Derale 25782 Thermostatic Sandwich Adapter Kit

Description

Derale's most versatile sandwich adapter kit offered and is designed to install on 90 per cent of the passenger vehicles on the road today. This universal kit includes an 180 degree F thermostatic sandwich adapter with 3/8 inch NPT ports and fits oil filter landings from 2 3/4 inch up to 3 1/2 inch diameters, this adapter provides external oil lines to allow the addition of an engine oil cooler. It installs between the stock engine oil filter landing and the oil filter. Stock filter is retained. Review: Poorly engineered device :-( - First, the good things: it comes with several adapters, seals, and clear instructions, and the price is decent. However, I won't be installing this product on any vehicle, ever. First, the mating surface on the filter side has a very rough finish, it was cut too fast. Next, the cavity for the thermostat extends on the filter's O-ring path, meaning the filter sealing area is cut in half (I users a genuine Ford Motorcraft FL-910S filter) so chances are there will be a leak between the filter and the sandwich plate. This is a fatal engineering defect. The tip of the thermostat spring blade touches the housing and being spring steel, scrubs into the alloy material, and creates debris. Next, the area where the sleeve nut mates with the sandwich adapter is not machined, and not flat as it's straight from the casting: the nut cuts into the alloy and grinds material creating debris as it gets tightened, and the steel sleeve nuts itself contain machining debris, presumably from cutting the inner thread. The port's thread is not deep enough: I tried to install 10AN flares, male to 3/8 NPT male, and I can not screw them all the way in because the fully cut thread in the ports does not extend deep enough. Last the sleeve nuts uses an unusual dimension, all 10AN fittings (typical for oil cooler lines) use a 1" hex nut but for some gratuitous reason those sleeves come in 1 1/8" In conclusion, this is a poorly engineered device, the filter seal does not mate to a smooth surface and actually mates against the thermostat cavity in the housing, halving the sealing surface in two points and making sealing uncertain, the thermostat is questionable, and there is debris everywhere. You cannot use standard 3/8 NPT fittings, and you need a special wrench. Review: then would be perfect! - Installed for my 240sx oil cooler, seems to work well, only wish it has an oil temp sensor threaded hole, then would be perfect!