hood raisers actually push air into the engine bay, not lift air out, as the cowl area is a high pressure zone.

At speed.

If it was to cool down in the pits like in an auto-x application hood risers would work well.



Major flaw as drawn- perhaps it is implemented differently.

Note the airflow between the heat exchanger ducts openings that does not pass through heat exchanger cores.

Air will take this path of least resistance. The heat exchanger cores represent a large pressure drop. Air will favor flow through this gap with low pressure drop starving your heat exchangers of flow through their core.

Easy to correct by placing foam between bottom of IC duct and top of radiator inlet duct or expanding duct openings so they are contiguous.

 

What year did Mazda beginning offering (or made it stock) 25 row oil coolers on the RX-8 ?

:-) neil

 

I would love to see the diff and transmission oil cooler setups that people are running.

Where are you mounting the oil cooler?

What pump are you running?

Are you using fans?

Thanks!

-Andrew

 

All I have to say is E85, full ducting, dual 28 row coolers with 10"fans on the back and ducting on the front kept me laughing at 110°F in the desert @ 1 O'clock noon. This was my last hot lap of the session... 88°C... dream come true. I knew some people were hitting 106-110C out there.

 

No pics other than diff cover.

Gearbox cooler rubber is mounted off the end of the PPF, so it's not wiped off loading onto a trailer and can still have a small angle - I think it was an auto tranny cooler off a FD, or maybe a LHS one.

Diff cooler mounts behind the rear subframe, so not terribly good flow, but compensated by using a large auto cooler out of a Mazda 3 or 6 from memory, thermals on the diff housing seem to indicate it's sufficient.

Pumps are Tilton, I've seen VDO ones do a decent job too.

Diff cover to ease installation is Ric Shaw.

You should mod the breathers, otherwise you'll pull vacuum. I'd recommend quick disconnects on lines too, for convenience....one of the things I swear I'll get around to after getting an arm covered in stinky oil yet again!

 

so I have a simple question for you guys who track your FD's its regarding the Tstat .

I had a drilled Tstat , and atleasto n the streets it took for ever for the car to warm up , BUt the last couple of track days I did temps were very good .



Fast forward to today , I've got a new motor in the car ,and a stock Tstat , and I was thinking if I should drill the Tstat ? howmany of you guys drill them? and is the difference significant ?

I like how quickly the motor warms up to operating temps , But I have my old drilled one I can always swap in .

 

No need to drill it. In fact, I recommend that you don't. On our track cars (fully ducted in-out Vmount, dual 25 row oil coolers etc) we use either the mishimoto 68* Tstat or the REmedy 76* one, depending on the time of year. Both work perfectly fine without drilling.

J-AUTO - Bushings, Suspension, Parts for Mazdas (mishimoto)
MAZMART - Serving The Mazda Community Since 1980. RX7 REMEDY Thermostat (89-02) (REmedy)

-J

 

Exactly. I tested this with Chris Carlisi like 15 years ago. We taped red strings of yarn around the cowl area, removed the rubber weather strip on the firewall, and shimmed the back of the hood up by placing several thick washers under the hinges. At speed the strings of yarn were sucked under the hood.

 

Yep you are driving at a rapid pace with air flying over top of the hood so it is hard for air to slowly push out when air is rapidly going over so it takes the path of least residence and goes under which is why it's really important to have some killer aero under your car. Vented hoods help some but don't really do much at speed.

Along with a big wing my track car could use a nice flat bottom or some aero under it but it's a PIA so probably not going to happen and I'll end up being the back marker because the latest aero on most new cars is badass. The c7 z for example has some killer aero right out of the box.

 

The actual drawing to how it came out is a bit different. The gap between the ducting in between the two heat exchangers is non-existent. Both the duct from the IC on top and the Rad on the bottom touch in the middle...so that no air is moving in between the ducting. I know the E85 has a lot to do with it...I really do think that My exchanger/ducting and oil coolers are Top notch. After a full summer of hard track driving and Drifting in 110+ degree weather.....and not having to stop once due to the car getting too hot.. I wouldn't change a damn thing on the set up. The car is currently down though as I'm making new radiator mounts that sit just a bit higher than they are now. I want to have a little more clearance under the car. But I'll be re-doing my duct work just to make it stronger. Give it some stronger mounting points

 

Pressure differentials move air.




