[Torgus]

Originally Posted by Biginboca

Torgus you make a great point about adding potential failure/leak points. That’s a great selling point for the N54 set up you know it’s made to oem standards. Also the factory N54 oil thermostat for the cooler is set to open fully at 240, which is pretty much ideal for these N/A engines. And the components are abundant as take offs even if you had to buy the whole set up second hand it would be under $400, maybe $450 tops from my searching on eBay. That includes cooler, lines, thermostat housing, N54 OFH, air duct, inner fender grill, and even the rebuild kit for the OFH/TStat housing with all Gasket’s, Screws, etc.

All integrated to oem standard and engineering, not a hodgepodge where you are trying to make brackets, cooling ducts, etc to fit... at about half the price of a similar or better quality aftermarket. (Again these prices with purchasing second hand OFH, Cooler, Lines, and TStat.)

Even just selling factory N54 oil cooler kits I bet you would do just fine. You could make a website with tons of options like add the fender liner, add aftermarket oil cooler and give them 2 oil coolers to pick from(expensive and inexpensive) do they need a hardware packet with all new fasteners? Aftermarket tstat? Coolant block off plates like the motiv one earlier in this thread? A sport oil cooler valve: http://www.burgertuning.com/sport_oil_cooler_valve.html ?

Lots of parts in junk yards. You could also give them the choice of brand new OEM, refurbished/rebuilt by a reputable company, and then junkyard.

Lots of options and opportunities to make $$$. I'm sure people google N52 oil cooler on ebay enough that you would get sales there as well as on the forums and by word of mouth via the webpage etc.

[Biginboca]

Originally Posted by Torgus

Even just selling factory N54 oil cooler kits I bet you would do just fine. You could make a website with tons of options like add the fender liner, add aftermarket oil cooler and give them 2 oil coolers to pick from(expensive and inexpensive) do they need a hardware packet with all new fasteners? Aftermarket tstat? Coolant block off plates like the motiv one earlier in this thread? A sport oil cooler valve: http://www.burgertuning.com/sport_oil_cooler_valve.html ?

Lots of parts in junk yards. You could also give them the choice of brand new OEM, refurbished/rebuilt by a reputable company, and then junkyard.

Lots of options and opportunities to make $$$. I'm sure people google N52 oil cooler on ebay enough that you would get sales there as well as on the forums and by word of mouth via the webpage etc.

That is a great idea and I’m sure someone could make a nice side income doing it. Speaking for myself... well with all my time spent modding my car who has time for that lmao

[atmosphericM]

Originally Posted by Torgus

If you don't have problems with your oil temperatures you are spending money on a problem that does not exist and adding multiple new potential points of failure into your system/car.

Don't forget weight!

Originally Posted by Biginboca

I think my set up is going to cost me like $350 all in after getting some nice donations from generous forumers, which quite frankly is still quite a bit more than I wanted to put into this project lol

Huh?? How? I was thinking like $100 for the ducting and vent.. and that's it? Maybe a qt. of oil? What else was needed besides that and the radiator, OFH, and lines (which you were gifted, I thought?)?

I guess I'm cheap but I'd be looking to purchase all the parts needed for about $150, maybe $200 tops lol. I mean what is the market like for used 335i stock oil coolers? I'm assuming they hardly fail, so I'm guessing nearly zero (market). I suppose the OFH could be a little harder to find used, though.

[Biginboca]

Originally Posted by atmosphericM

Don't forget weight!



Huh?? How? I was thinking like $100 for the ducting and vent.. and that's it? Maybe a qt. of oil? What else was needed besides that and the radiator, OFH, and lines (which you were gifted, I thought?)?

I guess I'm cheap but I'd be looking to purchase all the parts needed for about $150, maybe $200 tops lol. I mean what is the market like for used 335i stock oil coolers? I'm assuming they hardly fail, so I'm guessing nearly zero (market). I suppose the OFH could be a little harder to find used, though.

I was gifted the cooler, mounting bracket, and lines, so I had to buy a used OFH with TStat which I found for $250 locally. Then the duct is $80 and the grill for $25. And I’m going to rebuild the OFH and TStat Housing with new screws, pressure sensor, Gasket’s, etc with a $50 kit off FCP Euro.


