[Former_Boosted_IS]

Originally Posted by Bakeme521

I def. agree with that. I realize now that the thermostat is inside the outside cap but it would be pretty cool if someone made an aftermarket one too see what the differences would be with just the stock oil cooler. Do you think stett would sell the thermostat housing separately? If so theres a place around the corner that makes custom steel braided lines that can be any lengths with any time of fitting on either side. With custom lines make it could be possible to hook the stocker up to the stett housing.

OR

If stett or other vendors out there are looking for something to do, MAKE AN AFTERMARKET THERMOSTAT HOUSING THAT HOOKS UP TO THE STOCK OIL COOLER!!

I am not sure if STETT will or will not sell the thermostat seperately. Maybe someone can email them and ask?

The problem is you would still need the adapter plate, the oil lines to the thermostat, then find a way to get your oil lines to mate with the stock adapters. I think the cost would be about as high as this kit will cost. If you buy the kit, you trade in your stock oil cooler for a Setrab.

[Former_Boosted_IS]

Originally Posted by Daya

great review and write up

Daya, thanks for the compliments and I am glad your enjoyed the read.

[raceyBMW]

I knew I had seen pics before of the OC t-stat...I had saved them on my computer from another thread either on this forum or on the other one. If you don't mind me posting them in your thread then here they are, otherwise I can remove them...save you some work anyway

For those asking, I would think you wouldn't want to completely delete the T-stat. For one thing it allows quicker oil warm-up, which is useful since the oil is working best when warm...and it could help build up oil pressure quicker when cold as well, since allowing oil through the oil cooler right away would mean a pressure drop for the system potentially.

[Bakeme521]

Originally Posted by Former_Boosted_IS

I am not sure if STETT will or will not sell the thermostat seperately. Maybe someone can email them and ask?

The problem is you would still need the adapter plate, the oil lines to the thermostat, then find a way to get your oil lines to mate with the stock adapters. I think the cost would be about as high as this kit will cost. If you buy the kit, you trade in your stock oil cooler for a Setrab.

Yeah I meant like the whole adapter plate with the thermostat. And another upside is I'm good friends with the guy who owns a shop that makes custom lines. I can get a custom line made in any length that goes from any fitting to another as long as the hose doesn't have to change size. And I can get them at cost too.

Do you have the link where you can buy the kit? I don't see it on their site.

[Former_Boosted_IS]

Originally Posted by Bakeme521

Yeah I meant like the whole adapter plate with the thermostat. And another upside is I'm good friends with the guy who owns a shop that makes custom lines. I can get a custom line made in any length that goes from any fitting to another as long as the hose doesn't have to change size. And I can get them at cost too.

Do you have the link where you can buy the kit? I don't see it on their site.

I am not sure if the link is up on their website yet. I think STETT may organize a group buy on this.

[Bakeme521]

Originally Posted by Former_Boosted_IS

I am not sure if the link is up on their website yet. I think STETT may organize a group buy on this.

If you don't mind me asking, what did the whole kit cost you?

[TheAcAvenger]

I wonder how much of the secondary oil cooler retrofit kit is actually necessary to do this?

[McMuffin]

Good review as always!
My two favorite things about this kit, is the overall lower oil temps and the Stett adapter plate! That little plate looks pretty damn cool!!

[onefastman]

The kits are going to be a lot cheaper than AR's kit

If I recall it was under 600 for stage 1 before the GB


Check the old thread or maybe its in my pms some where

[Graystone]

As always Very well done .
It would probly be easyer to get a volunteer to do the same test and log for us on there stock oil set up. With the temps dropping around the country, to give us an idea of the how much the temps made a difference.
As a fellow modder it is hard enough to get things just right with out the addition of taking pictures and logging everything, in between the four letter words, I really appreciate your time . Thankyou Sir

[McMuffin]

Originally Posted by onefastman

The kits are going to be a lot cheaper than AR's kit

If I recall it was under 600 for stage 1 before the GB


Check the old thread or maybe its in my pms some where

Originally Posted by STETT Performance

Here is the pricing on the kits:

135i/335i stage 1 retail: $645
135i stage 2 retail: $685
335i stage 2 retail: $735

The thermostat kit retail: $169

As mentioned previously we will be offering a group buy in short time as soon as we wrap up the last few details on the kits.

I will definitely be on the GB!

[onesuperboi]

Wow! Thanks for taking the time to do these reviews.

I don't know how you have the patience to take all the photos during the process. When I wanted to do my own slide show of installing and uninstalling parts, I am too impatient to take the time and snap a few photos...

[Bakeme521]

It says thermostat kit retail is 169, what does that include??

[c4s335i]

Not sure I like the idea of lowering the oil temp that much. I would imagine BMW had it in that range for a reason, and I seriously doubt oil temp affects emissions. Coolant temp yes because it directly affects proper combustion, oil temp I doubt it.

Also, there seems like there's quite a bit of fab work involved for the replacement. The Dinan kit seems to mount to all stock locations, but I can't tell if requires the removal of the front crash bar to install it or not, although that doesn't seem to be the case. Obviously this kit requires the bar to be removed because it mounts behind it, but I can't tell from the install if that was required to remove the stock oil cooler or not.

Another question I have is why everyone is caught up on the Setrab oil coolers. It's not they are the only company to make high quality high pressure oil coolers. Derale has made them for years and their cores certainly cost quite a bit less. I guess I just don't see the appeal of paying that much extra for an oil cooler just for a name.

Based on the pics of the stock oil t-stat, a properly sized replacement spring could do the trick if you just want to lower the temps without the hole filter housing replacement. Sounds like a fun project to me.

