thecollieman
New member
- Location
- Colorado
When you get the oil filter thermostat added and installed, pics and an update would be appreciated
Hello Thread!
I spoke to the guys over at Improved Racing, and they were SUPER helpful. If you get the chance to buy anything I highly recommend them. It's not very often that you see a company write such a detailed response AND talk you out of buying their stuff.
Here's what they said:
I have seen this kit before (one of the guys working here is a VW guy). You can one of our FSM thermostats anywhere between the filter mount and the oil cooler. However you would need to modify the lines for accept the thermostat. Basically, you would but the lines in half and add straight hose ends to them, and add the thermostat inline wherever is practical and the lines are running close and parallel to each other.
However I did notice this kit has a pressure relief valve, which will perform a similar function to the thermostat. If it is designed correctly, it should bypass the cooler when the oil is more viscous (i.e. colder), and allow oil to flow through the cooler when it's less viscous (i.e. warmer). So you may not really need a thermostat. The best plan of attack might be to just install this kit first and see how your temps are. If the temps are often too low, then you could add the thermostat. But if everything looks good and the pressure relief valve works right, then you won't really need the thermostat.
So I plan to go on their recommendation, and see how racingline did with building this kit. My suspicion is they had thought of these things but if I have to be the guy that goes back in and puts on a thermostat controller later I'll be that guy.
Now if only we could get them in the US...why did VW have to make our brackets different?!