Frogman

So I developed a pretty bad leak today, the short oil cooler cable started leaking at the crimp I left a nice little ant trail as I pulled into my law school, probably lost about a quart or two of oil ( it's ok, no OMP + half a quart overfill = breathing room ) . Got towed home.
So the Mazda OEM are 150$ for the short hose, an absolute rip-off. 185 after tax and shipping FOR ONE hose
The kit at matrix is 175$+ tax+shipping 210$ , but I have to use those stupid adaptors
Rotary performance has a set for 200$ but it says they bolt right in. Any exeriance? Need to get this car up and running asap by thursday

Hot_Dog

Have you tried Googling? Here's what I found: https://www.technafitstore.com/Mazda...es-s/46797.htm

Also, you could try taking them to a local hydraulic hose repair shop, but you may not get them back by Thursday.

Frogman

I did, but I have no idea if the part is plug and play or requires adapters. I'm FINE with adaptors but they almost always bloat the price up 40$ . Also those lines look sweet.

mhr650

Places like Jegs and Summit sell metric to AN adapters pretty cheap nowadays. M16 or M18 to -10 adapters, a few hose ends and 4 feet of hose and you should be able to make up new lines for less than $100

Frogman

That website linked above sells adaptors. Is it just the "16" adaptors for the short hose? I figure the 18 is for the big Banjo

KansasCityREPU

iTrader: (9)

The factory oil cooler and front cover outlet all take16mm. The rear input takes 18mm.

tommyeflight89

iTrader: (4)

The one thing I would be careful with.... would be cheaping out on oil cooler lines. The failure mode you had was the best outcome. A complete failure, you will lose oil pressure instantly, and unless you react very quickly and shut the engine down, you could damage the engine.

I would go with high quality AN fittings and a name brand, quality AN hose rated for hot oil use and the pressures our cars develop. A lot of the cheap AN hoses don't like the bend radius that the outlet oil line needs to make, from the front cover outlet, bending forwards, into the top inlet port of the oil cooler.

I have had a good experience with Aeroquip Startlite hose.

I had a 'cheap generic' brand of AN hose fail on me at this front cover location. It ballooned and almost completely let go.

Frogman

. I went with the ones recomended in the first link, they design cables specificlay for all year RX7's and the specs on them are preety good . Further it was 55$ , every one else has them around 60$ - 70$ as well BUT are AM, these are OEM spec , the long one is 100$. . I do agree with you, the OEM lines look like they sunk in at the point of the crimps ( it preety much collapsed there ), it is a constant drip . I drove about 10 miles tops with the leak . as we always say, if it leaks IT STILL has oil. I think i did get luck in the sense the leak started when the oil thermostat was OPEN.

Hopefully the line i bought is good quality, it seemed a fair price , there wwere some generic ones on amazon for 20$.. LOL

raven12aFB

Awesome......I've been looking at those lines as well......let us know how they perform.......

Frogman

I only bought the short one, i Don't have the guts to crack that banjo bolt .

Frogman

Its thursday and they still haven't shipped.. I ordered on monday. SMH . If you are in a rush order from atkins or Rx7 performance , they always ship in one day .

tommyeflight89

iTrader: (4)

Curious to see how the fitment works out. The line looks to have a long crimped portion, and will be even longer once the adaptors are included. Going to be a tight bend I think.

Frogman

Finally shipped this morning, should be here by Wed.

Benjamin4456

Curious as well as I've developed a very slow leak on one of the lines (or the cooler; hopefully not the cooler). The big ole banjo is what has been keeping me from just making some new AN lines, although I suppose that's not too hard to find somewhere (I haven't looked much yet).

For what it's worth, I've always used RaceFlux hoses and fittings. Great quality stuff and good prices, especially in bulk, and it's warrantied for life. The site is www.ANHoseFittings.com for anyone curious. Then again AN components are like tea, everyone has that one special blend they prefer over anything else. Fragola, Earl's, Aeroquip, RaceFlux, Pegasus, Russell, etc. they're all good stuff.

Frogman

Alright , Update . I caughf covid and was bed ridden for the better part of a week and a half.
Tomorrow I will get to changing the part but have a question. Where it connects to the engine , how do I remove that .Do I hold the fitting that connects the cooler to the engine in place and turn the outer bolt , or to i turn the fitting and just ignore the hose fitting. I forgot the sequence if I am honest. I know for the oil cooler You turn the outer nut until it is almost tight while holding the one that attatches to the bung in place , then turn the bung one until it is a weency bit tight , then tighten the outer one as tight as possible then go back to the bung and hand tighten it and do the whole turn the car on and check for leaks and tighten until it stops trick .
Idk i need picture guidence .

