454 Mag EFI oil cooler upgrade
 

I have replaced my 454 mag with a 540 and would like to upgrade my oil cooler. I have looked at coolers for hours now trying to find something that will work. My mag setup has a PS cooler mounted to top of bellhousing, cool fuel on port side of engine and the oil cooler is mounted vertically in front of engine. What do I buy and where do I mount it. I could remove the PS cooler and put on a combo cooler on the rear of engine, but it can only be about 16" long. If I use a stringer mount on port side, I will have to do away with the cool fuel and replace fuel system. I find nothing that will work in the stock location. Can't go with bigger diameter because it will not fit behind the tensioner bracket. I could mount one on the starboard side and run the lines under the oil pan, but I know that I need to keep the lines as short as possible.

I am sure that this has been done many times, but I can't find a good solution. Any ideas? Pictures? Part #s

I mounted mine on stringer as shown in the pic, ditch every factory fitting from filter adapter to block adapter as they are sized for requirements of your stock motor, not a 540 with more hp and probably bigger bearing clearances. I too had to move my original cool fuel set-up but I ditched that too and went with bigger stuff, Smitty

I read your old post about upgrading oil systems and coolers and found it very informative. I am going to replace everything, I just don't find a good place to mount the cooler to work with my existing water line routing and my cool fuel works fine on the 540 so I hate to spend a grand to take it off just to have a place to mount the oil cooler. There are thousands of these MAG motors out there that have been or will be hopped up. It shouldn't be this difficult.

Thanks

Is there any issue with putting an oil cooler on the suction side of the raw water pump? I have plenty of room there and can loop the oil lines under the oil pan and keep them fairly short.

I wouldn't put it on the suction side - putting restriction (as an oil cooler will be) on the suction side of the pump creates a much higher loss of flow than on the pressure side. You may end up reducing flow, or causing loss of prime.

thanks