Sd.Kfz.222 4.Serie, Sd.Kfz.223 3.Serie – Ölkühler - Oil Cooler - Inside Track | Renault TSF Tank Kent

The Ölkühler (oil cooler) was only fitted in the Leichter Panzer Spaehwagen Ausf.A thus making the research or the oil cooler for the 3.5 litre Horch V8 engine for our Sd.Kfz.223 Ausf.A quite a challenge. Only a handful of images remain and there is no surviving Ölkühler in the Sd.Kfz.223 4.Serie of the U.S. Cavalry and Armor Collection. This device could have represented an insurmountable problem. The Foundation was extremely far sighted to have an original example of one of these devices that had been collected almost by accident many years ago. While this was not an oil cooler for a le.Pz.Sp.Wg. it was for the sister vehicle the Horch 108 of the correct period. After we completed our research we could show that the only difference between our example and that required by the le.Pz.Sp.Wg was the mounting arrangement at the rear of the device. The number of people who are still able to fabricate a device such as this are fast disappearing. Enquiries took us down several dead ends before we were able to locate an expert who could reproduce the Ölkühler. Our drawing office spent a considerable period dimensioning the surviving example and studying the fittings to the rear of its frame that would be specific to the le.Pz.Sp.Wg. We were unaware of the different contractors who provided these Ölkühler to Horch back then. The possibility of various suppliers dawned on us as we discovered a few differences in the design. The early Typ 801 Bedienungvorschrift of Horch Dienst dated 1935 was quite different to the design within the range of other manuals including the D664/6 Ersatzteilliste zum Fahrgestell dated 6 Feb 1941 let alone when compared to the very same device mounted within the Horch s.Pkw Typ 1a und 1B of December 1940. Different versions or fabricators should be considered given the variations in this device over time. From our protracted research into the taps associated with the cooling system we knew that many of the images within D664/6 stem from early or pre-3.Serie Fahrgestell yet the document itself is dated 6 Feb 1941. This date is way into the 5.Serie assembly of le.Pz.Sp.Wg. The image we are most comfortable with using is that taken from the even later D664/5 Gerätbeschreibung und Bedienungsanweisung dated 3 March 1943. This shows a 3.Serie engine that was clearly a later variant – the Entstorrschlauch (plug leads) and later water taps provide further solid evidence of the production date. The sizing of the various segments within the cooler were determined by where device (Part 3) fixes to (Part 2) Bock (fürÖlkühlerundZundspülenhalter) mount for oil cooler and ignition coil holder (see attached image). The space between the central two dividers of the Ölkühler frame are governed by the distance between the two pipes that are integral to (Part 2). We used our original Ölkühler which stems from a Horch s.PKW Typ 1a und 1B as the pattern from which to recreate construction the device. The differences in this particular oil cooler are determined by the angular mounting device fixed to the frame of the Ölkühler. The positioning of the frame dividers are set by this part resulting in a larger left segment (see main image). A key was to establish that the overall length of the device was a constant. We utilised all the images from the manuals and images of the period to cross reference this point. All of our calculations left us with one unanswered question ‘were the outer left and right hand Ölkühler segments actually shorter as suggested by the early manuals making the overall device shorter in length overall? Or have we discovered something akin to the image shown in D664/5 Gerätbeschreibung und Bedienungsanweisung of 3 March 1943?.

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