I have an ancient Subaru Legacy wagon (1993 L4 non-turbo california) that I want to put an oil cooler on. It doesn't need it except for towing, but what the hey? These things don't look difficult or expensive. I can see that I want braided stainless lines and threaded connections, otherwise I will be replacing the lines every couple of years.
So I have two questions. All oil coolers that I have seen use a "sandwich plate" to divert the oil from the filter out to the radiator and then back again. Since there is a LARGE diversity of oil filters at the "Pep Boys" and other outlets, how can one "sandwich plate" fit them all? What do I really have to know? It seems that the filters just have a few parameters: ID and thread size, OD, and surface area. The actual length and DIA matter a little (for fit in the engine compartment) but not a lot (and not at all to the "sandwich plate" question). How many of variants of "sandwich plate" are there? And why do the sellers claim their "sandwich plate" is "UNIVERSAL"? Seems impossible, across Ford, Chevy, Triumph, Lotus...... WTF?!?
My second question is about the lines that connect the sandwich plate to the radiator. If just using rubber lines and hose clamps, the lines can be trimmed to any custom length. But I can see that the braided stainless jackets with threaded connectors will last a lot longer. How does one get the correct lengths for the tubes in this case? It seems that they cannot be cut/adjusted at home. Am I wrong about this? Perhaps one can buy them from Pep Boys in one inch increments?
I know that for more modern cars such as Impreza and WRX there are kits that provide specific solutions. But my car is much older. It seems likely that some Impreza/WRX kits could be adapted for my car, but the devil is in the details. I am asking the assembled gurus here for some details. Please help me out.
