The F8x M3 and M4 cars are incredibly well sorted from a cooling standpoint. Even in a road course environment with extremely high ambient temperatures, the S55 engine tends to operate beautifully, with consistent oil and water temperatures. BMW M invested a great deal of time, money, and effort into designing a cooling system that worked in nearly every condition that the M3 and M4 would be tested in.

Although excellent ducting, good core design, strong fans, and other factors all play in to how well a cooling system works, there is one ultimate factor which cannot be circumvented- you must have enough heat exchanger surface area, and you must have enough heat exchangers. When examining the front of an M3 or M4, then, we see the hard work of the M engineers in packaging the various cooling components of the car. Everything had to be accounted for, and given ample space, surface area, and ducting.

Unfortunately, this leaves the S55 engine’s oil cooler precariously exposed. A direct impact to the oil cooler can have catastrophic effects, draining the S55 of all of its oil in seconds, a fact that more than a handful M3 and M4 owners have had to learn in a painfully direct way.

Having seen that this was a critical need for the M3 and M4 cars, IND worked with Fall Line Motorsports to develop a robust oil cooler guard, specifically designed to shield the S55’s oil cooler from large road debris and prevent disaster.

The new Fall Line Motorsports oil cooler guards will be constructed from thick stainless steel plate, and will fasten directly to existing frame members on the F80 and F82 cars, spreading any impact across strong structural components. Special care was taken to ensure that the opening in the oil cooler guard matched the shape and size of the existing BMW oil cooler air outlet, ensuring that proper air flow is maintained. Installation is straightforward and uses all existing mounting locations, and also retains the factory BMW plastic shield and associated outlet ducting.

Installation hardware is included.