At 10:19 AM 12/31/04 -0700, Bill Greenwood wrote:
>"I have fitted the 1800cc engine in my MGA and I have bought an Oil Cooler Kit. Any advice on installation, i.e. what is the best place to mount the cooler?"

Factory installation for the MGA put the oil cooler on top of the air pan ahead of the radiator where it would receive first air entering through the grille. Holes were punched in the air pan to allow connection of the lines from the bottom. Formed steel lines were routed from the bottom of the cooler, running up behind the radiator on the right to be retained with P-clips on the inner fender. The steel lines are not currently available new, but a crafty tubing bender could make these lines, given the proper end fittings. There were also short flexible hoses from the back ends of the steel lines to the engine. Note that the common original type oil cooler is 10 row, bottom ported, and has mounting ears on the bottom only. For hole locations on air pan and inner fender see MGA Special Tuning Manual AKD819 )3.1-MB pdf), pages 24-25, or Oil Cooler Installation Drawings (0.4-MB pdf).

I am guessing that the new oil cooler kit you bought will not be original style, but more likely aftermarket type. For that installation, see the next page.

This is the original style oil cooler, 10-rows of oil channels, bottom flange mount, and bottom ported (click for larger picture). This one is stripped bare aluminum, but I believe they were originally painted silver-gray. There was originally a "Morris Motors Ltd. Radiator Branch Oxford" stick-on label on top showing Drg No., Iss No., and Serial No., as shown at right (but not the same numbers).