2nd Gen oil cooler on a 83' - Some Questions.
 

The local mazda junkjard has a bunch of 2nd gen oil coolers for $65. I thinking about buying one to use on my 83 to replace the POS water/oil unit. I know I would have to fabricate some mounts, get some flexible oil lines, and cap-off the water lines, buts thats no big deal. I am a little unclear with the following:

What about an oil thermostat, do i need one?
Whats the easiest way to hook up the new oil lines?
What year/model filter assembly fits on there, to mount the filter?
Is the 79-82 3-row radiator shorter, should I get one of these to make it easier to mount the oil cooler?


Any input would be apreciated, thanks.

its a pretty straight forward thing to do, you need a oil filter holder from any year that has a real oil cooler. i grabbed one off a t2 when i did this. i forget the thread sizes of the oil lines but racing beat and other places say. find a local tractor shop to make you up some lines, i used jic fittings and i did it all for about 200$ with cooler. which isnt bad at all:D oh and oil thermostat should be in the cooler if its not find anther that has one in it...

but somebody told me that 2g oil cooler dont fit on 1g rex:confused: that whatpeople told me

Thanks for the reply, what year is your rex? Do you have any pictures of the install?

Thanks alot.

i dont actually have the pics anymore unless there on somebodys hard drive. my car is a 84 gsl at the time it was a 12a when i did it but i jusst kept the stuff and threw it on my 13bt. you can look at some of the picture of my engine bay if you want to see how the fittings kinda went:D www.picturetrail.com then visit rx7power then folder ass:cool:

I put in a 2gen oil cooler in my 1st gen. Get the RB fittings, Have a hydraulic shop make up the lines, mount the oil cooler in front of the "front tube" I used 2" clamps for this. I also put a dual oil filter in line with the return (cool oil) line. There are some pictures on my web site. Putting the oil cooler up front works very well. It always cools the oil at least 50'. And the oil stays nice and clean! (it should with three filters!)

I had to put mine behind the tube since I was using the Mazdatrix SS lines that I paid $150 for off of my GXL.