'How-To': 13-Row Oil cooler 4 sub £70

[s2driveruk]

Hmm, i should have spent more time looking at this before. I went with a larger version of the OEM cooler in the original location from VW Heritage which seems to work just fine but this is located in a much better position

[Rusty]

Anyone know where I can get a 1/2" BSP male to female elbow adaptor? This would come in handy for the union closest to the headlight

[Rusty]

The coolers look to be Automotive Plumbing Solutions (APS) and are sold by Demon Tweeks and JJC Race & Rally for considerably mote than MGB Hive! There are 16 & 19 row available with just under 25mm height increase for each step larger.

[Rusty]

I've just painted it all up for fitting

[Drummer87]

That's awesome!! Swing over a prototype of the bracket you use

[Rusty]

Bracket is super simple. I'll piece together a parts list and post it up.

[Drummer87]

Very nice graffiti

[re2500]

I knew a stenciled logo on there would look cool!

[Rusty]

All done Cheers to me mate Pete for help and the material and to Rustynut and his son for the moral support and cleanliness enforcement that only a 3 year old can enforce

Made the bracket out of some 30mm wide, 6mm thick iron bar that a mate had spare but some 40mm x 5mm ally would have been a better bet. When I remake it, I'll tap the 3 mounting holes in the ally, as there's not much stick through of the M6 rubber mount.

I used 4 rubber mounts (from a mk.1 GOlf fuel pump kit!) and made a bracket to tie the cooler at the top to the slam panel. It's solidly mounted for sure. I'll get the part number for the rubber mount.

Silly aux. rad mount uses an M6 and M8 bolt, rather than 2x M8s I also wish I'd offset the hole in the middle of the bracket a little, as the aux rad bracket puts the cooler on the squiff the way I had it.

The second bracket was a bodge it and see affair but it works perfectly and can be easily replicated with any right angled piece of material. I had to bend mine a bit to make it fit, so something that can be altered is best - 2/2.5mm aluminium?

The rest of the kit is held together with M6 bolts - I need to get some stainless ones and nylocks to complete the install.

Hardest part was removing the old cooler, as access wasn't the best... It's not in bad condition TBH.

Next step is to get a 4" cold air feed from the bumper to the airbox

[re2500]

Looks great mate! Good job!!

[Rusty]

Cheers mate, cheers for finding the right bits to fit in the first place

I measured the clearance to the slam panel and it would be possible to fit a 16 row but not a 19 row using the hoses.

I wasn't able to rotate the fitting, so will have to address this at some point in the future.

Parts list for the bracket and installation (I'll need to check this):-

• 40mm x 5 or 6mm x 350mm piece of aluminium
• Thin metal for second bracket, ~20mm x 2mm x 100mm
• 1 M8x25mm bolt for aux rad
• 2 M8 washers
• 1 M8 nylock
• 4 or 5 rubber mounts, M6
• 2 M6x25mm bolts
• 10 M6 nylocks
• 7 M6 washers

I'll measure up the bracket and post up a drawing for both items.

[re2500]

^^thats useful additional info ill add it to the OP^^

To rotate the fitting I held the metal hose collar in a vice and put some small stilsons or mole grips on the angled fitting and managed to rotate the fitting inside the hose, took a couple of try's to get the orientation right.

[Rusty]

Yeah, I didn't fancy getting stuck with the car in bits and a knackered hose, as it needed some heavy handedness.

Might be worth getting another one and trying to rotate it (it needs to be rotated 90 degrees counter clockwise, when looking at the fitting with the hose facing away from you). If it brakes, then that's £20 down the drain. Other thing to do would be get some made up with correct ends for the stock adapters and save some £ on the adapters and get it all to fit properly.

To make this kit up would end up with a pretty hefty price tag. Looking at in excess of £200 for it all bolt on with a 16 row cooler, custom hoses, bracket, hardware etc. etc.

I will get a quote for having some brackets made up and get the part number for the rubber bits I used, as they're nice and stiff.

[Rusty]

The rubber mountings are VAG part number 191 201 256 and should be M6.

[Rusty]

Mounting bracket design

As ever, this is meant as a guide, so double check the dims for your cooler and car.

Material is available on eb@y under 'flat plate' 5 or 6mm thick will be spot on.

The 3 M6 thro holes can be m6 clearance if you're not using the rubber insulators. I would suggest loctite or lock nuts on the reverse either way.