While SEMA is traditionally a showcase for an aftermarket company’s new products, Derale Performance is shifting its focus from product development to education for the short-term.
“Our business has doubled in the last three years,” explains Troy Wood, vice president for marketing and sales at Derale. “So we need to build up the internal infrastructure to support those sales. And we’ll also be concentrating more on informing customers.”
Key to the latter effort is reaching out to car owners with engine overheating problems despite their heavy investments in certain cooling products.
“Many owners look at just the radiator and fan and don’t consider an engine-oil cooler,” says Wood. “They’ll swap a huge motor into a tight engine bay, like a street rod, and put in a $1,200 radiator and electric fan. Then if they start running 220 on hot day during a rod run, they just don’t understand there isn’t any room for the ambient heat to go. That’s when they start punching louvers or even removing the hood.”
Removing heat from the engine through the oil system has long been a racing trick at the track.
“Oil not only provides lubrication, it’s also a coolant,” says Wood. “Some owners don’t think about pulling heat out of the bottom end.
Derale has seven styles of remote coolers designed for engine-oil cooling. But which one is right for a particular application?
“Call our tech department. The first question we’ll ask is, ‘How hot is the engine actually getting?’ before we provide a solution based on customer need and budget,” says Wood.
Other benefits of remote engine-oil coolers include added fluid capacity; and if the dual oil filters are used, customers should experience easier maintenance and cleaner oil. Derale offers spin-on adapter to use with remote filters, or a sandwich-style adapters can be used to keep the filter in the factory location.
The Derale systems come in a variety of configurations, including stacked-plate cooler core, OEM style plate/fin cooler and pass tube/fin cooler. Complete kits with hoses, adapters, fittings, clamps and mounting hardware are available. Derales also offers radiator fans and other cooling accessories.