Got an oil cooler and now have a dilemma how to mount it

I was going to build a bracket arrangement that attaches to the rad top mounts, but looking at the job its not going to be as easy as I had thought to do neatly

Wonder if anyone on here has used the zip tie type affairs that go through the fins that I have seen with pacet rad fans to mount a 13 row cooler?
Really bad idea or has it been done with sucess before?

Regards
Rob

Hi rob

I had the cable tie affairs supplied with my fan, tried them but they really are not perfect and i was worried i might damage the core of the rad with the tightness needed to support the fan.
I wouldnt advise them to fix a cooler to the front, i have seen some pics of oil coolers mounted with extended brackets from the bottom mounts of the rad.Mounts kind of wrapped around the rad,i will have a search but as you know the photo archive is big.

It may not be neat, but the backet mounting method is superios to cable ties.

I would never mount anything to the radiator matrix tubing.

Found these pics of a fitting kit
Rescued attachment 100_1027.jpg

sorry pics are a bit big
Rescued attachment 100_1025.jpg

looks pretty much like a kit has been adapted for a polo rad,maybe the pipes are giving a fair amount of support and the bracket is for position.

[Edited on 7/6/09 by bob]
Rescued attachment 100_1018.jpg

Cheers for that
Looks like I will be bending some metal then
Good piccies Bob :-)
I may swap over to a polo rad whilst I'm in there - in for a penny in for a pound and all that
It does look narrower than the (escort?) rad thats in there at the mo and may make bracketry easier to fit

Cheers once again :-)

Regards
Rob

As luck would have it the polo rad has mounting points front and rear, it would be possible to tap the bottom points on the front for the cooler.

Pics were not hard to find, i normally type in what i'm after in google images

[Edited on 7/6/09 by bob]

Hi Bob,
Personally I wouldn't hang anything on a radiator as it's intrinsically of fragile construction and it's a very vital part of the car. I wouldn't want a bolt or even a tie-wrap fretting away at the core tubes.
More, I wouldn't hang an oil cooler or fan or anything of significant weight off the unused mounting points.
I've mounted the fan entirely independent of the radiator. (MK/Pinto/Polo)
Just my .02c
John.

Have to agree with you re mounting fans and other parts on the core of the rad with the plastic ties,i've never thought this was a good idea as said in my earlier post even though lots of people have done this.

I believe the front mounting points on the polo rad would be good for position of the oil cooler as long as a seperate mounting point from below is fitted as in the pictures.

that cooler mounting is not ideal - you want as small a gap as possible between the oil cooler matrixc and the radiator matrix.

the lower mounting bracket is sufficient - no need for the ones on the top unless the radiator is very large.