[NiVeDh]

Amazing review as usual! With the lower oil temperatures, the oil viscosity will be different. If our engines are indeed designed to be run at a specific temperature with specific oils (LL-01 approved), then will you consider using a different brand/weight of oil that has similar characteristics at the lower temperatures?

[c4s335i]

Originally Posted by NiVeDh

Amazing review as usual! With the lower oil temperatures, the oil viscosity will be different. If our engines are indeed designed to be run at a specific temperature with specific oils (LL-01 approved), then will you consider using a different brand/weight of oil that has similar characteristics at the lower temperatures?

Agreed. Upping the core size should really be the only goal. With the AR cooler, most people's street temps are staying around 230F with recorded max temps of 255 on the track. Staying in the range you can be sure you're not exceeding what the engineers had designed for that engine. Plus motor oil viscosity testing is done at the 210F range, so by lowering the temp 50 degrees you're effectively lowering the viscosity of the motor oil, which can lead to bearing clearance issues which can lead to failure, especially in track use. Not exactly a great feature. The bearing clearances are designed with heat and viscosity in mind, so again by changing this your changing the effective design.

Another point to consider is that since the pistons are oil cooled, you can also change the heat expansion tolerance that pistons were designed for to not have piston slap. In a non-oiled cooled piston motor, typically the piston design would include greater tolerance to allow for greater heat expansion of the hotter aluminum vs. a piston that is being cooled which will not expand as much.

Personally I plan on trying to come up with my own setup that uses a high efficient 25-27 row core, and hopefully won't require massive amounts of car manipulation to make it fit. We'll see what happens.

Does the Stett kit include a proper louvered vent? Or is it pretty much just hack a hole in the back and let the hot air hit the rotor? I'm not sure I like how the air guide is just removed as well. Obviously it will still get air, but not as efficient as with a proper air guide. Granted none of that matters on the street, but running 30 minute sessions on the track with 100F + temps can find the weakness of any setup.

[Former_Boosted_IS]

Originally Posted by TheAcAvenger

I wonder how much of the secondary oil cooler retrofit kit is actually necessary to do this?

That is a question you would have to ask STETT. I am not sure there.

[Former_Boosted_IS]

Originally Posted by McMuffin

Good review as always!
My two favorite things about this kit, is the overall lower oil temps and the Stett adapter plate! That little plate looks pretty damn cool!!

McMuffin, lol the plate is beautiful! Don't forget the oil lines!

[Former_Boosted_IS]

Originally Posted by Graystone

As always Very well done .
It would probly be easyer to get a volunteer to do the same test and log for us on there stock oil set up. With the temps dropping around the country, to give us an idea of the how much the temps made a difference.
As a fellow modder it is hard enough to get things just right with out the addition of taking pictures and logging everything, in between the four letter words, I really appreciate your time . Thankyou Sir

Graystone, I may get lucky every once in a while with wamer temps. I will be out the first day we get some.

[Former_Boosted_IS]

Originally Posted by onesuperboi

Wow! Thanks for taking the time to do these reviews.

I don't know how you have the patience to take all the photos during the process. When I wanted to do my own slide show of installing and uninstalling parts, I am too impatient to take the time and snap a few photos...

onesuperboi, no problem at all my friend. I am glad you enjoy the reads.

[Former_Boosted_IS]

Originally Posted by NiVeDh

Amazing review as usual! With the lower oil temperatures, the oil viscosity will be different. If our engines are indeed designed to be run at a specific temperature with specific oils (LL-01 approved), then will you consider using a different brand/weight of oil that has similar characteristics at the lower temperatures?

I have considered an an oil change, but I am not the expert here. I have asked STETT what they suggest and I may go over to Motul.

[Former_Boosted_IS]

c4s335i,

If you think the additional oil cooler kits are not limping at the track, I think you should dig a little deeper. All I am hearing is that they are limping.

Originally Posted by c4s335i

Agreed. Upping the core size should really be the only goal. With the AR cooler, most people's street temps are staying around 230F with recorded max temps of 255 on the track. Staying in the range you can be sure you're not exceeding what the engineers had designed for that engine. Plus motor oil viscosity testing is done at the 210F range, so by lowering the temp 50 degrees you're effectively lowering the viscosity of the motor oil, which can lead to bearing clearance issues which can lead to failure, especially in track use. Not exactly a great feature. The bearing clearances are designed with heat and viscosity in mind, so again by changing this your changing the effective design.

Another point to consider is that since the pistons are oil cooled, you can also change the heat expansion tolerance that pistons were designed for to not have piston slap. In a non-oiled cooled piston motor, typically the piston design would include greater tolerance to allow for greater heat expansion of the hotter aluminum vs. a piston that is being cooled which will not expand as much.

Personally I plan on trying to come up with my own setup that uses a high efficient 25-27 row core, and hopefully won't require massive amounts of car manipulation to make it fit. We'll see what happens.

Does the Stett kit include a proper louvered vent? Or is it pretty much just hack a hole in the back and let the hot air hit the rotor? I'm not sure I like how the air guide is just removed as well. Obviously it will still get air, but not as efficient as with a proper air guide. Granted none of that matters on the street, but running 30 minute sessions on the track with 100F + temps can find the weakness of any setup.

I understand the kit has been driven on the Texas Mile. I think you are being awefully harsh with a lot of assumptions. This testing was done at 40F. Please do not forget that. If you add 38F ambient to make the testing identical, one must assume those numbers would converge in some way. Who knows how much. There may be some track cars that never run a thermostat. What you must remember is you have choices. If you want a 180F thermostat, 190F, 200F, etc. Choose what best meets your needs.