Yeah, the RA has one. It's the shiny aluminum tube snaking around in front of the radiator. Well, I wanted to install an engine oil cooler and this thing was in the way. This outlines how I removed it and installed an aftermarket ps cooler. I did it all in my cramped little garage space at home, mostly lying on the cold concrete.

Stuff to buy:
Derale power steering oil cooler #13212 (bought from The Go Shop in Peterborough, the owner is knowledgable and excellent to work with)
4" zip ties (because they are skinny)
about 12"x12" sheet metal
power steering fluid (Mitsu OEM or eneos eco-atf)

Remove the stock cooler by disconnecting the two rubber tubes from the metal tubes, located inside the front fender near the passenger headlight. It is difficult to manouver the stock cooler out, but be persistent and you'll get it, loosening the big coolant and AC radiators helps a lot. The clear tube in the pic is just a temporary drain tube into a container:



I purchased the Derale kit because it is the correct size and comes with everything. It's cooler tube length is a bit longer than the stock shiny pipe. I made a cardboard template that fit the cooler, then traced it onto a piece of steel sheet then cut it out with a hacksaw. The holes in the steel accept the zip ties that secure the cooler to it.





Remove the front bumper cover and the front crash bar. This is documented elsewhere in evom. I also removed the entire fog light assembly from inside the bumper cover since the space is better utilized for this project. The cooler mounts on the passenger side. Drill a couple of holes in the surrounding bumper metal for screws to bolt down the steel cooler plate. Now eyeball the bumper cover where it curves near where the oil cooler is, then remove the plate and bend it a bit to follow the contour of the bumper cover or you will hit the cooler when installing the cover later. The zip ties at the top are simply holding the cooler tubes tighter to the steel mounting plate. Attach the rubber lines to the cooler and to the stock metal tubes that lead to the ps oil reservoir, and tighten the hose clamps.



Back to the bumper cover. I bought some 3" diameter light grey pvc sewer pipe, cut a 9" length, slit it lengthwise, then bent it flat using a heatgun. I shaped it, again with the heatgun, to form a nice duct leading to the cooler. I made some little pvc tabs, glued them to the duct, and drilled small holes so I could use the foglight mounting screws to attach the new duct to the inside of the bumper cover where the fogfight was (this thing was actually very easy to make). Spray paint it satin black. Note: There is no grill mesh, the incoming air simply hits the little radiator.



Install the bumper cover without securing it in order to check for clearance with the new cooler. Bend the cooler mounting plate a bit more if needed.

Done. Attach the crash beam and bumper cover. Fill the ps oil reservoir back up, start the car and drive it a bit, then check and adjust oil level as required.

 

So you lose your fog light to relocate the ps cooler?

 

Awesome! Looks great! I thought about putting a tranny cooler in that same location once. Then I saw a friend's Evo had an oil cooler there and I thought it would be a great location for one of those too. Nice work!

 

Thanks, Bakuro!

Yeah, RacerX, had to lose the foglights. I didn't use them anyway. Behind the bumper cover, then, I use the passenger side for ps cooler, driver side for air intake for the big homemade inlet pipe.

I will post the oil cooler how-to tonight. It's a big one and would have been maybe an impossible fit behind the bumper cover.

 

Someone sticky this!