Maybe just to prove to myself that I'm not a total NOX head
, I was thinking of ways to enhance the XBs oil cooler. I read somewhere that later models have a deeper cooler with an extra row of finning, but I wanted a cheap and novel way of enhancement. I considered adding an electric fan, but that could add more problems than it solved. Besides, we want free energy solutions!
Then looking at the front of the cooler stuck out in the breeze, I realised that there is around 9.5 sq inches of flat metal doing little or nothing. From the field of cooling electrical circuits in amplifiers I started to look at aluminium heat sinks and wondered what could be added to the flat face of the XB cooler. The front plate is about 27mm wide, but has a stepped section so any individual radiator component can only be about 50mm in length so cheap one piece rails were out. Fortunately I found a number of 25 x 50 x 10mm aluminium sinks in anodised black on Amazon, which would fit nicely and look smart.
These heat sinks have 64 individual fins providing a surface area of 89cm2 for a footprint of 12.5cm2, which is a 7 fold increase in area. The cooler face will take 3 of these items giving approx. 35 sq inches of additional radiator surface. The important thing to remember is to bond the sinks to the oil cooler with thermally conductive compound, or they will have the opposite effect!
Take heed as the sinks came in a box with what I believe was the wrong kind of 3M double sided tape inside.
Another issue to watch out for is the sharp edges of the radiator fins whilst cleaning. It's too early to tell yet how well this mod is working, but logically it should add to cooling?