So I was on the track last saturday. My oil temp gauge started to beep on the third lap. I thought it was just because I hadn't set the alarm + figured since rotaries are hotter than piston motors that it would be okay. I still took it a bit easy for that lap. Next lap around turn six I felt a pop, then not a lot of power. Yep, I bit the bullet.

Series 5 turbo
FMIC
Fresh fluids
Turbo back exhaust
No cats
about 12psi, but I've hit 15 a few times (not on purpose though)



Haven't had a chance to pull the motor apart. I'm going to guess that age, oil temp + more boost than stock were all the major contributing factors in this motors demise.

 

FMIC was probably the smoking gun...

I have your exact setup except I'm still running the top mount, haven't had any issues with oil temperature so far, even during the summer.

 

Vmic with proper ducting, not all that hard to fab up if you can weld.

 

Last time I welded something was back in high school... I would love a V mount though. Just too much to do since I'm already doing the motor over.

So I'm guessing that not having any of the foam in between coolers, + no undertray isn't a great idea either?

What temps are you running? I'm measuring mine from a sandwich plate under the filter.

 

FMIC + no foam + no undertray = :-(

The FMIC acts like a wall and air just goes under it and under your oil cooler, and the faster you go the worse this problem becomes.

I have a VMIC and just recently put on the undertray. Before, temps were pretty good all the time. Now that the tray is on temps are great above 20 mph, however creeping along or sitting still they slowly start to rise. I have (2) 10" on the rad, so I'm fairly certain the problem is the oil cooler. I've spoken w/ a guy running a 20b (also vmic) and he actually said that his temps got worse when he installed the undertray, and I believe this is part of the reason why.

I plan to cut out the last 6-8" of the undertray to allow hot air to exit the engine compartment where the fans blow, and I am strongly considering adding a fan to the oil cooler as well.

A vmic really isn't that hard to put together, especially if you already have a FMIC. The only welding you really need to do is for the IC/ piping and if you have the right couplers you don't even need to weld that. There are stock threaded holes at all the points where my v mount attaches. You could make some mounting brackets pretty easily and BAM!