I am thinking about adding a
VW TDI sandwich type oil warmer/cooler to my 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage. Why? Because oil temperature warm up lags behind engine coolant temperatures. Warmer oil reduces pumping losses and lower viscosity obviously has its advantages in engine efficiency. Add that to the fact that all the Honda high mileage vehicles had these (VX, HX, Insight), and it lends some real credibility that there is a benefit. We had a lengthy discussion on the topic here started by Oil Pan with some great info in it:
Fast warm up ideas: Oil to coolant heat exchanger
A few years ago, I swapped out the engine in my sister's TDI with one that didn't have a broken timing belt. I kept a bunch of parts off the old engine, and parted out the rest of it. Amongst those parts was the sandwich plate oil warmer/cooler that all TDIs of that era (ALH engine) have. So, I am thinking about slapping it on the 'ol Mirage. Here is what it looks like:
How does this work? Basically, you unscrew your oil filter, then screw this thing on, and then screw your oil filter on to the sandwich cooler. You also have to route some coolant lines to the cooler. As the oil is pumped through the filter, the engine coolant flows through the warmer/cooler and heats things up (and cools once the oil exceeds coolant temps). Its a pretty nifty little device. Here is a picture of the one on a 2001 Honda Insight. The coolant lines aren't hooked up in the picture.
This is the part I have below. So, there is a slight hang up. Notice, no filter screwed to the cooler? Its just a bolt that holds it on.
Typically, there is a tube that threads into block to hold the cooler on. That tube also has threads to hold your oil filter on. This is not so in the case of the VW TDI. Therefore, I need to make or buy this threaded tube. This is what it will look like:
However, I really haven't been able to find this type of bolt anywhere yet. I know the filter thread for the Mirage is M20x1.5. However, finding threaded parts that large isn't the easiest. So, I am looking for suggestions on how to make this part.
I thought first about taking a 3/4" tube and M20x1.5 die and just threading it. However, that really doesn't leave a ton of thread as M20 is larger than 3/4".
My next thought is to purchase a super cheap
oil filter sandwich plate, and take the threaded part out of there, cut it and extend it. But, I'm quite open to other ideas.
