?'s about TII coolant flow & oil cooler flow/relocation...

[nitronatefc]

I am performing a turbo upgrade to an oil-only turbocharger. These questions may be stupid, but they are very important to me. Please don't answer if you don't know. If you do know, please explain your answer in such a way that I believe what you are talking about :) Motor is S4 TII, no emissions, run on premix

COOLANT
-Is 20mm the proper freeze-plug size for the coolant passages in the motor leading to the LIM?

-Is there a need to install the 2 LIM O-rings with freeze-plugs installed in the motor's coolant passages?

-Is it necessary to block the coolant port on the LIM (which feeds the stock turbo) once freeze-plugs are installed in the motor's coolant passages?

-For this type of upgrade, is it best to have the stock turbo's coolant feed & return, the coolant outlet on the rear iron, and the inlet on the back of the WP housing all blocked off? Is it detrimental to the factory-intended flow path? Would the system's flow benefit from looping any of these ports instead?

OIL COOLER
*Please don't consider clearances, air flow, or custom oil lines in these questions (all in reference to the OEM FC oil cooler):

-Could the cooler be mounted backwards (inlet and outlet towards passenger side of car)?

-Can the cooler be lowered or raised (keeping the mounting angle the same, or more vertical)?

-Can the cooler be inverted (installed upside-down)? This is very important for me to know.

-Can the cooler's inlet and outlet be reversed? Just curious on this one. No need to do it.

[nitronatefc]

After a little more research, and due to lack of response, I am going to experiment a little bit. I am going to slightly lower my oil cooler and mount it upside down. I will be reversing the oil cooler lines as well to maintain stockish oil flow path through the unit. The "Why?" behind all this is to facilitate installation of my aftermarket radiator. Flipping the cooler will create a flat upward facing edge so that the radiator can sit virtually right on top of it. Due to the original location of the oil inlet, there would have been a near 2in gap due to the 90 degree fitting. This would have forced the oil cooler to be mounted that much lower as well, which is not acceptable.

On a side note, one of my mechanic buddies was surprised that the original flow path through the oil cooler went top to bottom. He said most other applications he has seen runs the oil through from bottom to top. He cited something about oil staying in the cooler a little longer, and so the system can work out any air that gets introduced. Was he rockin' the ganja, or does he have a point? I only ask, because I am curious if I NEED to swap the lines going to the cooler once it's flipped.

My 2nd potential experiment involves the heater core coolant return line. The radiator I am using doesn't have a nipple on the outlet for the coolant return from the heater. I could fab a nipple off of a short piece of pipe to jumper into this location. I have another idea however...

I am going to "T" the line coming out of the heater core and split the coolant return. One will go to the nipple on the back of the waterpump housing (currently blocked due to no emissions/ TB mod). The other will go to the nipple for the stock turbo's coolant return (swapping to oil-only turbocharger). I feel two lines are necessary due to the reduction in size from the heater outlet to these two inlets. My only concern is that the combined area of these two return ports is still less than the area of the original heater return line. Unless this creates some sort of excess pressure in the core, or detrimentally slows coolant flow, I see no problems going this route.