In case anyone is wanting to look into it here are the part numbers I have found for everything so far:

N54 Oil Cooler system part numbers for parts other than the cooler, mounting bracket, and lines.

Fender/cooler grill/underbody panel Screws
07147129160

Passenger Side Fender Liner with cut for grill
51717162832

Fender Liner Grill to cover cooler
51717161436

Air Duct that channels air from bumper to cooler for M sport Bumper
51717161434

N54 Oil Thermostat Housing with Thermostat
11427573212

N54 Oil Filter Housing for Thermostat
11428683206

Screw (1) to attach cooler lines to Thermastat Housing
17227555715

BMW Oil Filter Housing and Thermostat Rebuild Kit:

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...-11428637821kt

[Biginboca]

Started this install today. Tried last week but I needed a different brake duct to fit with my m sport bumper and the cooler duct (p/n 51748045364 is the Front right brake air duct for M-sport bumpers with oil cooler.)

Yellow = cooler duct
Red = brake duct





All looks good I just had a gap around the fog light I needed to seal with some foam so all the air was forced into the cooler...



Cooler in place...



Love working with oem parts, looks great...



That was all the time I had today, I will swap the OFH to the N54 one with thermostat on Weds. For now I just ran the lines and then zip tied them out of the way. (Wrapped in a zip loc bag cause they were dripping some oil and didn’t want it on my serpentine belt lol)



Right side oil cooler inlet close up:



Left side still a panel blank:

upload picture without account

I guess I will have to get back on my ram air install can’t have blank panels lol....

[Biginboca]

All finished up (I think). I had 2 issues. First the little cap over the thermostat area was leaking on my test start.



It had removed this cap when I got the housing because I was cleaning and rebuilding it before install, then I found you can’t order a new gasket for this piece separate from the thermostat itself which is $120.



So I tried to run it but you know how bmw gaskets are hard a brittle after some use so I ended up sealing this cap with rtv.



Other issue was bound to happen sooner or later... I lost one of the screws for the cosmetic engine cover into the no mans land between the splash shield and the subframe.

image bb

That’s probably gonna bug me cause I’m anal like that. Definitely going to have to order another one next time I make a parts order, lol

Outside of that no issues. I can’t test fire the car again until after 24 cure time for the rtv, so will update tomorrow but I don’t expect any issues I already started it up once for about 30 seconds and saw no issues except that leak.

One last thing, I was surprised how changing the oil filter housing (gasket or housing) is very easy on these motors. I would think a straight OFH leaking gasket replacement could easily be done in under an hour. I can’t believe some shops are charging $300 or more for that job.

[Torgus]

Originally Posted by Biginboca

One last thing, I was surprised how changing the oil filter housing (gasket or housing) is very easy on these motors. I would think a straight OFH leaking gasket replacement could easily be done in under an hour. I can’t believe some shops are charging $300 or more for that job.

Yeah it's an easy enough job the one time I did it.

I only use the front 2 screws for my engine cover. No reason to put all the ones at the back in. It doesn't do anything anyways.

Congrats on getting this done!

[Biginboca]

I’m going to call this install a success! I’ve put about 20 miles on the car no signs of leaking with the RTV:



As far as temps go I know the dme targets 240-250 for oil temp for economy driving and I typically see 240 when normal driving after warm up.

The stock N54 oil cooler thermostat I’m using supposedly is fully opened at 240.

My temps are staying at 225-230 when I'm doing economy style driving. So temps like 10-15 degrees cooler for my normal use.

I know the dme regulates the temp by varying the water pump speed so it's likely running the water pump less and trying to get the temp higher than 240 during my normal driving but it never happened. (It’s about 85 degrees here now so who knows what summer will bring lol.)

On aggressive wot situations the dme targets lower temps (180 or 190 I think?) and runs the water pump on high. On a lot of full throttle action I have seen my oil temps used to sometimes get 250-260 on that style driving. Here’s where it was after a bunch of WOT pulls just now. Still haven’t seen any temps above 230!



Of course this isn’t aggressive track driving but I’m happy to see the cooler is doing something, and the lower the oil temps average the healthier and more life in the oil. So it seems good for the car even before I get to the track.

[atmosphericM]