The Porsche 944 Turbo comes with a factory installed oil cooler that works pretty well. Despite this, many people have found their oil temperatures climbing to alarmingly high levels during spirited driving on the track, especially in hot weather. The solution is to increase cooling capacity, either by adding an additional oil cooler or replacing the existing cooler with a larger unit.

There are a number of kits on the market that provide you with everything you need to do this. However prices can be a little high, especially for the larger units. After scoring an unused aftermarket cooler on line (sans mounting hardware and oil hoses) I decided to piece together my own system.

The first step was to build some mounting brackets. My cooler is a Setrab 72 row diagonal-flow unit, which is short and fairly wide. So the most logical place for it is directly in front of the radiator. Since I've removed the air conditioning in my car, the cooler can sit roughly in the place previously occupied by the A/C condenser.

With the brackets made its time to prepare the route for the oil lines. The cooler has two ports, one at each end, on opposite corners. The ideal arrangement is for oil to flow into the upper port, and out of the lower one. While the path to the lower port was clear, the upper port was blocked by part of the frame. To provide access I cut a 2" hole in the metal using a hole saw.

The cooler mounts to flanges on either side of the radiator. Conveniently there were two holes left over from the discarded A/C condenser, requiring just two additional holes to complete the mounting. In the final installation (not shown above) there are rubber washers between the cooler and the frame to isolate the unit from vibration.

Next up its time to make the hoses. I'm using Fragola Push-Lite AN-12 racing hose with corresponding hose ends. After cutting the hose to length, the ends must be heated before the fittings are inserted.

The final assembled hoses. I used heat-shrink tubing to cuff the ends and proved wear resistance where the hoses come in contact with other parts of the car.

The oil cooler and hoses installed. Eventually I will add a tie-down to support the lower hose as it passes near the bottom middle of the radiator.