Man this oil cooler project is taking way longer than I expected. I’m also going slower than I expect to, just making sure I get all my ducks in a row before I start doing something I can’t take back. So I’m mounting, unmounting, and checking several times before any cutting or tightening is done. Since I have no instructions from where to start from and I’ve never done an oil cooler install, I’m taking my time. As we all should be in a project like this!

With the IC completely exposed, let’s clean up the look a bit and install a bit of aluminum metal mesh for a clean OE-look.

Since I had the bumper off and garage time, I decided to mount the oil adapter at this point anyway to expedite the install when I receive the new adapter. This left position should give me more than adequate room for the oil pressure sensor and space to change the filter. The angle should also be covered by the rear panel to prevent rock chips or damage from the wheel well. Finding this location to be pretty optimum, I drilled out the hole for the mount and added a coat of black for protection.

For the third day in a row, I went back to home center to pick up a few supplies like a new oil filter. This remote cooler only has threading for M20x1.5 which means oil filters meant for cars such as Honda, Nissan, Subaru, and Toyota vehicles only. This is a good thing, since the line of Suzuki-fit filters are actually pretty small, potentially limiting the filtering capacity. So from now on my Alto will use a filter a bit taller and wider.

The remote oil filter adapter is mounted! The oil will circulate from the engine to the 90° elbow hose on the adapter, flowing from the outside of the filter, into the inner ring. This now filtered oil will flow to the bottom hose on the radiator and cool before circulating back into the engine. The fact that the steel-braided hoses will also criss-cross the front of the engine bay should more than ensure that the oil temperatures will drop with all this airflow.

Most importantly are the addition of outdoor foam pieces and plastic wiring loom protectors. While the AN10 hoses are braided metal, contact with the chassis will definitely cause premature wear. So protectors go on every potential contact point and are tied in place to minimize sway and movement.

Before the end of the day, my friend had one more quick look at the aforementioned ⅜”-16 adapter thread adapter that wouldn’t fit. Looking closely at the adapter itself, the threading is just a bit poorly shaped and casted with too much material up at the peak of the threads compared to the M20 adapter. He figured, with the right jeweler files, we could whittle down some of those peaks and approximate the right angle of what we need. After all, if it ended up a complete failure, we’d only be ruining the adapter. And with another adapter already on the way, I had little to lose.

30 minutes of intense filing and effort later… success! The adapter threaded in smoothly with little effort, yet when tightened down, didn’t unscrew easily.

I had hoped to have most of the wiring done today given that I started on it yesterday, but it was still a fairly productive day with this final bit of luck. Glad to know that I should be able to fully utilize the oil cooler tomorrow!