Hey thanks! Great progerss on your build, looking foreward to meeting you, PM sent with my contact info.

Well the adapter showed up today, super quick turn around as I only ordered it Monday night. They do recommend getting the Jeep flywheel rebalanced, so once I get it out that'll got to the shop. I wanted to get it turned anyway. The weather hasn't been too cooperative lately, we're getting after noon showers. So the six is still in the truck. I'd like to have it out by Saturday.

So the latest conundrum is the oil cooler. The stock one is too thick to fit behind the grill. After looking at some aftermarket coolers, and their prices, I was wondering if there is a cheaper alternative. The first thing to come to mind are the older style tube-type AC condensers. They don't have any internal restrictions and plenty were made to fit the dimensions that I'd have to work in. Anyone know how to calculate the rough size needed to work as well of maybe better then the OE, but only 3/4-1" thick?

chumley--have you considered benz oil cooler placement in bumber? i haven't done it yet but thats what im hoping to pull off (see pics on page 3 or so of fte's build). Also, my original jeep radiator was toast so Im replacing it with a thicker high efficiecy one from local parts store, $95.00 with warranty. also had to buy an E13 inverted hex socket to remove top two jeep bell housing bolts. 10mm 12 point was about to round off bolts.
fte- thanks for pm, will get in touch with more acurate timing, probably saturday(this will be my 9th post so no pm yet for me..)

Kman, I saw the "bumper-cooler", but I'm just not really digging it. It's just not my style. It's pretty simple to figure out the surface area of the OE cooler, I'm just being lazy right now. My current rad is the standard 4.0L w/HD cooling and it's only about two months old, so I'm probably going to just keep that. And I've got at least one set of E-bits at home, maybe two, so that's covered.

Saturday works as well. See ya then.

It appears the oil doesn't flow to the oil cooler until the thermostat in the oil filter housing opens at something over 210 degrees. I would agree that most any type of heat exchanger should work as long as it will flow an equal volume of oil. I've considered a transmission cooler also or 2 trans coolers in tandom. The MB cooler is not that large and I would guess it to be over-designed if anything. As long as you keep an eye on your temp guage in extreme conditions then I'd be comfortable trying most anything that appeared to be comparably sized. The oil cooler is simply a reduntant engine cooling system to assist the water pump / radiator system. If you use a radiator that exceeds the MB radiator specs with a 190 degree thermostat then the oil cooler may get very little use at all?

I am not sure about the oil going to the cooler until that 210 degree i have mine leaving the oil lines going to another oil filter and then going to the stock oil cooler in my s-10 stock rad and I have oil a start up Vette

decision time - oil coolers necessary?

vette - here's the thread I was referencing concerning oil flow at +210 degrees.

Here's another thread referencing the oil thermostat
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...ter+thermostat

If your oil is always flowing through the oil cooler, then it is not working as designed by MB which may or may not be a real problem. If your oil is staying below 210 then it appears it is not boiling out the moisture? IMHO, it is a good thing for moisture to be removed from the oil.

It would be interesting to know the difference in temperature of the engine coolant and the engine oil while operating. Since the engine coolant is a heat transfer medium, I would assume it to be cooler than the engine itself, but I wonder how much cooler?

Oil coolers are a MUST! for any turbo'd motor. On the Volvos I used to play with we usually saw 210 water temp and 250 oil temp. Now there was some play room in there, but that was the general area. Those were gas motors, so I don't know if there would be any major differences to the diesel. I'd imagine that it would be based more on oil capacity and water temp, than gas vs. diesel. I'm probably going to be limited to a 3/8" ID tube in whatever I pick out, but as long as I stay with tube-type coolers the restrictions will be minimal. If I have to use a manifold-type cooler, then larger inlet/outlet ports will be needed. But I'll just see what I can find when I go looking.

If you've got an a/c, do you think there is room to place another unit in front of the a/c and radiator?