Hel Thermostatic Oil Cooler Kit Group Buy!

[PM-R33]

Hey guys

I have been wanting to do this group buy for a while. Was originally planning to do it last year but with a couple of the other group buys running money was getting very tight.

Obviously from the success of running the Hel group buys for their brake and clutch line kits I had a lot of dealings with the guys at Hel. Through our talks I found out they were putting together an oil cooler kit and one that would suit Nissan's. This was something I had been meaning to put on my car for a while however most good ones (Trust, PWR, HKS) were close to $800-$1000+ for the kits I wanted.

I had seem some of the cheaper Chinese/Taiwanese type kits in real life on mate's cars and a lot had problems with leaking fittings, sandwich plates not mounting properly or leaking and overall just very average looking quality. Sure maybe a lot of them worked ok but it was an area that I didn't really want problems with (friend nearly ruined a motor from an oil cooler line breaking and loosing all the oil).

So I started looking into all the components of the kit offered by Hel and instantly loved it! Was the exact setup that I wanted at half the price! Not to mention it looked fantastic.

Like with anything I started doing my research. Here is all the info:

CORE

The actual core it self is manufactured by a Swedish company called SETRAB. The core is made from an alloy aluminium brazed into a one piece assembely that is coated black and therefore doesn't draw to much attention yet at the same time looks very sleek. The cores are pressure tested to withstand over 300PSI. From what I have read these cores are fantastic and are ment to be up there with the best. Two cores will be available for the group buy, a 19 ROW and a 25 ROW. The 25 ROW is recommended for vehicles with larger HP outputs or that see proper track use or that are in hot climates.

BRACKETS AND LINES

The brackets that mount the core are by Hel and made of aluminium powdercoated black with an ingraved Hel logo. From the core Hel lines are used with their stealth black fittings.

SANDWICH PLATE

The lines then go to a UK branded Mocal thermostatic sandwich plate. This is a key factor that a lot of cheap oil cooler kits do not have and for a street driven car is essential. If you run a car on the street without a thermostatic sandwhich plate it will take forever (or in some cases never) for your oil to reach operating temperature. Basically works the same way as a thermostat for your coolant. The thermostat opens up at a good temperature of 80 degrees.

VEHICLES

Obviously like with most oil cooler kits, the kit is semi universal. You can mount it where you want using the brakets provided. The main part that is specific is the sandwich plate made for a RB block. Just double check if you have something different as I believe SR's might be the same aswell.

An interesting little fact that I came across in my research:

For every 10 degrees of excessive heat, oil life is halved.

One thing the kit doesn't come with is a filter relocation kit. This is something that not every one wants and therefore if you wanted one you can just buy one seperately and use it with the kit.

So the part every one wants to hear, the price. Basically the combination adds up to the equivalent of a top dollar oil cooler kit that costs well over $1000. Hel told me themselves that there wouldn't be a kit under $1000 that would better it and after reading everything, I believe them.

Five kits will be needed for the group buy to go ahead at a price of:

19 ROW - $450 Delivered Australia wide

25 ROW - $490 Delivered Australia wide

As you can see, bargain!

One difference with this group buy compared to some of the others is that once orders have been sent from the UK, they will get sent directly to you instead of me sending them all out. This will save time and also means every one gets some proper documentation should a warranty issue ever occur (wasn't really an issue with the Hel lines group buys).

So I will keep the group buy open for the next month untill the 18th of April or until spots have been filled. Once the group buy is closed I will need payment within one week. The money will then get transferred to Hel in the UK and will take around 2-3 weeks to get all the kits ready and then around a week freight.

Once again I will be doing a DIY on fitment with plenty of pictures.

Any furthur questions feel free to ask. There is a lot of information and I may have missed something.

Cheers guys

Phil

GROUP BUY LIST

1. PMR33 - 25 ROW (PAID)

2. J34 - 19 ROW (PAID)

3. TYPEVU - 19 ROW (PAID)

4. EIGHTSIXBOY- 19 ROW (PAID)

5. KISUU_BUTA - 19 ROW (PAID)

6. DARK.SKY - 19 ROW (PAID)

7. ROBBO_RB180 - 19 ROW (PAID)

8. A20089 - 25 ROW (PAID)

9. JRM - 19 ROW (PAID)

10. BLAGS - 19 ROW (PAID)

11. BORED33 - 19 ROW (PAID)

12. IBZ - 25 ROW (PAID)

13. SIMONR32 - 19 ROW (PAID)

14. CASSBO - 25 ROW (PAID)

15. WLSPN - 19 ROW (PAID)

[PM-R33]

One other thing I will add is a review that was done on this kit by a guy called Dan.

So a few months ago having a chat with Steve and the subject came up about Oil Coolers as I wanted it to be one of the next steps I made to keep the S14 mechanically sound before going down the route of more power as I already had a decent rad and nice Intercooler. Steve suggested trying one of the newly developed kits from HEL Performance and doing a review on the product also, being put through its paces on a drift car seemed the ideal purpose. Anyway after waiting for the final bits to arrive to make the kit up Steve sent it out to me, this actually arrived just after a full fluid change and then I had a few competitions very close together working full time, also this did have to go on the back burner until I had chance to fit it.

Anyway after seeing many Oil coolers damaged or split open where people like to put them on the front corners of the car, all it takes is a slight clip of a cone on your bumper and to pierce it. So after a long think I decided to remove the Bonnet lock centre brace (I use bonnet pins), which was a case of drilling 3 spot welds and undoing 1 bolt.

