Well, I guess I could just do it the easy way and go system by system too.

Cooling system -

Thermostat
Water pump
Electrical fan mod
Flush and fill system


Ignition system -

Spark plugs
Spark plug wires
Grounding how-to
MAF sensor mod
Advance timing slightly

Anything else?

 

Stand Alone!!!!

 

Agreed. put a megasquirt on that bitch...

 

Stand-alones are expensive and not worth the time or money on my N/A because I plan on swapping to a TII drivetrain within the next year. Looking for cheaper things.

 

I would not recommend a Megasquirt to this owner.

Honestly I'm getting sick of people recommending ANY standalone without putting thought into it.

First off, it has to be installed. If the installer is not familiar with electrical work, this will be a disaster. I've fixed too many botched installs to assume that anyone knows what they are doing.

Secondly, there is the tuning. Skill and knowledge is required here as you CAN blow your engine (yes, even an NA...) if you do something stupid.

Third, the Megasquirt specifically requires DIY work to get it going. Electronics skills and knowledge is required, and it is not for the beginner. They can be a royal pain to get running the first time you do it...

 

No, I don't not plan on running a stand-alone on this car, maybe after some help from Sesshomaru would I do that on my turbo motor.

I did remember reading the argument about the Stant V.S. Mazda OEM thermostat, and am going with the OEM replacement. What do you guys recommend for a brand for the water pump? Also, what are you guys using for a brand of coolant? If I remember reading right, most people are using the Prestone Extended Life stuff. I plan on doing a 70% water / 30% coolant mix and using Red Line Water Wetter in my system. For flush, I planned on using Prestone Super Flush. Any other ideas for the cooling system?

 

Remove your ac condensor from in front of your radiator. wont do much but will improve airflow through your rad.

 

Who is it that has the awesome coolant that withstands 355 degrees, and never needs replacing? I was just reading about it the other day (when my Mustang overheated and blew a headgasket :P ) Oddly, the main cause of the blown gasket was some idiot mechanic not prepping the block after replacing the headgasket due to Ford's recall. My wife also showed me the receipt where they charged her $150 for "special copper headgaskets" that were supposed to improve horsepower and last forever, but when I took them off I could still see the Felpro blue stripes. ($11.00 at Autozone). That's why I advocate do your OWN WORK. You'll learn more about your car, save money, and noone will take care of your car like you would.

Every day my $%&* list just gets longer and longer. :P

 

Yea, I plan on removing the AC and PS once I get a chance to.

Here's what I plan on using:

Prestone Extended Life coolant/antifreeze
Red Line Water Wetter (30% coolant/antifreeze + 70% distilled water + Water Wetter mixture)
Distilled water
Prestone Super Radiator Flush
Permatex Indian Head gasket shellac compound
Mazda OEM thermostat
Mazda OEM thermostat gasket
Mazda OEM water pump gasket

Also, I remembered that I should replace my radiator caps too. I plan on using Stant LEV-R-VENT Performance Radiator Cap (14 lbs. rated). Still not sure what I'm going to buy for a brand on my water pump though, any suggestions? Also, anything else I can do with the cooling system to upgrade it?

 

dDub suggested I get a Mazdatrix water pump, and that's probably what I'm going to go with. I stopped at the Mazda dealership and they said my water pump and gasket was discontinued and out of stock, so I figured best to go with the Mazdatrix one. So, here's the list so far:

Prestone Extended Life coolant/antifreeze
Red Line Water Wetter (30% coolant/antifreeze + 70% distilled water + Water Wetter mixture)
Distilled water
Prestone Super Radiator Flush
Permatex Indian Head gasket shellac compound
Mazda OEM thermostat
Mazda OEM thermostat gasket
Mazdatrix water pump
Mazdatrix water pump gasket
Stant LEV-R-VENT Performance Radiator Cap (14 lbs. rated)

Is there any other parts that I should replace while I'm doing the cooling system or is there any other upgrades that I can do besides what I have listed? Thanks guys.

 

Congratulations, it's now been a month since you started asking people what you should do to your car.

ROFL no offense, but if you spent as much time working on your car as asking other people what you should do, then you'd have three of them finished by now

I understand you want to make sure you get everything right the first time, but wouldn't you like to actually drive it?

