Anyone used one of these on a R50? as the block is the same will it fit?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/370598928818...84.m1423.l2649

Thanks

Chris

 

I believe the R53 came with a heat exchanger/oil cooler on the side of the oil filter housing that the R50 does not have. Aftermarket oil cooler kits replace the heat exchanger/oil cooler with a plate. This plate has two holes for hoses that are then routed to an oil cooler. The R50 does not have this oil cooler/heat exchanger so there is nothing for this adapter plate to bolt on to. IMHO I really do not think there is a need for an oil cooler on the R50 and ebay oil coolers have been known to show hotter temps than a stock heat exchanger on the R53. It is one of those why fix what is not broke?

 

Not sure that I would trust the quality of something sold on EBay either.

 

Thanks for the info I'll have to look what i can make to fit an oil cooler to the R50. I want to fit the cooler and remote oil filter. Believe me in rallying you need an oil cooler.

 

Out of curiousity what are your oil temps getting to? I do rallycross events in a pretty stock engine R50 and have never seen the temp go over 250f. Why the need to go remote?

 

I've never checked the oil temp but I rally in a hot and humid country which does not help. Currently I run a Suzuki Swift GTI which ran hot until I fitted a bigger radiator and oil cooler. I try to use a remote oil filter when possible to increase the capacity of the filter and ease of changing the filter. With the Subaru it was great as the filter was under the engine which was a skid plate off job. The R50 has some inverted filter thing which looks a bugger to change???

 

It is a little more difficult than normal screw off filters and does require a special socket and tends to dump oil all over your subframe when you remove the filter. I have never seen a remote kit for a MINI but am sure someone on here has. As far as the cooler goes...I have been looking and the oil filter housing for the R50 and R53 look identical besides the heat exchanger attachment. Maybe you could swap a R53 oil filter housing with an R50 housing and then add the aftermarket cooler.

R53 housing set up
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...95&hg=11&fg=30

R50 housing set up
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...98&hg=11&fg=30

The aftermarket cooler just replaces the heat exchanger attachment with a plate shown in your ebay oil cooler pic. This plate then has attachments for two lines going to an oil cooler feed and return.

 

Hey that's some realy good info. either I do what you suggest or make triangle plate to run pipes and oil pressure switch off. I'm back home next week so I do some investigation. Thanks again. Do you do rallycross on gravel or the auto cross on tarmac?

 

Keep us posted on here because I am sure someone else is thinking of doing a similar modification.

I do tarmac autocross at the local airport here with my 04 Cooper S and have an ongoing project 04 R50 that is for gravel type rallycross. I traded a 98 Subaru Impreza for the R50 but its been a lot of trial and error getting a decent front wheel drive gravel car to function properly (currently fixing broken end link on front wheel ).