After basically losing half a trackday because of overheating problems, I started down a quest to cool the crap out of my engine while spending as little money as I could.

First off was replacing my driver side radiator fan which had blew itself up, followed by my $10 sheet metal cold air intake box found here:
https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/my-cold-air-intake-box-907826/

followed by sealing the holes on my intercooler shroud, and extending the shroud which could be found here:
https://www.rx7club.com/showpost.php...9&postcount=26

Next up is my oil cooler fan, I haven't finished hooking it up yet but here's how it looks so far:





let me tell you, this thing sucks! (in a good way). The fan is a radiator fan from a kawasaki zx-6r i believe, I picked it up off ebay for around $30 shipped. Basically some metal bending, cutting, and drilling and basically replaced the rear bracket with the fan. Testing it with a battery showed an immense amount of air being sucked through the front of the the oil cooler, you can really tell when putting pieces of cardboard in front of the cooler and seeing how hard it gets sucked against the fins.

I don't have the oil cooler duct unfortunately, didn't come with the car and don't know where to get one for cheap, but I have no doubt this fan will work way better, especially when my car is idling and cooling down after a track session in pit lane, that oil cooler shroud wouldn't be doing me any good anyways.

Haven't hooked it up yet, thinking of hooking it up to a relay and either making a switch to activate inside the car or just hooking it up to the rad fans so it turns on when they do.

My fender liner also got shredded by my 18" tires so should probably build some sort of rock or water shield behind the fan ... maybe...

anyways, more pics to come as I continue on with this

 

You were tracking your car with only one oil cooler and no duct to it? BAD idea. The fan seems like more of a band-aid then a solution. If you plan to continue tracking your car I highly suggest finding passenger side oil cooler (R1 oil coolers) and ducting. Right now air is mostly going around your oil cooler instead of through it.

I will agree though that fan will be nice when you're sitting in traffic or idling in the paddock.

-Dan

 

If I remember correctly, oil cooler ducts are fairly cheap from Mazda. Something like $30ish dollars each. You really need a second oil cooler on these cars. I added a 2nd cooler and my oil temps are real good while on track. Both of my coolers are ducted as well.

Read this if you havent already: https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/dual-oil-coolers-cheap-633480/

 

this is a cool project, how you you have it set up to run?

 

^^ he hasnt yet, he said either relay to a switch or tap into rad fans

some rx7 owners are bawlzy... tracking their car with some mods lol... im terrified to track mine till the cooling system is completely upgraded...

 

Ballsy is one word for it, I'd probably use a different one though

 

Yep... an OEM dual cooler setup can be had in the parts section for around $250.

If you want to get serious, look at SakeBomb Garage's setup, or even Rotary Extreme.

Oil cooling is a very important part of rotary engines and actually accounts for a large percentage of overall engine cooling. Not to mention keeping the life of your turbo setup in check.

Don't skimp bro. Though the fan seems innovative. You need more cooling capacity for any kind of track use.... PERIOD.

GLOP

 

Hmm, surprisingly my track experiences haven't been that bad, I've done 3 full 8hour track days and one 6hr track day with my car with no overheating problems at all

The only reason I overheated on the last trackday was because my driver side rad fan seized, and the fan melted off the motor. So not only did I lose my more 4-bladed fan, I also had it sitting on top of the rad blocking air flow.

That being said, previous trackdays were done at lower boost pressures since I didn't have meth-injection before, I do now so I am much less concerned about detonation.

Perhaps because I'm in Canada, ambient temps at the track tend to be a lot lower ha ha

I think I will hook it up to simply turn on with the rad fans for now and see how that works out for me. Perhaps have a switch to be switched to always on for when I'm on the track

 

what are your oil temps at the track? do you have any readings of tracking with a single oil cooler? I don't have an oil temperature gauge yet but I'd be curious to see what temps I should expect.

 

+1 Thats why I am putting together a dual oil cooler kit and geting an aluminum radiator before I even THINK about tracking it.



