What color is your beehive
 

So i took my beehive cooler off today for cleaning and whatnot (will eventually switch to the FMOC using trochoids technique and am slowly amassing the parts)

Threw some degreaser on there and wiped down with a paper towel and noticed some paint starting to come off.

The beehive was painted black. I was wondering if this was factory done or if the PO did it.

Im no expert in thermodynamics (yet) but it would seem to me that painting a heatsink kinda diminishes the effect of it.

Is everyones beehive like that?

IDK mines black too.

All of the beehives came black from the factory. Vipernicus has a nice silver one on his car that I powdercoated as an experiment. He liked it and offered to buy it. There is a pic of it in my 2nd gen fmoc thread in the archives.

https://www.rx7club.com/1st-gen-archive-71/cooling-oil-how-install-fc-oil-cooler-1st-gen-write-up-pics-478521/

Yup, I'm the only one I know with a "bling" beehive, lol.

And it's only because I haven't done the FMOC swap yet!

Jon

Mine was black right before it was relocated to the trash ftmfw!

the paint tends to be a little brittle after 20+ years. you have to be careful when cleaning that sucker if you want to keep the paint.

The stock beehive is a crap design if you ask me. While you have it off, why not upgrade to a front mount oil cooler?

i am going to be upgrading mike pretty quick here. for the moment im trying to get my engine back in because it is not welcome where it is being stored at the moment. The FMOC upgrade is on its way, amassing the parts now.

Vipernicus, does your powdercoated beehive work just as well. I just figured that painted/powdercoated wouldve diminished its heatsinking abilities, and retain some heat.

Thanks again for the link trochoid, i knew you had powdercoated it but wasnt sure what that would do to its performance.

It won't affect performance at all because it doesn't transfer heat to the air around it. It transfers heat from the oil into the coolant.

It really isn't the best design. The idea is that the oil is much hotter than your coolant, so extra heat will be transferred from the oil to the coolant, then the radiator will transfer that heat from the coolant into the air passing through the radiator.

It's much better to have your oil dump its heat into the cool air flowing through a front mounted oil cooler, than into the already 160-degree-F coolant. Give the oil and the coolant their own separate heat evacuation systems, it works better.

That's why they were separate on all rx7s before and after Series 3, and even in the GSL-SE which is an S3 itself!

I plan to do the upgrade, but I'm upgrading things on a priority basis. It was much cheaper and easier to keep with a beehive for the time being, while concentrating on other areas that badly needed upgrading. When the "Ultimate Streetable 12a" goes in, it'll have an FMOC and the powdercoated beehive will probably live on in some other car.

Jon

Radiator paint is specially designed to allow heat transfer through it.I mean,how often do you see a brass/copper radiator that isnt painted?
Many of the air/oil coolers are painted with the same kind of stuff,although its usually peeling off after 20 years.Viper is right,there is a minimal amount of heat dissipated from the surface area of the beehive,it probably just painted to prevent corrosion.

you would think no paint would be best, and made of aluminum or copper, like a heatsink.

Only problem with not painting them is they would have a short life expectancy due to corrosion. If anyone wants a 'bling' beehive, I can do it for 50 shipped, you supply the beehive.

i have 7 or 8 i was about to toss.
you want them?

Yeah, hang on to them, I may just coat some and offfer them to members. When I can get down to pick them up is another question, but you keep saying you're going to come visit. IanS is down here this week while we're porting and rebuilding his engine. You're welcome to come up and hang, just shoot me a PM.

Does oil count as a color? LOL Ditto on it getting tossed for a front mount