 

It drives perfect right now, and I do work on it a lot. I have lots of time to work on the car at school because I'm in school for Automotive Technology. I'm basically replacing things 1 system at a time so that I can do it all at once. From what I can tell, my list of things I posted is all I can do besides the electric fan mod and upgrade the radiator. Don't think there's any other cooling system mods I can do.

 

How much do electric fan kits usually cost and where can I buy them from? Also, what do aftermarket radiators for our cars cost and get can I get one of those?

 

www.aaroncake.net


Buy a Fiero GT e-fan, or a Ford Taurus e-fan, and use Aaron's site to wire it correctly.


www.corksport.com


Radiators.

 

Never buy ANYTHING from YOUR local dealer.

703-490-8170

Ask for Ray Crowe, he is in the parts department. Let him know bluntly that you are in the RX7club, and then let him know everything you need.


As far as the cooling system mods go.


A quality, GREEN coolant. 50/50.

Water Wetter is a waste of time, and generally not good for our engines. People will say otherwise, but a GOOD engine will NOT need this.

Mazda OEM thermostat
Mazda OEM thermostat gasket
Mazdatrix water pump
Mazdatrix water pump gasket
Corksport Radiator panel

Do NOT use the stant pressure cap. If you are using the stock radiator, use stock Mazda caps. If you can running an aftermarket (read: Koyo/Fluidyne) you can use a 1.3 bar cap (19psi).

A Samco radiator hose kit will do wonders, also. Not to mention, stainless braided oil cooler lines, and fix all the little bent fins on your coolers. Every little bit counts

 

E-fan Options
Fiero GT fan should be good; any fan from a 4 cylinder engine car won't cut it. I had a flex-a-lite black magic 2800cfm e-fan on my last (crashed) RX-7 that worked well, though it put quite a load on my aging alternator (13 amps). It cost me $200 from Summit Racing. A google search should give you multiple vendors. Aaroncake's site says any fan over 2500cfm with a good shroud will be good.

E-fan Installation
http://www.aaroncake.net/rx-7/efaninstall.htm

Radiators
Corksport, www.rx7.com, www.mazdatrix.com, probably lots of other sources too. Over $400 for one that's better than stock. If those 3 aren't enough options, try a search.

 

Seeing as how expensive those radiators are (400+), I think I might just stick with my stock one until I do the turbo swap because I don't have a ton of money right now and the stock one should do fine until I swap. What's a Corksport radiator panel anyways?

Why not buy anything from my local Mazda dealer? They give me the OEM parts that I need straight from Mazda.

I got the Water Wetter and the coolant mixture from RETed's website, so that's why I wanted to go with that. Why would Water Wetter be bad for our engines? Also, people say Prestone works excellent on our cars, plus there's no good green coolants that I know of.

As for the radiator cap, why would my Stant one be bad? It's their highest grade one you can buy is it says that it's a direct replacement for the stock radiator cap. Why would I want to run stock Mazda OEM caps over these?

How much do the Fiero GT or Taurus fans usually cost? Just get one out of junkyard or what? Is either one better than the other?

 

Yea, I do understand what you mean about how easy it is to mess up... However, its not too hard at the same time... esp. since there are actuall companies that sell prebuilt megasquirts w/ a "universal" harness and a warrenty. This helps with the core issues that many megasquirt users had initially (the building...) After that, its just if he can wire it to his sensors (which isnt hard at all or he can just pay someone $100 to do it for him) and to copy someone's base map w/ a similar setup so and tune it slowly... I think he said that this isnt his DD so he should have alot of time to do it right...

But I agree with you... I do see alot of people blowing their engines b/c they dont know how to tune... But I think that w/ a little patience, dedication, and help from the many forums they can setup a nice streetable "safe" tune... I've seen this done many times... Alot of people cannot afford (or simply dont wanna pay) for $80 dyno runs...

 

50/50 is just waste of coolant unless you live in the Arctic. As per the FSM, 35% coolant is all you need for temps down to -16degC/3degF. Higher concentration also reduces cooling capacity.

