How do you route the heater core hoses to and from the beehive? I don't have an '83-'85 FB to look at, so I'm guessing the upper pipe goes all the way over to the lower radiator hose, and the lower pipe just curves over a couple inches to the rear engine plate fitting.

By the way, there is no heater core in this car to worry about at the moment. I just need to know which beehive coolant pipe goes where. Thanks.

 

I'll go outside and look right now! Gotta go out there anyway to get my work uniforms outta the car.

Yes. Coolant in at bottom, out at top.

The coolant pipe going across the passenger side of the car to the radiator has a tee in it as well, since the beehive is "parallel" to the heater core, not in series, to think about it in electronics terms. This isn't such a good idea IMO, since if one is restricted in any way then the other will get more coolant flow. But putting them in series would have other problems - like poor heat until the oil warms up. It also means that, for the tidiest air/oil cooler conversion, you also need the pipe.

 

Excellent! Thanks for looking.

Yeah, my engine does not have a T on the rear plate like the later FB ones do, so I figured I'd not even bother with hooking up the heater core at this time.

This is my first beehive, so I hope I hook up everything correctly the first time. I also changed the two inner O rings (they were like hard plastic).

I may eventually get a pipe to run from the lower radiator hose over to the heater core inlet/outlet when I switch to an air oil cooler, but it'd have to be from a doner car to keep it all Mazda-looking. I'll keep my eyes open for one.

If I can set up the little B&W security camera in my garage (on the P60) today, I'll snap a few pics.

 

i actually don't think it matters which is in or out.

 

Pic 1

 

Pic 2 turned out a little better (I guess).

 

Well technically, you want coolant flow to go upwards, so coolant flow helps shove any air pockets out.