<VV> Oil Coolers

[BobHelt at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/3/2006 10:22:44 AM US Mountain Standard Time,  
bryan at skiblack.com writes:

Jim  Davis sent me notes on his installation which I've put  at:

http://autoxer.skiblack.com/oil-cooler.html

--Bryan




Side shields.
As noted in many places, the '63 and later oil coolers have gaps between the  
plates that allow air to escape instead of going through the cooler. The 
short  history is that the original "folded fin" cooler had solid sides so there 
was no  gap there. When Chevy changed to the "plate" design apparently nobody 
noticed  the gaps or didn't consider them significant. Later on (around '67 or 
'68) Chevy  realized this was a less than optimal design and created add on 
side shields, I  have a set for a 12 plate cooler. They're pretty easy to make, 
I just did some  out of aluminum for the 8 plate cooler on the 110 that's 
going in the "parts"  Corsa, here are a couple photos:  
Bryan, Jim, 
I don't know whose statemement is shown above, but I respectfully suggest  
that it doesn't tell the whole story.   
The gaps mentioned above allowed air to pass over the oil cooler and be  
released in the engine compartment. This allowed hot air to be recirculated back  
into the engine.  In some ways this actually improved oil cooling over that  
done with the side shields in place because of the unimpeded flow. The side  
shields did nothing but direct the exiting air from the gaps downward and out  
the hot air ducts, thus preventing the hot air from being recirculated back to  
the engine. 
Regards, 
Bob Helt