DanielB

My engine is stock and I have no plans to modify it, but I decided to add the oil cooler anyway. My reasoning was that I intend to keep this car for a long time and do about a dozen track days per year. On the track our S2000 engines live between 6k and 9k rpm, so I figured that anything I can do within reason to help the lubrication system should pay off in the future with a stronger motor even when it's at 150k miles and beyond. I had to balance that with the cost of the cooler and the additional potential for a failure. I choose a premium kit and paid the premium price (SakeBomb Garage) and have had no issues with it at all in the 2 years and roughly 25 track days since installation. Not saying that my anecdotal example proves my point - no one example can do that - but thought I'd share my reasoning.

FYI, I thought about installing an oil temp gauge to see if I needed the cooler, but the cost for a quality unit wasn't cheap either, so decided to just go for the cooler. Also, here in Colorado the air is thinner which reduces the cooling capacity. It also reduces engine output, but my experience is that the former is reduced more than the latter - hence some additional cooling seemed like a good idea too.

AFK-S2K

Good points DanielB. I have decided to see how it does stock. Still have not tracked it yet. I will be sure to report my findings here.

SakeBomb Garage

Thanks for the kind words! Did you get the 25 row or the 19 row?

We now offer some cheaper cooler cores to go along with the kit... but the Setrab cores are the highest efficiency. That said we do have more affordable versions now.
SBG Competition Oil Cooling System (S2000) - SakeBomb Garage LLC

DanielB

I have the 19 row Setrab. Didn't think I would need 25 row for a stock motor.