Frogman

finally got around to installing it, removal was easy, installing it was not, Th e first issue is the compressor belt gets in the way , so you have to remove the compressor belt, easy enough. So the engine side ... my 22' wrench is too thick to remove the fitting on the engine so I just removed the original line without the fitting and tightened the new one without double wrenching making sure the fitting didn't move, it never once budged so I just tightened it by hand until it didn't budge any more and then used the 27 mm (a new line is a 27 mm vs the OEM 26 mm ) until the line was snug with the fitting, I made sure the fitting did not budge, I assume the engine side is a lot stronger than the flimsy oil cooler, either way, I didn't tighten it with much force, just enough to where it was tight, I made sure to keep sight of the fitting to ensure it was not turning. Then came around to attaching it to the oil cooler. Oh boy, because the bung is bent I had a hell of a time getting it connected, I had to go back and remove the engine side partially to give me a bit more room, finally got both of them threaded in and made the slow painful process of turning the nuts on the oil cooler and engine side of the oil cooler until they were snug, tightened the engine side again, and slid my 22 mm into the oil cooler giving it a bit of slack against the oil cooler bung and crush washer so that I could reserve the final hand tightening to the fitting with the 22mm. I tightened the oil cooler 27 mm until it was tight, then with the 22 mm I tightened the fitting to the oil cooler by hand until I met some resistance and then gave it a quarter turn more (a new crush washer). I called my brother and we fired the car up, only for him to yell " it's spewing oil shut it off!" Surely enough there was oil coming out of the oil cooler side, but not from the bung, but from the top of the new oil cooler line on the oil cooler side where it internally locks. I was like "I guess I didn't tighten the big nut tight enough" went back down and noticed the 22 mm no longer fit in the gap .. weird, got a smaller girth 22 mm and stuck it in and tied it to the car to make sure it didn't move as I turned the big oil line nut and instantly noticed the big nut was semi-loose and I got two full turns out of it before it was snug .. again weird, I then went to take out my 22 mm and it was stuck.. like I had switched it between the oil cooler bung and the big nut .. I had to untighten the big nut half a turn to get the 22 mm wrench out Tomorrow I'm going to grind down my 22 mm thin and try again. If you want to have zero issues just buy the OEM line. NOt nocking the one i bought, but it was a 27 mm making me spend 20$ on a 27 mm wrench and the OEM fitting has less workable room meaning you will need a thin 22 mm.. another 20 $. suddenly I'm at cost with the OEM line.. and I'm not even buying a new 22, I'm just gonna Micky mouse myself a thin 22mm with an angle grinder...

Oh and finally, **** the oil cooler and the lines LOL . I was sick with covid and today was the first day in two weeks I felt I had normal physical strength.. and I spent it under the car.. sigh..

midnight mechanic

did you take a picture of your custom oil line? where did you get it from? you say buying the OEM is worth the extra $$$ ? where would you have boughten it from (Mazdatrix or the dealer)? and I take it you have the beehive oil cooler?

glad you beat that COVID bastard !

for me, the moderna 2 vaccine knocked me on my ***.

Frogman

I have a front mounted oil cooler , the hose itself is not bad quality , it's just the fact the nut is a 27 mm and not the stock 26 mm that threw me off. If you want a painless job buy a stubby 22 mm and a stubby 26 mm or whatever size you need .. The AN fittings route might be the way to go tbh

Frogman

My dad shaved down the 22 mm wrench i had while I was in law school today, he checked to make sure cleared with some wiggle room, hopefully, tomorrow I can get down there and crank the ****** down.
I want to make something clear, the hoses are NOT bad quality, it is just the design change from a 26 mm to a 27 mm that makes the clearance engine side very close, it should have been 26 mm and I will email the company regarding this so that they can fix this issue if they want .

My recommendation for anyone doing a full line change is this: buy a stubby wrench set or buy the metric wrench set from harbor freight for 30$ that has a 22 mm and 26 mm ( needed even if changing to AN fitting as you will need to remove it ) and cut the wrench in half and shave it yourself, you can totally get away with a 26 mm if the fitting comes loose with the 26 mm nut to the hose, but if it doesn't you will need a 22 mm . and buy a 26 mm socket wrench for the banjo bolt, The only scary part of this job is when attaching it to the oil cooler, do not over tighten, one you clamp the big bolt to the fitting the screw will no longer turn, so what you do is tighten the fitting ( 22mm) making sure you have a new crush washer against the oil cooler to the point it gives you resistance with the wrench, do not tighten further. once this is done find a way to put the 22 mm wrench on teh 22 mm fitting nut and wedge the 22 mm wrench somewhere so it doesn't turn, I do it between the control arm, once the 22 is secured, hold it in place and tighten the 26 mm against the 22 mm fitting until it is as tight as possible. once this is done go back to the 22 by itself and turn it a hair more, turn the car on, while someone keeps an eye out on the hose. If there are no major leaks let the car warm up and check for minor drops around the 22 mm fitting, from my previous experience you have a 50 50 chance it will leak, the top bung was solid but the bottom one dropped drop every minute or so, if this happens by hand turn the 22 mm SLOWLY a very small amount, clean it and check for leaks, repeat this process until the leak is GONE. If you turn too tight you will crack the bung and it's game over, so if you feel you are turning really tight and it is still leaking at the bung STOP, your crush washer is probably shot, get a new one or return to using the original one you originally had that did not leak and do the process again ,

Frogman

Update, got the hose properly installed, no leaks for now. I Will update you on long term quality in due time .