I went custom v-mount and am making all the brackets and intercooler piping myself. When that is done I will duct the air going in and out of each heat exchanger.

 

Look for posts from CrispyRX7. He wound up putting a couple holes in his t stat to control temps. It will ultimately depend on the ambient temps you are driving in and the setup of the heat exchangers on the car. Given you are in Miami, I might go ahead and try a 180* thermostat. Pettit sells one or you can just get a generic t stat in 180* temp from NAPA. I'm using one on my race Miata and it works well.

Either setup will take longer to warm up on the street and cold temps so be aware of that. If you can't get the car up to temps on the street, you'd be better off keeping a stock temp one with a small hole or two or saving to do a better rad and IC setup.

The Re-medy water pump actually does help. Highly recommend that.

 

IMO a drilled t stat, higher pressure cap, aftermarket pump etc... are jokes and might keep temps from getting too high for another 5 mins max.

You need a bigger radiator, more airflow, more ducting etc....... which are real fixes and not band aids.

For a stock bumper I'd advise using the shark tooth mod with improved ducting and that will actually work BUT on a 90 degree day there is no way to control a twin turbo FDs water temps if the driver is keeping his foot down without major mods. Things like a GTC front bumper, big race radiator, ducting, big oil coolers etc...etc...

The twin turbos run HOT as hell so oil temps, water temps and most importantly air temps will really need serious attention.

Smartest move is go single turbo and run e85 (if convenient other wise mix in a couple of gallons 112 race gas at the track to help with exhaust temps hehe) for anyone who drives in 80 plus degree weather combined with just basic stuff: after market bumper with big inlets, any decent size radiator, 17 to 25 row twin oil coolers, nice v mount, ducting.........DONE!

 

agreed on this point.

budget doesn't always allow jumping right into that but that is the way to fix the issue.

 

Been reading through this thread, and I'm just curious. I have a completely stock FD, minus a downpipe, and while driving, the car is pretty steady at 180F, slightly higher under load/boost, but at a stop light, the car heats up to 205- 210F pretty quickly, then fans come on and the temps drop. Normal? I'm about to replace all of the components in the cooling system, but I'm wondering regardless, whether I have less functioning cooling components or it's just heat soaking.

 

that is normal.

 

And don't track it

 

That is completely normal and if the temps drop fast you have a healthy system

If you don't plan on driving long distances, tracking, autocrossing etc.... I'd leave well enough alone. In my book a stock low mileage FD doesn't need anything but a boost gauge and lots of love and understanding LOL.

 

Thanks. Im replacing everything with OEM parts, more of a restoration.....cooling system looks original and its 20 years old. Will be stock though. Keeping this car 99.9% stock, only downpipe and boost/temp guage

 

On top of this one thing I would consider is a passenger side oil cooler.

I think I have a complete new in the box coolant hose kit. If interested I'll take a look and get a price to you.

 

I have both radiator hoses and turbo coolant lines, i am however, still in need of a waterpump and oem radiator.

 

Also I'd get a stock sized aluminum radiator. Just my 2¢

 

Fritz haha I remember the shark mod. Haven't seen anyone do that in some time. On my personal FD I cut tubes of aluminum and spaced the lip down from the bumper about an inch. Then used foam weatherstriping on the undertray essentially creating a duct. This allowed me to track with a front mount. I can't seem to find the pic.

 

+1 for a well installed v-mount. I run my FD with a completely ducted Knightsports V-mount, stock R1 dual oil coolers, stock thermostat, BNR twins and an SMB downpipe and my track water temps are never more than 90C all day long even at 95+ ambient air temp.

 

I already have dual oil coolers , and a larger KOYO radiator , with some home made ducting , also have a larger stock mount setup . I also have an after market bumper with larger opening

After I removed my front mount setup My Coolant temps were great could be out full session without worrying about temps . that was using a T stat which was drilled alot . ( had 4 extra holes ) temps were fine . but the car took about 15-20 minutes on the street to warm up.

Now before doing another event I was wondering if it would be worth it to swap out The T stat or re drill the new one .