Oil cooler routing question

[Prashiy]

My dealer installed NISMO oil cooler lines had developed leaked at a hose fitting, so took it to a local AAA cerified mechanic. He showed me the previous installation in detail, the leak was on the pre-assembled fitting point but unfortunately we also spotted some additional issues - some damage on A/C condenser (gouged fins, two scarred channels) exactly behind the stock center frame on which the installer had drilled a hole for putting a bolt through the custom bracket support to the cooler. Some of the pipe foam used for protection/insulation had ripped or slit at the parts of contact with rest of the body. I had this mechanic fix the oil leak by tightening the fittings, recheck everything, remove the pipe foam insulation, and instead wrap the lines with exhaust wrap first and put an additional heatshield velcro wrap at the points where it touches other parts. He thought the oil lines had been a bit awkwardly routed because of the kit's line were too long (which was indicated before by the dealer mechanic too); so he shortened them a little bit.

Now, the question I have is about the new routing of the oil lines. He has routed the oil lines through the gap between the metal arm that attaches the aluminum bumper to the frame rails and the plastic radiator support. (Marked with a red circle on the 1st picture). He did not cut or modify any plastic panel or create any hole to pass the oil lines through to the back. He managed to use this factory gap to feed them through, pick them up from the bottom and attach them to the sandwich plate. It seemed like the best way to do it when he did this. However, much later I have started wondering if there will be any flex or movement of this bumper arm or the plastic radiator support that will make this gap become narrower and thereby pinch the oil hoses to cause blockage/kink. Do you think this gap can vary during rigorous movements of the car? I have heard that blockage/kink on the hose can blow up the cooler or damage the oil pump depending on which line (input/output) the block is. Do you know if there is a failsafe for the factory oil pump that kicks in when for instance oil flow is blocked at the filter? I did not read about a bypass in the sandwich adapter of NISMO kit unlike Stillen kit. I am really gun-shy about to taking my car to any mechanic again because every time it has visited one it seems to receive many unintended damages like nicks on the alloy wheels, swirl/scratch marks on the paint, damage on a/c condenser etc. No one loves your car as much as you do! .. but unfortunately I do not have a good lift or a garage space to do repair/installation job myself.
Any thoughts about the routing the hose through the gap near the bumper arm (as in 1st picture)?

[Dimon009]

Hey, it seems he followed the Z1 Motorsports install guide:

Z1 Installation Guide PDF
I followed the same guideline when I installed mine, have driven for like 400 miles and haven't had any leaks or computer reads *Knock on wood*

How do you like it though?

[Prashiy]

Dimon009,
Good to hear about your install. Best wishes for trouble-free driving. The install definitely makes a big difference; you are able to drive the car like a sports car without having to look at the oil temp gauge. I also used a little bit of the heatshield "DEI Aluminized Sleeving Heat Shroud" to block off a portion of the large NISMO cooler so that temperate is within 180-220F. I used metal staplers to fasten the shroud, so I can remove a portion of it during summer, but in SoCal that may not be needed.

The photo I posted is probably not very clear in showing how the lines run through. Z1 installation instruction recommends passing the lines through the gap between plastic radiator support and the windshield washer reservoir (on the leftside of radiator support and right side of reservoir). I wouldn't have any concerns with that because there seems to be enough clearance between the reservoir and the radiator support to allow any body flex/sway. Also, there is no way the plastic reservoir can press against the steel braided lines and cause damage, the reservoir will be sawed through first. However, my mechanic has routed the hoses thru vertical gap between the bumper arm and radiator support (rightside of the metal arm and leftside of the radiator support). Per the factory design, it is actually the opening in the radiator support through which a metal arm attaches to the aluminum bumper. I will try to get a better picture. It seems to be a ample enough gap for a slightly snug fit of the wrapped and insulated hoses to run through, when the car is stationary. My concern was if this clearance gets affected during rigorous movements like taking curves or hitting road bumps.

[wstar]

The routing looks reasonably sane. If you're worried about certain spots, you can always just glue down a tiny patch of rubber on e.g. the crash bumper where the hose contacts it, as an extra barrier against wear. Those braided hoses shouldn't have any issues with kink, it should be just about mechanically impossible to kink off the flow in them without using some pretty serious force.

There is no "backup" if your oil system fails. If one of your lines blows off or something becomes plugged, you will lose pressure and the engine will be damaged if not shut off immediately. There's a factory "low pressure" sensor that triggers a dash warning, but by the time you notice it, it may be too late. Oil filters don't generally have a clog problem as they have a bypass valve in them. The oil system does seem to have some built-in relief around 100psi (when watching an oil pressure gauge during cold startup), but tbh I'm not sure if that's intrinsic to the car and bypasses the whole filter/cooler route, or if that's just the relief valve in the filter doing that.

The main thing to watch out for on these installs is that the front swaybar can't bang into the fittings coming off of your sandwich plate. If they're oriented poorly, it's a possibility. The swaybar gets maximally close to the fittings when the wheels are fully dropped (as in, the car's jacked up in the air by the frame, and the front suspension is hanging loose), so that's how you want to check clearance.

I'd highly recommend adding an oil pressure gauge of some kind to the system. It can alert you to stupid problems long before the factory pressure switch does. The one I chose also has a programmable low pressure alarm output, which I wired to a loud annoying buzzer in the cockpit. Regardless, just having the gauge there gives you instant verification that nothing's horribly wrong, and as you learn what "normal" looks like under various conditions you might detect problems much quicker.

Spearfish's oil pressure DIY: DIY: Oil Pressure Gauge

Info on my gauge/setup: wstar's Journal