Zunsport Oil Cooler Protector Install
I drove an F80 with an exposed oil cooler for 8 years and had no issues, but that at least had a plastic shroud over most of the front of it for some protection. The oil cooler is clearly exposed on the M2 and I figure some added protection (that isn't terribly expensive) can't hurt against damage to the oil cooler and loss of an engine. The likely scenario though for most of us is small rocks and debris over the life of the car will bend the fins and make the oil cooler less efficient, so if the protector prevents some of this then it is worth it. Clearly if I ever hit anything that makes a loud thud I will immediately pull over and check the oil cooler because that could mean major trouble in the matter of seconds.
Like all of you I read all the threads and it came down to Zunsport, Mishimoto, and the aluminum guard made by a fellow forum member. The ding for the Mishimoto is that it drops the stock rubber spoiler and forces you to mount it on rigid metal as part of the protection plate about 1/2" lower than stock position. I have a very steep drive into the parking garage at my work where a lot of cars bottom out going in. My F80 lip bottom was destroyed because of this (fortunately it was a RW carbon M3 CS replica rim, so not terribly expensive). Regardless my concern with the Mishimoto is it lowers that spoiler....hitting something now will contact the metal of the Mishimoto plate and potentially bend the Mishimoto into the cooler or simply bend and/or dislodge it, possibly breaking other attachments on the car with it. But I guess the Zunsport could do the same.
So I ordered the Zunsport and it arrived in 2 days from Britain. It is very strong powder coated stainless steel. It will breathe well and will protect the oil cooler from anything larger than a pea. My thought about this is "an attempt was made" [to protect the cooler] and if something larger hits it, well at least the oil cooler had a chance!
Quality is great, strength is great. It is stainless. Will it corrode over time and need replacing? Possibly here in New England. Item to check every 3-4 months. Can buy 3-4 of them for the price of the Mishimoto.
Install is easy, but the 2 screws seemed a bit wimpy for me, so I used some 10/32" stainless machine bolts to hold it down. I also stole someone else's idea on here and tucked the front tabs under the plastic rather than mounting over the plastic. Cleaner look that no-body will see but me and the techs who work on the car.
Here is the oil cooler uncovered pointing toward front of the car, the stock spoiler under there is mounted to rigid plastic.
In order to get the bolts I was going to use mounted I dropped the entire panel:
From the front, extremely flat, maybe 1/3-1/2" clearance to the cooler (note the thing with the 2 tubes on it in the front is the Sto-N-Show removable license plate bracket):
From the bottom, note I used 5 machine bolts rather than the 2 screws provided (I know the center bolt isn't centered, there was a plastic ridge there where my washer wouldn't mount flush so I moved it over 1 hole):
I used 5/8" 10/32 Stainless bolts with threaded oval washers, I pre-drilled my holes for the bolts, I used blue Loc-tite for the bolts:
And that's that. It is very secure and flush. I over-do things, but will keep an eye on it. I would have liked to get some bolts on the sides, but they are directly over the rubberized portion of that panel and not over hard plastic so no dice there. If the front ever seems unstable maybe will need to rethink how it is fastened, but very secure at the moment.