Unless you've lost the stock plastic panels, an aftermarket radiator panel is just bling.

The benefits of running higher cooling system pressure on a street car are very debatable. A 1.3bar cap would raise the boiling point of a 33% coolant mix from ~123degC/254degF (at 0.9bar) to ~130degC/265degF, but this doesn't raise the temp at which engine damage occurs. Even taking into account localised boiling, if your temps are getting anywhere near that high you need a better radiator, not a better radiator cap.

Do wonders for what? Cooling? Nope...

Again, improves looks but not cooling. Admittedly the SS oil cooler hoses are cheaper than stock replacements so they're a good idea, but not for cooling reasons.

 

Watter wetter won't hurt anything but it will only help a little bit.
Coolant: 50/50 is fine. 35/65 is fine. Which is better? I actually did the math before and everything from 35/65 to 65/35 are identical to eachother.
Stant: Is absolutely horrible in RX-7's. It's lower quality than OEM, it'll fail earlier and it's missing something the OEM has to properly manage flow. "OEM replacement" means it switches at the same temp as OEM. It's a terribly misleading statement. You'll run significantly cooler without Stant. Spend the extra $10 on OEM.

 

It cost's more, it doesn't cool as well and the extra protection is totally unnecessary for most people. How is that "fine"?

I don't know what maths you did, but you're completely wrong. Changing the proportion of coolant changes boiling point, freezing point and heat transfer.

 

Alright guys, here's your cooling system in a nutshell. Antifreeze (surprise) keeps your coolant from freezing, water has better heat transfer properties, so use the chart that tells what %'s to use for the amount of cold weather you're expecting. If you're too low, the radiator will crack when the water expands into ice. What RAISES the boiling point of the water is the amount of pressure in the system, i.e. your radiator cap, because water has a set boiling point based on the PSI of the system. The higher the PSI the higher the boiling point.

 

In your opinion, what is the radiator to use? I want one that I can use for my TII engine and my N/A engine, but will provide the best performance I get can. I could buy it now and start working on mounting an e-fan onto it. Are the aftermarket fans better than the Fiero GT or Taurus ones?

I plan on running the coolant mix I said before with Water Wetter. RETed backs it, and so do other companies who have track RX-7's. Why would Prestone coolant not work better than other things out there? I've never seen a good name brand green coolant yet either.

I understand Stant has some issues with T-stats on Mazda, but I don't see why the radiator cap I have would cause problems. It's their highest grade one you can get, and it's rated to what the stock one is. So from what I'm reading, I'm best off running a higher pressure radiator cap? And I'm running OEM thermostat for sure, no Stant there.

Also, there's no reason to use the Corksport radiator panels other than for stock replacements that you've lost? And that radiator hose kit is basically just OEM replacement and doesn't affect performance?

 

I've heard of Water Wetter reducing operating temps by about 30 degrees, but it's expensive. I put a bottle of Quench in my wife's Mustang when I refilled the radiator, just to see if it's worth it, and it's only $8, compared to Water Wetter at $20. My RX7 runs just below 25% on 50/50 antifreeze so I'm not too worried about it.

 

Too clarify:
35/65 antifreeze/water transfers heat better but it has a lower boiling point. 65/35 antifreeze/water transfers heat worse but it has a higher boiling point. According to the math I did, the heat transfer and boiling point almost exactly cancel out. i.e., your temps will be lower on 35/65 but your lower boiling point will make you overheat just as easily. Everything from 35/65 to 65/35 is about equal in terms of boiling/overheating/hot-spots. Outside of 35/65 to 65/35 things get worse.

Using more antifreeze will also give you longer corossion protection. Those of you running 35/65 should change your coolant more often or use extended life antifreeze. So you really don't save any money (nor spend more).


Water wetter will only save a few degrees (not 30). It works best with more water in the system, so I'll assume whatver RETed recommends is best on that. Unless you add extra corossion protection, be sure to change your coolant more often (e.g., 25% antifreeze => twice as often).


PRESSURE CAP:
A higher pressure will raise the boiling point but put more stress on your cooling system components. You'll just have to replace hoses sooner. Besides that, I don't know if it has any effect on your pump, radiator, etc.