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Oil Cooler 20006a 13 Row

MauleOwner

Member
Vans indicates that a firewall mounted 20006a cooler is necessary on the IO-360 200hp. However, there is no mounting information that I can find using the VA-186 bracket. I'm building a 7 and there doesn't appear to be enough firewall space for the installation. Are there any published instructions, pics, etc. for this installation?
 
Check out the Airflow Systems website and talk to Bill there. I think he supplies Vans with their coolers and can fix you up or give you some options.

Erich
 
I have an IO-360 200hp on my 7A and the cooler is mounted on the left side of the firewall. It's tight but it fits.

Dan
 
It is indeed a tight fit on the firewall. I used 4 inch Scat tube with a nice aluminum plenum I fabricated. I have a Sam James plenum with 200 HP and I always fight high oil temps in the summer. Do it right the first time or you will be fighting high temps....at least I did at first mine would hit 235 if not really careful
 
There was room on my -8 to mount it on the firewall. I made my own mount patterned after the RV-10 firewall mount, but adjusted the angle so the face of the cooler is parallel to the motor mount tube.

I used 3.5" SCAT and will eventually enlarge to 4". The 3.5" is too small.

Be sure to seal the face of the cooler to the mount/plenum with orange RTV. I left that out at first (to enable easy removal while adjusting things) and it was surprising how much flow leaks out at the edge of the fins if not sealed. My temps went down noticeably when I sealed it.

There are pictures of my install in the archives, you can search.

The -7 and -8 should have very similar room on firewall.
 
Steve has a nice arrangement with the cooler hanging on the firewall, with the entry duct about 45 degrees to the plane of the cooler. Look it up.

This one makes a 90 into the cooler, so (needed or not) I incorporated a turning vane. Exit duct leads to a low pressure area in a cowl exit bell. Without the bell, don't bother. The cooler hangs on a plate. Plate hangs on the engine mount tubes with four adels.

SW/Meggitt 10611 fed with a 4" SCEET from the rear baffle wall. IO-390. Very rarely breaks 200F.

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Used Vans 20006a 13 row cooler with the RV-10 firewall mount on my RV-8/IO375. 3 1/2" scat to get thru the engine mount then a 3 1/2 to 4" transition to a 4" butterfly damper on top of the mount. No problems so far getting sufficient cooling on hot summer days and damper has been great in maintaining oil temperatures (180+) in the -20C OAT range.

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Used Vans 20006a 13 row cooler with the RV-10 firewall mount on my RV-8/IO375. 3 1/2" scat to get thru the engine mount then a 3 1/2 to 4" transition to a 4" butterfly damper on top of the mount. No problems so far getting sufficient cooling on hot summer days and damper has been great in maintaining oil temperatures (180+) in the -20C OAT range.

oaD.jpg

Nicely done. Did you custom make the 3.5" to 4" transition or were you able to buy that?
 
Cooler exit diffuser

If I ever re-do my firewall, or build another one, I will do something kind of similar to what Dan did. I will mount the cooler at 90 degrees to the firewall, and then make an exit diffuser for it.

The diffuser can be fairly short and wide-angle and still produce a nice increase in airflow thru the cooler. (you can google "wide-angle diffuser" to find tables of allowable angle vs. length or area change)

The diffuser works by having a larger area at the plane of the exit where the flow rate and velocity is set by matching the exit static pressure to the surrounding ambient pressure. If that area is substantially larger than the area thru the cooler, then you get higher velocity through the cooler (like a venturi: less area, higher velocity). The key is to minimize flow separation in the diffuser, which is why there is a tradeoff of length vs diffuser angle.

My main reason for doing this would be so that I can reduce my cowl exit area. My current set-up cools very well, but if I throttle the cowl exit, the pressure in the lower plenum will increase, and the flow thru the oil cooler will be reduced. An exit diffuser can compensate for that, maintaining high flow rate with the higher exit pressure.
 
Steve - I sculpted a piece of foam, layed up glass on it, then dug and melted out the foam.
 
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