power steering coolers (Page 1 of 2)

I replaced the tube style on the blazer with this.  https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Derale-1 … 53660.html

I am happy with it so far.  The mounting kinda sucks, I built a sheet metal box to house the unit.  I don't like using the through ties for hanging from the radiator.

I'm looking for the path of least re-engineering. It looks like Saab set it up this way, and the easiest answer is going to be to not mess with routing. I just want to replace some of the hard lines with flexible ones so I can shift the cooler location.

We do not want to delete the power steering. The daytona didn't have it, and the BMW won't have it, but this is a big heavy car. Based on the report from my dad when it went out, this car is a bit too much without the power steering. And I really don't want to make it harder to drive for him. I'd like the car to be easy to drive for him so he can keep coming racing with us.

99% P/S coolers are in the return line, rubber hose/standard coolers of any sort are no problem, make it like the rest and move on?

Using the A/T cooler in the rad? If not, it works fine.

I am going to throw out the totally unasked alternative...get rid of the hydraulic power steering completely.  We have been sidlined over the years a number times, always when it is hot therefore uncomfortable to work on,by power steering leaks.  The lines tend to be in awkward, ifficult to reach locations that are also hot.

Two of our cars have electric, column-mounted power steering for a total investment of about $100 each.  It has created a downtime incident and may be wearing out out lower ujoint at an accelerated pace but man is it easier on the burned hands to workon and diagnose.

We have 10+ races on our current power steering setup and zero failures, the previous setup had 200,000 miles on it with a minor leak.   There are also zero leaks on the new setup, if its leaking thats maintenance issue that should have been solved before the race.  You can also reroute the lines and convert them to AN braided lines.

$100 electric power steering units were not designed around wide 200tw tires, wheel spacers, and racing conditions.  They will overheat.    Hydraulic units are easily cooled and have no issue with wide sticky tires.

I know several teams running electric assists, they work just fine. The load on them is not that high as long as the car is moving, all that extra stuff you listed is only a big load multiplier when the car is stationary.

I'm just not looking for that level of re-engineering to solve this problem. Maybe the BMW gets an electric if we decide it needs something.

FWIW, our hydraulic setup had 260k+ miles of use on it, 10k miles of those were race miles. Never had a leak or indication of a leak before this past race. It just let go at one of the couplings in the front cooler loop an hour before the race ended. (see picture in post #1, it's the one in the middle of the bottom most part). Sometimes stuff just breaks, so chill.

I'm going to rip the old lines off and get some new lines made up. I'll decide if I want to convert to a low pressure side cooler or not. I don't love the idea of the extra lines that adds needing to go from the front of the engine to the back, back to the front for the cooler, then back to the tank when the OEM routing was shorter and simpler.

The $100 prius units overheat on stock prius cars.   Its a common issue, google it.    i only mentioned the $100 prius units because there are definetly units that dont overheat when abused.

Are you running 295 wide 200tw tires upfront with a wheel spacer which has a terrible scrub radius?       we have gone a 1:53 at CMP    i guess we are slow.

Man take the pissing contest somewhere else.

TheEngineer: alternative view, and I know nothing about SAAB, but are you sure that line is for cooling? I've seen similar on other lines in domestic vehicles, and miatas have a similar pigtail in the clutch slave hardline. I've heard the function is to trap air, or prevent cavitation, or something to do with fluid flow... or maybe to retain fluid in the lines during a cold start? Honestly, I've heard a lot of theories about what random pigtails in hardlines do, but I rarely hear cooling. Are there any fins on the lines? If the intent is cooling, it wouldn't have costed them more than a few cents to add some sheet metal skirts around those lines. If those lines aren't for cooling, then the vehicle doesn't have a factory cooler (most vehicles don't), in which case you should just add a cooler on the return line which is proven to work great and what everyone else does.

lol, hkerekes at it again with the one-sided pissing contest about how slow we all are relative to him.

It's pretty common for the factory "cooler" to be a loop of hard line bolted to a crossmember acting as a heat sink.
The crossmember is often in turbulent air so it may shed enough heat to be effective enough for the street.

I've run a small motorcycle tube/fin oil cooler, and also a small plate/fin cooler on the return line for years.
Both have kept the fluid looking like it was in good shape (still pretty red.) Also, the factory "loop" is still there.

I thought about de-powering our Merkur rack, but with a welded diff we need the p/s to just move around the pit.

FWIW, the Jag x-type has a finned loop type PS cooler that is low profile.  Can't hardly walk thru a DIY yard these days without tripping over those cars.