Hello
I have a 1983 nissan 280 zx turbo with no oil cooler 5 speed 125000 miles I want to install an oil cooler I will drive daily about 75 miles per trip 5 days a week in south texas average temp is 99 degrees any inf will help I have had this car since 1984.

 

Probably no need for an oil cooler. Get a very nice, large, new, aluminum radiator. ...maybe with electric fan. That will keep the temps down on the whole engine.

If you want the factory oil cooler, they are found on all the 1981-83 turbo cars that came from the factory with an automatic transmision. (turbo 5-speed cars had no oil cooler) They will bolt right into your car. you only need to do a little cutting on the inner fender where the lines run through the body.

 

i personnaly took off a oil cooler of a 1981 280zx turbo auto tranny and hooked it up to my 1982 280zx turbo 5 speed right in front of the right front wheel there will be a steel plate covering 2 holes about 1.5 inches wide.. u will have to take off the plate or drill its really eazy the only hard thing i had to do was when install the oil cooler i had to take off the threaded bolt that attaches the oil filter from the stock p-90a engine i had to use a pair of vice grips with rubber coating to slwoly wiggle it out.. but i assure u i got it out with out the threads messing up. ... U might want to running a coller thermostate.. i live in Clovis New mexico 100* weather all day.. i run 70/30 antifreeze with no theremostate i run 150+ all day long even at high boost 10-14 psi... might want to run 10w 30 motor oil... ?

 

ok, maybe the cutting is only nessisary when putting the cooler into a car that was originally a non-turbo.

 

hehe... my 81 had the oil cooler holes (through the right lower fender). They were just covered by some "Nissan sticky hole covering paper." So I just hooked up my oil cooler like stock.

 

That's strange, because in 1981 the 2+2 wasn't even available in turbo. My 1982 NA certainly had no holes there. I did quite a bit of drilling and cutting and found no other holes or welds in that area. Maybe my car got the inner fender from a 1979 Z. leftover parts in the factory

 

I know this is slightly off topic but, I've always been told that it's bad to run with no thermostat, is this right? Oh and I'd opt for that big aluminum radiator but, those bitches are $450+!

 

It's not the best idea to run w/o a thermostat. It's pretty hard to control water temp when there's no thermostat, but as long as it gets up to operating temp, and doesn't get too hot, it won't matter. Hell... maybe even gain .001hp because the water pump isn't straining to pump water through a quarter sized hole.

I bought a 280zx that the previous owner couldn't afford (stupid) a thermostat, so he took it out... it wouldn't ever get up to operating temp.

 

ya, don't run without a thermostat. In some driving conditions your engine will stay cold, in other conditions it will get too hot.

A good stock radiator with a 180 deg thermostat should keep the temps fine unless you're constantly in boost and driving really hard.

My car stayed cool in 95-100 deg weather out on the highway in the middle of Nevada with a stock radiator. It was NA back then but the turbo doesn't make the engine hotter when driving easy.
anway, Summit racing (.com) has fairly cheap aluminum Griffen radiators. Custom mounting but that's no big deal.

 

Reviving an old tread. When parting out my 86T, I got a nice little oil cooler, I would like to add it to my 280zx. Where do you tap into the oil supply at ? I do plan on doing a turbo upgrade eventually, any advantage to getting it in the car now ? Kinda expecting a big No, from what I have read, but there would seem to be some benefit to keeping the a bit oil cooler, and it's free, so I am compelled to bolt it on !

 

I used a sandwich adapter on the oilfilter and ran lines out.

 

Ya, I found a Earls sandwich adapter, Ill go with a full earls setup, as far as lines and fittings go, put some more bling on my pig. The adapter works out great really, the cooler will be in the wheel well, like stock I am guessing, thats where the 86t had it.