Josh B

Dang - have to start off by saying this is quite a job. I started out at 11:00 on Saturday and wasn't done till midnight. I did have to make two trips out for tools and also installed another ac compressor and alternator and a little bead blasting and parts cleaning but still it was a lot of work. Probably 7 to 8 hours and that is on a lift.

I had picked up an rx7 oil cooler a while back with that silver rose out of Florida. I took the shopping list of parts from TheEdge's thread to my local hydraulic supply place and got all the fittings and hose that I needed. Spent over $200 on just that - I suppose I could have scrounged around though and gotten a better deal. The only changes I would make to his list is you need a three foot long piece of hose instead of two and it took two fittings for me to get from 8 to 12 AN on the lower port of the oil cooler.

I had a local fabricator weld on a fitting onto the side of the upper tank to make it easier to route the lines. Paid $25 including the fitting but that was a really good deal.

I had to buy a couple tools - 27mm and 32mm wrench for getting out the old lines and fittings and also a 27mm socket. Also bought another standard size socket for screwing in the new fittings - I'll list the size on it later. I had to grind down the 32mm wrench a good bit to get the stock oil cooler line with the brace undone. I'll add a pic of it later.

I cut the driver's side of the rx7 oil cooler mounting tab to fit over the condenser lines and then fabbed up some lighter guage steel L brackets to mount to the lower mounting bolts for the condenser. There is probably about a half inch of air between the cooler and condenser when it is all mounted up.

Fired her up and no leaks so far. With this dry turbo I am running I was seeing a little over 220 F on my drain plug temp sensor for street driving with moderate time on boost. I suppose that isn't too bad but I am hoping with this larger cooler that even in the middle of a GA summer with some lead footed driving that the car will stay under 220 F.

Spidey944

Sweet looks nice. You'll have to keep us posted with the temp. variances between the 2.

pa944red

Looks good, my setup looks about the same.

I was wondering since you didn't mention anything about it, what did you do with the thermostat/bypass in the cooler?

Thanks
Tom

anders44

be aware that SS lines will eat any rubber line it comes in contact with, you might need a "sleeve" if you have interference between them.

Josh B

Hey Tom - this cooler did not have the thermostat in it. I don't know if that was already taken out or if some models didn't come with one.

Thanks Anders for the heads up. I am pretty sure that the lines don't touch anything but I will double check.

theedge

It should be removed, and then a small bolt put in place. An M6 nut and bolt and some crush washers are all that are needed to block off the small hole.

Only some RX7 coolers have the thermostat built in, IIRC just the Turbo ones.

pa944red

When you take the large bolt our of the bottom of the cooler in your pics is where you would find the thermostat. Since it was removed before you got it, was the bypass hole plugged?

I am asking becuase I was told that bypass must be plugged to take full advantage of the cooler upgrade.

For ***** and grins I left the bypass open, took the car out hammered on it for a bit, got out and felt the cooler, it was only hot/warm to the touch for about two inches from the inlet. As opposed to when the bypass is plugged and I hammer on the car and then get out and touch the cooler and find that is hot/warm almost the whole length of the cooler. This leads me to believe with the bypass open that oil is not circulating through the whole cooler, thus not getting the full benefit of the upgrade.

I don't have any have hard numbers or fact on the oil temps, just what the cooler felt like, but I wanted to pass that info on.

Thanks
Tom

pa944red

theedge beat me to it, I type too slow

Tom

Josh B

Bypass hole had a small allen keyed set screw blocking it. Does anyone know if that was probably from the factory?

pa944red

Not sure if that is factory or not, but it sounds like you are covered.

I went with what theedge suggested nut and bolt option with the appopriate loctite.

Tom

reno808

VERY NICE JosH

aribop

Sweet writeup. Awesome work! Looks great!

If anyone wants an RX-7 cooler like the one used, I have one that I won't be using...I decided to go a different route.

95ONE

did the same for mine a year ago. I have no idea what the temps are or if they're any different. stuck a 6mm bolt in the Bypass hole myself.

azmi951

I had Matt at Lemco Motorsports build a new end tank and bracket for me. it worked well and was no 7-8hr job. Ask him and he will do one for you too.

Josh B

Well on Sunday driving back from the Concours the temp guage stayed under 220 even with lots of boost I think that in stop and go traffic there is not as much difference but when you are moving this much larger oil cooler placed right there in the front does it's job.