If you mount the cooler with one inlet/outlet higher/lower than the other, then make sure oil enters at the lowest point. The rest is self explanatory. However, i might have gotted the flow of oil wrong, as if it enters the outside of the filter first, then the process needs reversing lol. BUT oil should be hitting the filter before your cooler, so i think ive got it right.
Cheers Deako, that makes sense looking at the sandwich plate. I'm sure it's all straightforward, I just don't want to put it together wrong and have to take it apart again, it'd be a waste of nice new oil for one thing! A bit of good news was that the fittings from my original (non thermo) plate do fit the new thermo plate so the threads are correct, I think 1/2 BSP must be the size of the pipes whereas 3/4 UNF is the size of the threads in the sandwich plate? Dunno, but at least it all fits together! The bad news is that Rally Design say the unit is the higher price and they really ought to have told me before I ordered it rather than let me think it was the lower price and then charge me more without telling me! Can't do much about it other than tell them to publish their prices more clearly in future I suppose. They did offer a full refund but I might as well keep and use the part now.
Stu, what a hastle I would send it back mate and use the one without the thermostat, Ive now had the cooler on the Jetta for a couple of weeks and last night 2 x 35 mile runs with the stat plate and its never got hotter than 85o and no colder than 75o
Thats good though isnt it Steph, and thats with a thermostatic plate, so cant understand advising him to send it back?
Oil cooler now fitted! Went with the thermo-plate in the end, just thought if I didn't then I'd no doubt regret it and have to take it all apart again 'cos it wouldn't warm up in winter or something. In any case, I had to take it all apart again once fitted as there was an oil leak from one of the fittings on the sandwich plate! It was my own fault really as every other thread except that one I'd carefully used ptfe tape on to get a good seal. Anyway, all sorted now and hopefully leak free. I'll post some pics up tomorrow, suffice to say when you have an A/C condensor, massive radiator, A/C compressor and pipes, PAS and all the rest it's an absolute pain in the @rse to fit the sandwich plate! On a positive note though I was suprised to find that the filter had no clearance problems at all and went on as usual. The mocal sandwich thermostat does appear to work at around 80 degrees (on the MFA) as at that point both pipes on the cooler get warm instead of just one as it does up to that temp, bonus! I also changed my standard heat exchanger for a known good one while I was at it as I always suspected that was past it's best. Test run tomorrow will show whether it's worked or not. The cooler is currently residing on cable ties behind an aperture in the big bumper until I've tested it's alright, was too knackered tonight to start making brackets to mount it etc, will do that over the weekend.
so just to clarify you have left the 16v water cooler in place or has that been removed? what was the overall price for the thermo s.plate and does it come with a sensor - or is that extra still? Nice to know that the filters still fit properly without fouling! PAUL
Paul - yes, I left the original water cooler in place (well, actually replaced the water cooler with another one but same difference). Overall price for thermo-sandwich plate was 40 (28.50 + vat +delivery), what sensor do you mean? It doesn't have it's own temp sensor if that's what you mean? Pics to follow in a minute...
Right, here are some pics of the newly installed Mocal oil cooler - it's quite fiddly to fit the sandwich plate as you'll see with all the gubbins in the engine bay but it's worked out nicely. Temps seem to be lower than before, particularly when driving quickly even with A/C on and plenty of load on the engine (more air coming in I suppose) and it's leak free now, fingers crossed anyway! 1. Car with grille and bumper removed, note huge rad and A/C condensor don't leave too much space 2. Mocal oil cooler, 19 row x 235mm, overkill I know for the job but if this doesn't keep the bugger cool then nothing will! 3. Replacement heat exchanger, thermo sandwich plate and new filter as they will be fitted 4. Test location for cooler held on with cable ties, couldn't really site it anywhere else and get the bumper to fit and the pipes to reach. This should line up well with bumper aperture anyway 5. Sandwich plate and pipes all fitted, see what I mean about restricted space with A/C gubbins! 6. Finished location, now held in with some brackets I made today rather than last nights cable ties! 7. Another pic of the same Next on my to do list... turbo charger to generate some more heat!
what i meant was this thermo sandwich plate with the sensor in it, rather than just the normal sandwich plate, does the sensor come with the ralley design price? if not where did you buy it from? PAUL
Yep, sorry, you mean the thermostat when you say sensor, I get it now. Yes, the Rally Design one with thermostat built in was 28.50 + vat + delivery (40ish all in)
Stu it looks like your cooler could do with being a bit lower as it's not getting much air flow to it.
you would be surprised how much he would get there because mine on the mk1 cant even be seen as it's behind the bumper & works fine. 3rd pic down on the left in this link (pics are before strip down): http://groups.msn.com/My2-18vMK1GolfDriver/shoebox.msnw?Page=2 You can see the gap on the (yet to fit) panel, it's the large hole on the left without the blanking plate fitted:
My point is that if you look at his pictures there's a gap below the cooler that he could get direct air to. I've got a 13 row 235 mocal cooler that I've positioned to fit the opening in the big bumper so think there's something to be gained from lowering his cooler a little
Stu, I would fit the oil cooler behind the grill. As Kev says, its really not going ot be beneficial enough where it is located. Check SteveR's photo gallery, his is positioned perfectly.
Loadsavalves - Yep, the cooler could do with lowering a little to gain maximum air flow in the current position really, I must say the oil temps are already a good 10 degrees or so lower in general driving though so it may well be ok. I did look at mounting it a little lower down to match the bumper aperture but it fouls on the plastic tray thingy that runs along the bottom inside the big bumper. If I lower it I would have to cut a slot out of the plastic to accomodate it which is not a big problem but didn't want to hack the bumper unless it was necessary. I will see how it goes. Deako - No chance of mounting it in the grille higher up to be honest due to the way the A/C condensor is situated. It would have gone on the RHS of the grille but they I'd have had to get new longer pipes made up to reach the sandwich plate and probably wouldn't be able to keep the four lamp grille as the back of the RHS spot lamp would touch it. Also with it on that side the pipe runs would mean the sandwich plate facing the other way and leave no clearance to get the oil filter on and off (have to fit oil filter from above on my car, no clearance with A/C pipes to fit it from below). A/C is a blessing and a curse on a Mk2!
I did have to cut the metal beam and the plastic on the bumper to increase the flow and to fit it where I wanted it, You can't really see the section that ive cut out as it directly behind the number plate. some pillock at no-rice asked me if it was connected up, I did have a few swear words to say
