I stopped by Seb at SpecialtyZ this morning to have my Stillen 25 row oil cooler installed and can say that again, I cannot be happier about how smoothly everything went. The price of the oil cooler, labor, and Redline oil/filter cost less than many places quoted me for just the oil cooler/labor.
The notable change to the install was that Seb relocated the oil cooler to the driver's side where most other aftermarket oil coolers are placed because a) Stillen supplies way too much hose and b) it avoids moving the P/S fluid cooler or obstructing the airflow to it. New holes were measured and drilled into the mounting bracket to allow the cooler to be placed on the driver's side, and there was still enough hose to reach the cooler in its new location.
After the initial startup for leaks, the first thing I noticed was that the car ran more smoothly and with less valvetrain noise than before; the factory oil came out pitch black after only 1,500 miles.
On the drive back through Malibu Canyon, ambient temperatures were in the low 60's so if I was cruising along driving normally, the oil temperatures were sitting just below 180 (was 220 on the drive to SZ) and sitting in traffic never went above 200. Once I started to keep the rpms high in the canyon, I could not get the car over 185-190 at all.
The third and best improvement was the power delivery. While the evidence suggests that engine oil temperature does not affect power output, I believe that it certainly has an effect on power delivery. The throttle reponse is much sharper and punchy now, the car accelerates with more immediacy than before. Between the oil cooler and my new tune, the throttle response is much better and feels more like a highly sprung N/A car should in my opinion.
Anyway, big thumbs up from me for Seb at SpecialtyZ!
Excuse the dirt, darn rain!
