bazinetrx

Hey, just a quick question.. I discovered recently that I had an oil leak coming from my 83 rx7's "Bee hive" style oil filter.. which requires the replacement of four O-rings. I've searched this site and others but I have yet to find help for my situation. I've taken apart the pedestal and removed the first two O-rings (the ones that are directly below the filter) that was fine. I then proceeded to the Oil Cooler part ( the part where the cooler line feeds into the pedestal) and i removed the two regular shaped o-rings.. but on top of.. or behind the o-ring I'm not sure where. There was a d shaped looking gasket material ring that someone had made on one hole and then in the other was an actual D shaped ring or seal of some sort. Not quite sure what to make of this, hopefully the pictures r decent enough.

second picture is just the base of the cooler that the d shape ring came out of.

Thanks, Daniel

djessence

looks to me just like a deformed o-ring.

I just took mine apart today and replaced all 4 o-rings and all of them were "o"'s

teddyrx2

iTrader: (33)

replace the "O'S" and you good to go...also I think on the bee hive oil ped's the oil line run's to it...so make sure you install or change out the copper crush washers...just so you avoid any other oil leaks in and around that area

bazinetrx

Alright, thats kinda what I thought was going on.. just deformed because I never heard of these D shaped rings. So is there the four O-rings one on top another on the pedestal part that the cooler lines run to and then two more on the part that the filter sits on?? because thats how it looks like they had this setup. I know this shouldn't be very diffucult but somebody else had tried to repair this on my car it seems and the way they did it seems different then what people have been saying here.. Should I just try two o-rings on the cooler part and two o-rings on the base of the filter and see if it leaks??

Thanks again, Daniel

Glazedham42

iTrader: (4)

Daniel, not quite sure what the last guy was trying to accomplish on your car. I've changed the bee hive o-rings LOTS of times. All you need is four O-rings, and I believe that they are all the exact same size. You may also need a new copper crush washer for the large oil line that bolts into the back of the beehive (banjo bolt). That's it. No sealants, no gaskets, no tricks. Just take it apart, remove whatever the heck that they had in there, and put it four o-rings. Use a new crush washer on the rear oil line if you are **** like me.

You can also check out the parts catalog on Blackdragonauto.com. Their catalog is great for seeing how things are supposed to go back together...

Jamie

ray green

iTrader: (14)

I recently purchased the two O rings for the pedestal from Black Dragon for $0.75 each and from Mazdatrix (ie Mazda dealer) for $4.28 each (I did the same thing for the intake manifold O rings, $1.95 each from Black Dragon, $4.28 each from Mazdatrix). Here's a photo, Mazdatrix on the left, BD on the right:



They are a close match, but in both cases there are differences.

The Mazdatrix oil pedestal O rings are just a bit thinner and they are made of a shinny black material, while the BD O rings are more of a flat black finish.

The opposite is true for the intake manifold O rings, the Mazdatrix ones are a bit thicker with a dull finish, while the BD O rings are a little thinner and shiny.

I asked the guy at Mazdatrix about the price differential and he said that they use direct order Mazda parts, not off the shelf O rings, like BD does. He also said that they had tried out various off the shelf replacements in their shop but had problems, so they stick with Mazda for critical parts like this - thus the extra expense, which really isn't that much in the big picture.

He also pointed out that the O rings for the beehive body itself were in fact a little bit different in size than the ones attaching the pedestal to the block, but the original Mazda parts for those O rings were no longer available so they just used the same O rings for all four replacements.

For some reason I've done a lot of beehives this summer (3 down, one to go) and a few months ago I also bought the 4 oil pedestal O rings directly from our local Mazda dealer for the Mazda price of about $5.00 each - it feels kind of weird putting down $20 and walking out with these little plastic O rings.

It was interesting that two of the "Mazda" O rings came in an original Mazda parts envelope, while the second two were a generic envelop hand labeled with the parts number - were the latter two from the hardware store next door??

So the question is, is there a difference in this case when it comes to "original" Mazda parts or are Mazda and Mazdatrix doing a little profit taking here?

Or, am I getting even more **** than Jamie?

Ray

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

Ray, I didn't know that about the O rings. I've used normal pedestal O rings on my beehives in both positions and they work fine.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

well what do you mean by original mazda parts? having worked at a mazda dealer for a long time i can tell you its not the simplest thing.

take the oil filter, for example. they used to all come from japan, made by toyo roki (something like that), then in about 2000, mazda usa switched to a filter that was made in the usa, by tennex. they are both oem parts, but one would screw on the car and the other wouldnt.

currently mazda usa supplies a filter thats made in europe. while mazda japan still has the toyo roki one. because there are grey market importers here, you can get the japanese filters.

so all of these are oem, but there are 3 different kinds, made in 3 parts of the world.

and if you're concourse ****, the 1st gens came with something different altogether (its big and silver)

yetterben

what size is that big oil cooler banjo bolt. like a 20mm or something?

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

The old filters had a castelated look to them.

yetterben, it should be 23mm like the banjo bolt on FMOC cars or the short plug type bolt on beehive cars.

There should be no need to remove the bolt on the beehive unless there is a problem with the steel tube. The entire beehive assembly comes off the engine as a unit.

yetterben

yeah i suppose the o rings arent supposed to be flat are they lol god that back one is a bitch to get back on whats the best approach?

my leak is flowing down the oil feed line and dripping up front. i can stick my hand on the metal line and its got oil all the way up too the banjo bolt.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

that tube just uses those big copper washers 9956-21-800 (copper from japan = $$$)

MAKE SURE if you take it off, LOOSEN THE FRONT FIRST. thats like THE rookie mistake, if you do the rear first, it kinks the now unavailable new line.

dont be a n00b!

yetterben

do the lock washers just start leaking over time for no reason? si i have to loosend the fron to even replace the washers in the back then. I might as well just go front mount with all this going on!