We were then left with what can only be called the perfect place for the cooler, well protected and gets plenty of air through the grille. Here is where it sits................................

Next up was running the Hoses, now luckily this kit comes with more than enough hose to pretty much place the cooler where you want so we had plenty for where we had placed it. Anyway we securely attached the high quality fittings to the cooler and proceeded to attempt to locate the sandwich plate ensuring all connections had been greased as per the instructions on the cooler. Locating the sandwich plate was a fiddle but we eventually got there, re-fitting the Oil Filter then topping the sytem back up with oil

Next was to run the car up and make sure that the Oil was passing through once up to temp, sure enough it was which was great news.

Now really pleased with our efforts we called it a night, well to be honest the quality of the kit made fitting it looks so easy and professional.

Anyway all of this was in preparation for the JDM All Stars Wembley Round (Drift Event) the following weekend, the aim was to get the Oil Temp and Pressure gauge hooked up during the week to give some further feeback. Anyway due to driving through a storm and my fuse box getting soaked I didn't get my electrics back until all had dried out! The day before the event!!!!!!! So we didn't get chance to do anything with the gauges unfortunately.

So we went into competition with the new product, all through practice no leaks or problems at all. Then disaster struck..........................

Now given the Impact point was right where the cooler was mounted you would have expected my day to be over, but...............................................

But no because of the sheer quality of the product we lost no fluid and with a borrowed intercooler we could carry on and go on to Qualify strongly! I can't recommend this product enough, a robust reliable product that also makes any engine bay look that little more awesome!

Anyway I will continue to keep the updates coming as the engine develops into next season and I am sure we will really see the benefits of this fantastic product.

Thanks for reading

Dan

[ARTZ]

Looks nice Phil..

But ill have to put it on my wishlist for now..

[WHITER33GTS-T]

If only I didnt have a core already. Mine is a Setrab part number 50-640-7612

What would all the lines and sandwich plates cost without the core and what size fittings..?

Edited March 18, 2011 by WHITER33GTS-T

[wlspn]

Damn that looks big on his car! Do you have dimensions of the 2 cores?

Also interested to see if parts can be purchased seperately...

Like just core & thermostatic sandwich plate

[PM-R33]

Breaking up the kits will throw the group buy prices out. If we however get the numbers needed for the group buy to go ahead, then I can find out if they also do kits minus certain parts (not sure if they do however). So at this stage kits only.

Will get dimensions of the cores as that is something I was meaning to look into aswell.

[PM-R33]

Ok for dimensions I believe they are as follows:

19 ROW - 146mm x 330mm x 50mm

25 ROW - 190mm x 330mm x 50mm

Width dimension of 330mm includes the tabs.

From what I have seen they are basically the same width and depth as other brands in similar rows. For example the larger Grex kit I looked at was 233mm x 300mm x 50mm (may not have included tabs for width).

[Luke_GTS-T]

how long are the supplied lines going to be?

[PM-R33]

2m I believe. Should be more than enough to be able to mount it in traditional locations.

[J34]

ooooo i've been looking for a decent cooler with thermostat for soooooo long

IN! oh and i think 19 row should do me

[typevu]

Put me down for a 19 row

[PM-R33]

Done and done. I might actually take some measurement tonight and make sure a 25 ROW will fit where I want it (drivers side duct). If not I will go a 19 row aswell.

[75coupe]

Im tempted to sell my HKS type s kit for this one...

[PM-R33]

What's wrong with the HKS one?

[75coupe]

well nothing really, this just looks all new and shiny and Im a sucker for a group buy lol...

group buy on filter relocation kits!!!

[PM-R33]

Haha fair enough. You could probably sell the HKS one for the same price as this one new lol.

[SargeRX8]

Are you able to get a filter relocator with this too? And I don't understand this whole business with the thermostat. Pretty keen on this, otherwise ill just be getting a cheap ebay kit.

[PM-R33]

Basically for a street car an oil cooler without a thermostat is a step backwards if anything.

You want a car to come up to operating temperature as quickly as possible as most of your engine wear happens when a car is cold. This is common knowledge for most people, hence why you don't flog a car when it is cold.

This is why you have a thermostat for your coolant. Your coolant stays in the engine so it can warm up and then once it gets to operating temperature your thermostat opens up and allows the coolant to get cooled through your radiator.

An oil cooler without a thermostat is getting cooled from the moment you start the car. Why do you want your engine oil getting cooled when it is cold? This would mean your oil would take a lot longer to reach operating temperature. With a thermostat your oil doesn't go to the oil cooler until it needs to.

There is a lot more to it so have a Google search on how they work to get a better understanding of it.

Kit doesn't come with a relocater, but you can always buy your own relocater kit and add it to it.

[SargeRX8]

Can I connect my oil temp sensor to the sandwich plate? Do you have any pix of the plate?

Good explanation above too! Cheers.

[PM-R33]

I'll find that out as I would like to know that aswell.

In my DIY I will also try and remove the factory oil warmer/cooler (It's connected between the block and the sandwich plate) and replace it with a RB20 item to neaten everything up down there as it is an absolute mess.

Thread about it here:

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/topic/294549-any-way-to-remove-factory-oil-cooler-from-rb25det/page__hl__factory+oil+cooler