S50 Oil cooler...

[jaistanley]

I am looking fo rht echeapest way to fit an oil cooler onto my S50.

The original one, and the ipes, were damaged and am looking for a cheap alternative.

Will the oil cooler from an M52 or M50 fit? These must be plentiful in the scrappies so I imagine they will be the cheapest option.

I was going to use the AN adaptors from (I think it's CA automotive in the states) and use a Mocal oil cooler.

Many thanks guys.

Jai

[Jhonno]

m50/52 doesnt have an oil cooler..

[jaistanley]

Aaaah... back to the drawing board then.

Guess I'll go after the adaptor and fit a long thin Mocal then. Seems cheaper than buying a second hand S50 one, or at least easier to find! (plus the braided hoses will look quite cool!)

Jai

[jmc330i]

Ive got the M20 cooler on mine with the adaptors from Turner Motorsport in the States. It needed a bit of trickery to fit the braided lines to the M20 cooler and I will probably change to a Mocal one in the future, but it fits no problem and is all but the same size as the S50 cooler.

[ian332isport]

Ive got the M20 cooler on mine with the adaptors from Turner Motorsport in the States. It needed a bit of trickery to fit the braided lines to the M20 cooler and I will probably change to a Mocal one in the future, but it fits no problem and is all but the same size as the S50 cooler.

What he said...

I also used the M20 cooler. As James said, it's exactly the same size as the S50 one. It also bolts straight in without having to faff around making new brackets etc. I didn't use the Turner AN adapters either, I modified the original (albeit new) M20 pipes, and used some standard hydraulic compression fittings to connect to the modified M20 (15mm) pipes. Once you're on hydraulic fittings, it's fairly simple to run some new hoses, and crimp them onto the original S50 pipes coming from the engine.

Ian.

[ste]

Turner fittings here and standard M20 cooler will be fitted to them (once I've cleaned the mayo out of it or bought a new one...).

[DanThe]

Did you use a different oil filter housing ste?

[ste]

Yep 3.0 M3 so I could have an oil cooler.

Gave me loads of headache as you have to machine the oil temp sensor out to accept the vanos oil feed, plus you'll need the M3 ps pump as the M52 on won't mount to the S50 filter housing.

[DanThe]

Well I wont be needing a vanos feed, so wont be that difficult once the parts are found

[ste]

Cool - all you'll need is the M3 filter housing and ps pump then.

M3 ps pump is threaded for M20 sized ps line unions, M52 ones are smaller. So swapping to the M3 pump also makes that job easier.

[DanThe]

What about tensioner ste? Does the mechanical spring type still fit ok?

[ste]

Yep, I removed the S50 tensioner and the M52 one just replaces it. I think the M52 tensioner is a superb design.

[DanThe]

So do I, very simple design, same as what was used on the earliest M50, I notice they are still using it on modern engines.
Much better than that hydraulic nonsense that spits its bearings out

[jmc330i]

Which tensioner is this? Anything that can be changed on my S50?
I like the idea of keeping things simple - much less likely to go wrong.

[DanThe]

This type James

[jaistanley]

Hmmm..

I kept the original S50 oil cooler pipes, (though they are shagged at the oil cooler end) in case I could use them.

Are the std hydraulic unions hard to use/get hold of Ian? Never used them before. I spose I could easily cut the hard part of the M20 cooler lines, the hard part of the S50 cooler lines and fit new pipe between them easily enough?

Jai