Oil Cooler

[JackTar 0]

I'm thinking of adding an oil cooler to my 1.6 Cti in preparation for an eventual engine swap to 1.9. Do you really have to remove the front bumper to fit the cooler as the haynes manual says, or is there an easier way to get round this?

[Anthony 1,003]

If you're going to be swapping the engine anyway, I'd wait until you do that and then install the oil cooler at the same time.

 

You don't need to remove the bumper, but certainly removing the radiator and radiator cowling makes it much easier to do.... which you'd have out when swapping the engine anyway, hence the suggestion of just doing it at the same time.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

If the car has not previously had an oil cooler fitted, then you will need to remove the bumper to drill holes in the front OS headlamp panel for the pipes to pass thru. See my project build thread as there are some good photos of when I dud this job.

[Anthony 1,003]

Depends how you do it Tom as it's one of those jobs that there's various ways of doing - I've personally never drilled/cut holes in the metalwork when I've fitted oil coolers, instead doing all the modifications to the radiator cowling to mount the cooler (if non-OE) and to run the pipework through. Obvious this way, there's no need to remove the bumper.

 

Whilst I haven't any pictures of one that I've done, I've got the cowling that I removed from my GTi-S recently that had a 13 row Mocal fitted, and Skip Brown do the modication and install them similar to how I do.

[JackTar 0]

Thanks for your advice fellas. I think I may just wait and do it all at the same time as the engine swap. At least if I do leave it until then I will have plenty of space to work negative engine!