It's well known that the N54 and N55 engines runs very hot. Turbos that build a lot of heat and a small radiator play into why this engine runs so hot. A quick look at your gauge cluster on your dash after a few minutes of "spirited" driving, you'll notice oil temperatures over 250 degrees. Considering that most cars don't even exceed 230 degrees tells you quite a bit. As oil temperatures get too high, thermal degradation occurs. This is when the oil starts to lose viscosity due to heat and start to break down and becomes more susceptible to "shearing" or oil breakdown. An internal combustion engine like the N54/N55 engine, imparts high shear forces on the motor oil, which is sandwiched between two rotating or sliding forces under load and heat. "Shearing" is when the molecular structure is essentially torn apart by these mechanical shear forces. Lower your operating oil temperature will greatly reduce this. Thus your motor oil is in better shape to protect the bearings in your car's engine, thus improving longevity.

The 135i/335i comes from the factory with a small oil cooler with a core size of 8.75"x4.75"x1" (222mmx121mmx26mm) which comes out to 41 cubic inches of core. The Sports Series Oil Cooler system features a large 11"x8"x2" (280mmx203mmx51mm) oil cooler with a core size of 9"x8"x2" (229mmx203mmx51mm). The Sports Series Oil Cooler comes out to 144 cubic inches of core which is 3.5 times larger than the factory unit each!

The Sports Series Oil Cooler mounts to its own box enclosure. Louvers on the backside of the box enclosure ensures airflow through the oil cooler while protecting the oil cooler from road debris, especially debris kicked up from the front tires. During initial testing, our box enclosure had a big window (open hole) in the back for airflow. However, throughout the race season, it took so much abuse from rocks, tire and other debris kicked up from the front tires that we had to replace the oil coolers on our Time Attack 135i. Thus, instead of a big hole for airflow to flow through, we used louvers instead to protect the back side of the oil cooler. This effectively solved the issue without any affect on performance. Oil temperatures as well as oil temperature deltas stayed the same.

Everything needed to install is included with the kits. No low quality, cheap fittings and lines made overseas used here. High quality Goodridge anodised black AN fittings and high end Goodridge Nylon Braided Lines are used throughout the kit. We use high quality Goodridge stainless steel braided lines standard as they offer the best abrasion resistance. Upon request, we can supply Goodridge Nylon Braided oil lines. These high end Goodridge Nylon Braided lines are the new thing to use for oil lines as they have many advantages and no disadvantages (other than higher price) than traditional stainless steel braided lines. The main advantage is that they are lightweight. Nylon is considerably lighter than stainless steel. Nylon Braided Lines do not fray. Stainless steel braided lines will start to fray and those who are familiar with stainless steel braided lines know what we're talking about. The stainless steel mesh in the lines start to "fray" or break and thus you get poked with the broken ends. Saves a lot of bloody fingers. Nylon Braided lines can withstand more heat and retain the heat inside the line better. Stainless steel lines tends to release the heat inside the lines, thus when you touch the lines, they tend to be hot.

Type III Hard Anodize Black Finish

The oil coolers come standard with no finish (silver color). Just like the ER intercoolers, we're now offering them with the Type III Hard Anodise Black for guys who want the stealthy look. With the Type III Hard Anodised finish, it is very hard to tell there is an aftermarket oil cooler on the car. Another added benefit of the Type III Hard Anodising is that it makes the oil cooler fins harder and stronger, which makes it less prone to getting bent/damaged from road debris like rocks etc... We opted for the Type III Hard Anodising over the Type II color anodising which is only asthetics for this purpose only (even though it cost us considerably more to anodise Type III than Type II). We started using the Type III Hard Anodised Black finish on our rally car customer's FMICs years ago. Rally cars go through tremendous amounts of abuse and it was quite common to take hits on the intercooler from debris on the course. In fact after 1 event, we would often see a large portion of the intercooler fins bent (killing efficiency) and fixing them after each event was quite tedious. After the Type III Hard Anodising, we notice a big difference as there was considerably less damage. Even after hits and even accidents, the FMIC could take more abuse than before. Testing has shown no noticeable ill-effect from the Type III Hard Anodising on performance (regular spray paint etc... has shown ill-effects on performance). Eventually, we started utilising the same Type III Hard Anodise Black on our street cars and FMIC applications. It's only natural we would offer the same finish for our oil coolers.

Please Note:

• We will change the lines from Nylon to Stainless Steel as standard because the Nylon lines do not have good abrasion resistance. If improperly installed (rubbing) can cause the line to fail. This is not the case for the stainless steel which is why it is now the standard line we ship. If you prefer the nylon version, please contact us once you have made your order so that we can make the changes.
• Our limited lifetime warranty does not cover abrasion damage on the Nylon line if the customer chooses that.