M20 Stroker Build: Take 2

[Lugnuts]

Picked up my car from the exhaust shop this afternoon. Unfortunately the headers foul on the oil filter. I'm currently using the stock M20 arrangement: oil cooler and housing that points the filter backwards.

I gather the housing can be rotated, so the filter points down or forwards. Even with this change, it looks like the cooler lines will still be a problem (wish I'd found this image beforehand lol):

Digger, are you still running the stock M20 oil cooler?

[digger]

I’m running stock oil cooler but likely going to get rid of it as it’s a street only car so can’t see it ever getting too hot. I don’t think you can rotate it unless you don’t have A/C at least not without a decent amount of effort that I decided wasn’t worth it

[Lugnuts]

Yeah, I gather deleting the oil cooler is an option - install 11112140435 and thread the oil filter directly onto the block...wasn't sure on how sensible that was given an Australian summer. I skim read the SpecE30 thread about M20 oil cooler efficacy...

Definitely not about to toss out my almost-finished R134a conversion.

[digger]

We aren’t in 1980’s anymore so any decent synthetic will be fine at whatever temp you see on the street plenty of m20 don’t have them. You can still run one using a sandwich plate but more stuffing around. Otherwise you get a set of headers that clears

[Lugnuts]

Agreed. The fact that other M20s also don't have oil coolers from factory is...reassuring?

Staring at that picture from my previous post, I'm not totally convinced the cooler delete with the adapter spud + direct filter mount @ 90 degrees to the block will help either...hard to tell from the angle.

As luck would have it, there's an M20 block, 885 head and even a 2nd-hand Purolator filter housing sat right in my garage! Crazy to think I could have actually confirmed fitment before booking my car in. I honestly thought the steering linkage would be the sole source of any interference problems.

But yes, if it's not going to work, it's back to finding a different set of headers or possibly going down a remote filter/thermostat route similar to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFWsZhPwtVI