AE Performance Oil Cooler Review

SS_Firehawk

Package: I bought it from a forum member, was missing the oil plate gasket, power steering cooler lines, and needed a crush washer... No big deal, made our own gasket and all was good...
Installation: I did not install it, but I was with the shop most of the night. They said it was pretty straight forward, but it was huge. Ran into a few snags with the missing components, but it was to no fault of the MFR. It bolted on and fits like an oem piece, albeit a huge one.
Warning: If your CAI moves your windshield washer fluid to the front of the bumper instead of the corner, it may not fit with the oil cooler. I have an AEM CAI and I was unable to install the windshield washer fluid reservoir.
Appearence: Looks like sex! It's subtle, but if anyone knows what they are looking at behind the grille, it's beautiful. It fits perfect and dimensionally, it looks great filling up that space.
Performance: I did not track this part yet. I did take it to Magic Mountain from Las Vegas this weekend. Average speeds fluctuated from 80 to 100 mph. There were a few instances of 130mph. Never did the oil get over 180F. Hill climbs made little difference in temps. When accelerating through a couple gears, the temps would rise, but the oil cooler is so aggressive that as soon as I stopped, temps dropped back down to 160-170F. I'll assume that 160-170F is the normal operating temp with this oil cooler in cool weather (60-70F). Previous temps were 200-220 in same conditions. Without taking it to the track, I can't judge it in that aspect, but I feel confident I would be more worried about my brakes or tires than my oil.
Conclusion: I bought it for $750. For an oil cooler, it's still steep, but I feel this was money well spent and the difference was so dramatic, I couldn't believe the difference. If the price of this kit is too much ($800 on a huge sale atm), I'm sure the 34row from Z1 will be a great alternative.

I'll looks for pics and post later (at work)

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roy'sz

thermostatic plate should be at 180*F. If you were at 160-170 then you are overcooling the oil. I manufactured a blockoff plate that is drilled so that it still allows for air flow through the cooler and my average temps here in cali for the winter allow for a 190ish oil temp and at night it never gets below 180. I've done some seirous canyon carving and it got up to 220 and like you stated as soon as you let off of the throttle it drops temps pretty quickly.

Jamaica

so it looks like the oil cooler work very well. Great review. I wonder how this oil cooler will work with forced induction.

SS_Firehawk

It would most likely work very well. I know AE uses these on their Porsche's they race. Not sure which model, but it's put through the ringer at the track and does well.

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SS_Firehawk

Pics added. Sorry for the dirty car, I'm cleaning it today...

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Reaper42

Who has it for $800 on sale?

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MyZ4U2C

Seems like you're adding new toys every other day Firehawk lol...nice review

SS_Firehawk

Lol, to my Wife's discontent... I started with an oil change, I already had 7 quarts of oil, and a new Nismo oil filter... I would have rather had the oil cooler put on at the same time. If the frront bumper was going to be off, why not put in the rest of the parts??? And so they went on. They were sitting in storage waiting to get installed anyways.

With regards to the sale price, I'll add the forum link I found... I would contact directly to see if you can get a hold of them.
Huge Sale: AE Oil Cooler Kits

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antbear

I also just added the AE Performance kit. It uses a Setrab 72 vertical rows core cooler with a billet adapter plate. This plate is not an oil thermostat because AE claims a thermostatic unit is not needed with the Vertical Rows arrangement. However don't believe this . . . a thermostatic unit is needed to bring the oil temperature up to 180 degrees because the 72 row cooler is so efficient.

I have a 25 minute (freeway) drive to work. Today the air temperature was 57 degrees. Oil temperature barely reached a maximum of 160 degrees at a speed of 70 mph. Plus it took 15 minutes (over half the drive time) for the oil temperature to reach this maximum. With much lower air temperatures this winter my Z will need a thermostatic plate to keep it a warm blooded animal. It won't be a good thing to operate my Z as a cold blooded reptile even if it does have FANGS!

I am wondering if a Z1 Motorsports thermostatic plate will match up to the AE components to solve my problem? Has anyone used this plate with the AE kit?

Oil Cooler Thermostatic Sandwich Plate Conversion Kit

BTW . . . I also added a Defi 52mm, Racer Series, oil pressure gauge. It perfectly matches the stock gauges.

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