I recently bit the bullet and installed a Stillen 25 row oil cooler for track days. It seems to be a high quality part. Just know that the Stillen instructions and tech support are pretty useless.

Here is a pic of everything underneath the car- the black oil cooler bracket is on the top left of the pic (driver's side). (Sorry, I forgot to start taking pics until I put the bumper back on) Stillen has you mounting it on the passenger side, but this is not possible with the routing of the oil lines. With the oil cooler on the driver's side you can probably also skip relocating the power steering cooler. This is also a good pic because Stillen's pics show nothing beyond mounting the oil lines past the sway bar. Also make sure you tighten up the nuts and bolts holding the oil cooler to the bracket. They looked tight, but were not.



Here is a good pic of the oil cooler lines making the turn around the radiator and power steering cooler (that probably did not need to be relocated like in Stillen's instructions). You can also see how I cut a hole in the thin black plastic for the lines to come through- no pics or description of this in Stillen instructions.



Here is a good pic of how you have to orient the fittings on the sandwich plate very differently than Stillen's instructions if you have an aftermarket sway bar. I asked Stillen tech support about this and they said it could not be done as they did not design their oil cooler to work with aftermarket sway bars. Wierd since all the pictures in their directions show an aftermarket sway bar. Besides, who tracks their car on stock sway bars? That would have been nice to know when I ordered the sways and oil cooler together...



Here is how you have to route the oil lines with a different sway bar. You can also see I got 1/2" rubber hose to wrap the lines so that they do not wear through all the stuff they rub up against. You could probably go with a size or two larger tubing.



Here is a pic of the rubber bushing that Stillen tech support and the guy at Stillen who wrote the directions took 3 days to figure out what it was for. Turns out it is to go around the oil lines in the plastic trim you cut a hole in by the power steering cooler that they do not mention or show in the instructions. Also pictured: 5 nuts sent to attach to the relocation bolt for the power steering cooler. Unfortunately, you only need 1 and none of them are the right size to actually use.



I am supposed to do a track day this Sunday if it does not snow so I should be able to get up a review soon. Oddly enough the thermostatic plate seems to do nothing at all as the car required an extra quart of oil after running for only 30 seconds. The plate is only supposed to open up and send oil to the cooler after it reaches a certain temperature. I have been waiting over a week to hear back from Stillen tech support on this one.

 

The worst thing ever is when you buy a product, and you find out that you need to put in your own time and effort to get it working properly.

 

No doubt. I was really upset the first time I attempted to install the oil cooler according to the directions and nothing was working out. Once I threw away the instructions and decided to install it how I saw fit it was smooth sailing.

 

That's usually how most things go. I think the idea of an oil cooler is awesome. Would love to track my car one day, once I have upgraded suspension brakes, I'll throw in an oil cooler. (tranny cooler as well?)

I hear the VQ37 gets crazy hot.

 

That sucks. I think I'll buy the Z1 Oil Cooler instead of Stillens. That's next on my list after the valve body is done.

 

Awesome job solving those problems. Love how your car is coming along too.

 

The VQ does get hot. I had an '11 370Z (the year before they came from the factory with an oil cooler) that I took out on a simple touring event during lunch at Road America once and the oil temps were ticking up quickly.

Don't let the installation scare you. The Stillen oil cooler still seems like a good quality part. It is just the instructions and tech. support that suck.

 

+ 1 on Stillen's terrible support. I asked for some measurements of the exhaust before I was going to buy mine, and the guys were clueless on the phone. And, I sent them an e-mail, never got a reply. For my long tubes, I was very dead set on the Stillen G3 for a while, but my recent interaction along with hearsay on the forums is pushing me to the AAM/Z1 intake kit.

 

It's funny you should say that about the intake. I was starting to think the same thing about the Z1 intake, especially since you do not have to hollow out the plastic holes next to the radiator for their kit.

I do not know what was up with Stillen's support. They used to have a really sharp guy working there that I ordered a lot of parts from when I had AP racing brakes on a car.

 

I actually know of a local guy not on the forums who is selling a practically new Z1 kit for a great price. PM me and I can forward you his information. My local friend just purchased the AAM intake kit and should chime in on his experience with it.

 

Speaking of AAM... that manifold looks gorgeous... pretty pricey for what I would assume are similar power gains to other brands

 

I just dropped a ton of $$$$ on the G so it is going to have to wait a bit, but maybe this summer if he still has it. I appreciate the offer- just bad timing.


The AAM manifold is a work of art! Looks like it came right off of an Audi R8

 

OIL COOLER UPDATE: I took the G to its first track day yesterday and I did not have any issues overheating. This is a good test as the track I was at is notorious for overheating engines, tires, brakes, etc. In fact, it did start to turn my front calipers gold from the heat. Next month I will try it out at Road America where I had heat issues with my 370Z.

 

The other thing I noticed on track was that the helmet clearance is a bit tight. I am 6'1" and sit pretty upright. I had to tilt my seat back a ways to get decent room. My helmet still hit, but I did not notice it on track.

 

A few more hard runs and those calipers might be Brembo Gold, lol. Maybe that's why those came painted gold from the factory