John

 

I've also been tracking the car with only one oil cooler up in Canada. I have upgraded to a fluidyne rad as I didn't find the stock one did a very good job and upgraded the smic as well.

I don't have any way of monitoring oil temps but I know that during 20min sessions I wasn't seeing anything above 210F water temps.

That's a nice setup with the fan I might look into doing something similar for cooling down while in the pits.

Next mod will be a second cooler though but I am also tight on cash. For me this just means not staying on track longer than 20-30min at a time.

 

I thought about a few weeks ago when I replace my OEM fan with a Muzzy fan on my CBR. I thought mine would be too large but the new 2010 use two small fans which made me wonder.

 

Yeah, but not so nice when driving at higher speeds where the fan becomes a HINDERENCE to airflow. its a bandaid for low speed overheating which reduces efficiency at high speeds. Id just fix the problem... not enough cooler

 

does anyone know whether a generic oil cooler without a thermostat can be added on the passenger side using the cheap dual oil cooler thread? It looks like the oil pathway goes from oil pedestal to driver side cooler to passenger side cooler and then back to the block, so the thermostat on the passenger side appears redundant to me.

Not nearly as many stock driver side oil coolers floating around up here in Canada.

plus I'd have to relocate my license plate



i like my license plate there....

 

something like this

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...%3D1&viewitem=

 

You are running the under-tray right? Didn't see it in the oil cooler pics.
If not you will overheat every time as this is essential to duct air through the radiator.
With the under-tray, the fluidyne radiator, and proper purging of the engine overheating issues will be past history.

 

yup am running the stock undertray, would like to get a nice big piece of ABS plastic or something to enlarge it and smooth it out but that's another project :P

 

Water temps are not an indicator of oil temps. I had my oil thermostat fial on me last year on the way to a race weekend, I chose to ignore it and within 2 laps my oil temp gauge was pegged at 250*F and my water temps never broke 200*F.

I will pretty much garantee that anyone tracking with a single stock oil cooler is overheating their oil. Ive been through 4 cooler setups now, finally found one that Im happy with, my first setup was a stock cooler and a similarily sized B&M cooler (cheap crappy unit) that would let me run a max of 10 min sessions before my oil temps were in the 250*F range. Point is I had a way more cooling than stock and good ducting and I was still overheating the oil. If your not watching oil temps you will never be sure that your not too hot.

Also as said fans only help at low speeds, at track speeds that is getting in the way of good air flow.

 

But if he runs dual oil coolers he'll have to relocate the license plate! Here's the way I see it

Option 1: You don't get an extra cooler or duct it properly overheat your oil and fry your bearings... Time for a new engine. $$$$

Option 2: You buy two oil coolers or at the very least duct the ONE you have and the oil temps stay in check keeping the engine happy on that regard. $$

 

Let's see, relocate license plat.....or ruin an engine?

hmmm.

 

so what was your 4 cooler setups? pros and cons? which one did you settle on finally?

 

thats a given!!...why not put the oil cooler where your licence plate is and your license plate where your cooler would go....

 

1. Factory and B&M cooler
2. Factory and earls 25 row cooler
3. 2 25row earls coolers, poorly positioned in openings, pre cooler ducting
4. 2 25 row earls coolers, positioned well in openings (less ground clearance), ducting pre and post cooler.


All setups ran in series and were regulated with an earls thermostat. I watch my oil temp closer than water temp, coolant system is upgraded and hasn't given me problems yet. I changed things untill I was able to run longer sessions without having to worry about my oil temps climbing. I also run a 99 bumper that helps with air flow.

 

Incorrect. The cooler itself cannot flow enough air so that the fan would impede airflow.

I use one 25row setrab in stock location with a duct, a shroud and a pair of fans operated by a 200deg t-stat.

Oil temps are rock solid under even the heaviest of loads. Contrary to much opinion, fans on the cooler significantly increase its capacity even at high speed.

An issue I see on many large cooler installations is insufficient area for air to exit the cooler.

 

for those that only want one cooler, could a single 32row cooler from some dual monster kits ive seen work?