Originally Posted by djtodd

The stock cooler is basically a REALLY crappy oil/water heat exchanger. The part we're talking about eliminating is the small sandwich plate that fits between the block and the oil filter. It's part #1 in this pic.



It's probably about 1" - 1.5" thick.
If you add an external cooler on top of that, there is VERY little clearance when changing the filter. You also can only use the "short" filters, and not some of the taller ones like the bigger Purolator (can remember part#).

I also read that other post. I get that in theory it should help, but having tested an external cooler with and without the stock cooler, it made zero difference in warm up times, etc. That's why many of us use a block-off plate that fits over the external cooler core for the winter. I made mine out of aluminum sheet and industrial velcro. Cost me maybe $10 in material. Others have used something as simple as cardboard.