Proper Non-M Oil Cooler Mounting Location???

So I have decided to add an oil cooler to the car. I will be using the oil cooler ports on the S54 housing as the oil supply source. The big question of where to mount it comes about.

My current engine setup has a Setrab 925 as my air-to-water cooler for my ESS twinscrew as shown below:



So my logical choice to place the oil cooler would be on top of my current Setrab 925 right behind the kidney grills as such:



However, after speaking with James from Bimmerworld, he says that if I add an oil cooler in that location, then it will cause bigger problems. Reason being that it reduces the amount of air flow to the radiator which can lead to possibly overheating the engine.

However, this leads me to question how does the AA S/C kit have the supercharger cooler in front of the upper portion of the radiator along with an air-to-air intercooler in front of the bottom portion of the radiator.

Suggestions have been put forth saying to put it behind the radiator, but I cannot place it behind my radiator because I have the stock electric puller fan on the back of the radiator.

So to follow the suggestion from James at Bimmerworld, I am actually considering putting it right behind the Setrab 925 from the ESS Twinscrew and the engine's radiator. I know that this will dramatically reduce the efficiency of the oil cooling, but I have no other idea on where to mount the oil cooler. I am essentially sandwiching the oil cooler between the engine radiator and the air-to-water cooler. You can see a gap between the two in the picture below.



I was thinking of using the Setrab 920, Setrab 925, or the Fluidyne DB-30417 for the oil cooler core. Bimmerworld has suggested Setrab 925.

I'd like some more input from the track junkies and fanatics (especially from mrshellyy, PEI330Ci, and Mr.PaddleShift ) about where would be the right place to mount an oil cooler and what oil cooler to use? TIA.

Mine's mounted behind the radiator and the oil temp runs between 225 and 230.


Here's a bottom shot of the bracket made to hold it.


As you can see, I don't run the stock fan, so there's plenty of room.

You can attach an e46M3 oil cooler on the bottom of the stock radiator. Only problem, it sits pretty low and you better be careful.

cool thread.. i had wondered about this as i plan on going with an ESS supercharger some time in the future.. i wasn't sure what would happen as far as clearance goes between the s54 oil filter housing lines and the TS snout.. will keep an eye on this thread

Are the M52, M54, and/or S54 oil housings interchangeable?

Somewhat. The S54 housing needs spacers for the p/s pump, a new bracket for the lower mounting point for the p/s pump, and a VANOS adaptor bolt.