Looking and modifying my oil cooler setup for next year, and part of the changes include ditching the oil filter relocation aspect and going back to having the filter on the back of the block.
Most of the sandwich plates are all designed the same with the AN fittings coming out parallel to the rear plane of the engine block which does not leave much space to clock the sandwich plate in a direction that will clear all the stuff back there (OEM oil psi sensor, water nipples, water pipe, etc.)
I found this (see pic below) and it seems to solve my problem with the fittings coming off the plate at an angle, but some of the feedback I found (from the early 2000's) says that guys had a bad time with them leaking. Not interested in starting a carBBQ so if that's the case I'll go another route.
Has anyone use this specific style of sandwich plate from Greddy, and if so, what has been your experience with it?

 

I've been using one of the basic ones for my turbo oil feed and oil pressure gauge since 2005 without issue. For the last 2 years I've had a second mocal sandwich plate stacked on top of that running to my oil cooler. Still no issues.

 

Still have an original GREX on my Defi gauges / Oil cooler on my EM1 since 2003. Wonderful stuff.

 

When you say "original", I assume you mean one of the "flat" ones? And not an "angled" one as i have depicted?

 

"Flat" using 90* fittings, yes. The "angled" I used on my Mitsubishi Evolution III when I lived in Barbados. All worked just fine for hard racing.

 

I've been using one of them for 10 years. Now in a race car. No problems

 

Out of curiosity why are you ditching the remote filter? I'm planning an oil cooler install over the winter and was leaning towards the blockoff/remote filter route but haven't bought anything yet.

 

Packaging perhaps. I like a remote filter, you can stick big filters on them.

 

I don't like the remote filters. I've had too many problems with them during startup after oil changes and switchouts. Has the potential for other oiling issues. But, to each their own.

 

1.) When I redo my setup, one of the goals will be to cut down on the total length of line in the system (for better pressure)
2.) The current location of my filter is under the intake pipe, on a bracket mounted to the passenger side of the engine bay. Changing the filter always results in a huge mess. Which is problematic since I like to change the filter every 2-3 track days. In other Civics that I've owned, where the the filter is in the OEM location, its way less messy. I don't really have any other locations (that I like) to reposition it to.