Recent discussions with my mate, and RV7A owner, PeteH have made me do a rethink on how to best mount the oil cooler. I've read quite a bit about how the standard mounting arrangement (bolting to the rear engine baffle) is flawed, leading to fatigue cracking due to the weight of the oil cooler on the thin baffle material, and how many builders beef up the standard design with aluminium angle. I've also read how others have relocated the oil cooler to the firewall, which affords a much more secure mounting location. PeteH is considering this modification to his RV7A. After talking to him about it I decided to just go ahead and do this on my RV9A now.
The pictures below show my custom firewall mounting bracket, which is still very much a work in progress. I'll run a SCAT tube from the back of the engine baffle to the top of my bracket, thereby directing airflow over the oil cooler.
I'll also fit an airflow shutter to the SCAT tube inlet so that I can reduce the cooling air flow, and thereby increase oil temperature, on particularly cold days. I've read that low oil temperatures can sometimes be a problem. I orderded an airflow shutter today from AntiSplat Aero.
