After overheating again at Thunderhill, I think it's time to work on my cooling system. Right now my oil cooler is in front of the radiator and I want to move it. Can you guys give me pointers as to the best spot and how to duct air to it? Lots of pictures will help.

Also want to add a turbo radiator. How hard is it to get it in a '86 and is it legal?

Thanks
Ron

A turbo radiator is LEGAL. However, in the spirit of our group, in Nor. Cal., it would be a serious violation for you to install one on your car.

That said, the turbo radiator is about 1" taller than the stock one. It requires the bottom cross piece to be dropped. I did mine with longer bolts and spacers. I also fabed two al. pieces, for each side, to add shear strength to that area. You might be able to find a turbo bottom piece from a salvage yard. I tried but could not find one so I did it the hard way. I can not get any pics as the cars are up there. You can look at what I did at Infineon.

By the way, the turbo radiator uses a different bottom hose to accommodate the lower outlet. I have been advised that forcing the stock hose onto the turbo radiator is not an ideal solution so I put a new turbo one on for better fitment.

Moving the oil cooler away from the radiator is also a very good idea. A PITA, but a good idea. I have mine on the right side and get air to it from the turn signal hole in the bumper and the fog light hole in the valence. You cut the plastic out from the back of the fog light hole for air flow. I have some ducting to force the air through the oil cooler in the same way that the radiator has ducting to contain the air and force it through the radiator. Make sure your radiator baffles are all in place as part of the radiator change.

Again, you can look at my arrangement at Infineon.

Big Dog, Lil' Kat, Piper and the Mothership

Ron, my setup is essentially identical to what Jim described. I agree that the turbo radiator and moving the oil cooler is ideal but if you need a quicker fix, take a look at your stock radiator first. If you haven't pulled and cleaned it, you probably have 10 Lbs of sand and dirt in the fins. Pull it out of the car and shake it out. You'll be amazed. You can then use air and maybe a pressure washer to clean it out more. Force the air and water from the back to the front, opposite normal air flow. While it is all apart, it probably wouln't hurt to flush the cooling system with the stuff you can buy at any auto parts store.

Fill with distilled water once all is flushed and add a little Water Wetter and my guess is you will be OK for a while.

If you are running TH in August, you might need to upgrade but I think all the other events this season would be OK and this would buy you some time to decide what to do and save the pennies.

So how low does you oil cooler hang? It seems it will be very low if I don't cut the fender liner and I don't like the idea of it hanging down to snag something when I'm forced off track by Jim or Steve

my oil cooler set-up.

Thanks Joe. Do you ever worry about hitting it on something? Mine is a little bit bigger(first time I ever got to say that!) and goes all the way to the edge of the spoiler. I guess I could fab up a strong bracket/bumper but was hoping for something easier. Do you think it would be a problem if I mounted it at an angle behind the turn signal light? With some trimming it will fit and be a small bit better protected but airflow is what I'm worried about.