I finally got around to installing the E46 M3 oil filter housing and oil cooler that I’d had kicking around for months. I was mostly hung up on how to plumb it, and where to put a temperature sender, but managed to do a pretty good job, I think.
The cooler is mounted sideways. Originally I wanted it mounted with the ports facing upwards, as this would eliminate any possible draining issue, but running the -10 AN lines would be very challenging in that way. I also wanted to install an oil temperature sender in the feed to the cooler, of which there are two possibilities - buy a $50 block, or buy a running T-fitting and a special adapter nut. In the end, I chose to do neither of these, and bought an M12x1.50-thread sender to replace the oil pan drain plug with. Eventually, I will pull the pan off and weld in a separate bung for the sender.
The E46 M3 oil filter housing is complimented with the Achilles Motorsports VANOS adapter line. The thread diameter is different on the S54 VANOS unit than the S52, so one option is to either drill and tap the VANOS unit threads, or buy a specially made step-up banjo bolt. Achilles’ solution is to make a short AN line with nylon hose. Gets rid of the need for nonstandard hardware and looks cool too.
Oil cooler brackets are basically just piece of aluminum available at your local hardware store. The bottom one takes over the mounting holes for the electric pusher fan. The top one goes across the top mounting holes for the fan. In this case it was pretty wide so I milled out a slot to provide a little more airflow.
Now because I removed the electric fan, I had to reinstall the mechanical fan which I had removed. I have a Spal electric puller fan to install in place of the mechanical fan; that plan is in the works. I’m thinking of designing and building an aluminum fan shroud for that piece.
The bill of materials is all -10 AN consisting of: one straight hose ends, two 45° hose end, one 90° hose end, and about 6 feet of stainless braided hose. Everything is Summit Racing Equipment's in-house brand, which is actually very good for the money as far as quality goes.
As for performance, I’m very happy with this setup. I no longer get the oil pressure light to illuminate after a hard drive, with the pressure dropping down to about 10 psi at idle. Still not great, but far improved. At the track, I never saw the gauge move to 200°F. Unfortunately I don’t have information for where it would run before the cooler, but simply based on the pressure situation I have to assume it was significantly higher.
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