Rotary-Works V-mount Install
 

Installed the Rotary-Works vmount over the weekend. The kit looks very nice. Everything is polished, IC core and radiator are really thick. The IC core is so thick it makes me worry a bit about pressure drop, but we'll see...

This kit is really cheap, er, I mean inexpensive. It was packed well, but was woefully lacking any form of installation instructions. In fact, their is only one picture I could find of the kit installed, and it was from above not showing how anything was mounted.

When I did start trying to figure out where things went I noticed that none of the brackets that were sent would work without a little grinding. So be prepared to do a little modification if you plan on using this kit.

My pain, however, will be your gain if you choose to buy the kit. I took pictures of how it's mounted so no one else has to suffer the way my friends who helped me install it and I did... :-p

ahh, finally someone bite the dust and got it! Anyways, I rather pay a little more for a better quality well put together kit. I guess you pay for what you get. Thanks for the post and update.

-AzEKnightz

How about final pics?
After all the fine tuning you did, how did it come out ?

L8R

I didn't take pictures at every step, but here are the general instructions:

Steps:
1. Have your AC system evaporated before you start as you have to remove the condensor.
2. Remove your bumper.
3. Remove the snaking, S- shaped metal power steering tube/pipe. A lot of PS fluid will come out so you should get something to catch it before disconnecting the rubber hose from the metal line.
4. Remove the AC condensor, and radiator. I am pretty sure I removed the AC condensor first, but I don't remember. It's pretty straightforward.
6. Remove the cross bar that connects the frame rails.
7. Replace it with the shiny metal piece they provide. Refer to the pictures to see the correct orientation.
8. Mount the brackets as shown in the pictures. She short brackets hold the top of the radiator, the long brackets hold the base of the intercooler. The large L-bracket with 4 holes across the top mounts next to the hood latch. All brackets required some modification so test fit first to see if you need to remove any material.
9. Mount the L-brackets on the bottom of the frame rails. IMPORTANT: They do not ship the correct size screws. You will need 2 m10X1.25 screws for the passenger side, and 2 m8X1.25 or M6X1.00 (can't remember) for the driver's side. You'll also need large washers to hold the bracket.
10. The radiator outlets point down at the ground.
11. I bought a hand full of

I need to move the relay box as well as their is no longer room for it. Next will be finding radiator hoses, getting new hose and reconnecting the power steering lines, and figuring out how on earth I'm going to mount the AC condenser to this new radiator.

I'd also like to find some rubber grommets to isolate vibration. I am not sure if I mentioned it previously but they don't ship the correct screws. I had to take a trip to Home Depot to find the correct ones. You will likely have to do the same as I lost the receipt that had the screw sizes on it, and my car lives an hour south of where I do.

It fits. My car is still months from running so I won't know how it performs for a while.

that looks like a pretty good kit for $900

what turbo & setup are you planning to run with this? any AI planned?

QUOTE: "It was packed well, but was woefully lacking any form of installation instructions"
They do Seems to think that you should be able to Put stuff on the car through Telepathy.
I got a Pulley kit that had absolutely ZERO instructions..The fitment Is Crap and the belt Was too Small..
I was able to Get it on after buying another Belt($55 CDN).No Thanks to them,at all.
I'm glad you could install your parts.
It's Kind of Sad that they have good stuff but they won't take the time to make instructions.

this is some good info, this was something I was thinking of getting

Can you keep the a/c with this setup? Jw because im thinking on buying the radiator to fit with my vmount...

Word of advice... Air will rush through the path of least resistance. You need to block that massive gap in between the IC and radiator or your cooling will be severely hindered... You want to make it so that air has no choice but to go through the IC and radiator. So block off the middle, sides and top. One exception is if you can feed your air intake to a place to receive fresh air.

Here's my setup:

I'm shifting the intercooler over toward the driver side to give me gobs of room for a ram/cold air intake for the turbo (my manifold sits the turbo pretty far forward). Pretty easy to do this tweak with this kit if you have some aluminum from Ace Hardware, a vice to bend some new brackets, and a drill.

Attachment 715862

Attachment 715863

Attachment 715864

I'm planning on a fiberglass project to clean up the air gaps and to also make a air splitter.

--Joff

I'm assuming that this kit will take the stock radiators fans, right?

sick, im gonna try doing my own vmount soon and had the same idea, shift the ic to the side for a duct for the intake filter:icon_tup:

I too was waiting for others to bite the bullet before jumping in. The only thing missing now is some performance reviews.

Thanks for the tips, Ehron!

This is a very helpful thread, much appreciated Ehron :)

I'm surprised Rotary Works themselves have not commented on this thread when it is the 1st.

What I would do to close that gap between the rad and the intercooler is to drill an additional hole on each of the brackets I have marked on the photo. If you drill them higher you can raise the rad higher which will close the gap between the two. Just my opinion :)

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1294330941

900!!!

This is a very good kit for 900. It really helps when you can weld your own parts to help save the customers money. Both their FC and FD vmounts are priced very fairly for what you get.

Props to Ehron for the thread and Rotary Works for offering affordable vmounts.

I did the same...who says you can't use a 9" filter with a long runner exhaust manifold and a monster V-Mount (Rotary Extreme)? ;)

Attachment 715865
Attachment 715866

looks awsome. would this be a better setup than a fmic? i have a fmic now and it works fine with my setup.

wow, how cool, nice mod.

too bad I can not compete with the RW FD or FC vmount price.

I still give props to RW for what you get for the price.

Cut the cost 600$ off and I'll buy a set from ya /\

LOL hahha, man my cost is already over 2k.

Besides, have you even seen my new kits in person to see what comes with it.

Well this thread belongs to the install of the rotary works FD vmount install.

I really should not be discussing my product in here.

If anyone else has questions just hit me up.

^From what I understand, the Rotary Extreme kit fits and installs w/o requiring any fabrication which can get expensive. I have seen the Rotary Extreme kits many times in person and they fit very well and perform well also. Plus they keep the A/C and power steering.

Thanks for your comments, I appriciate it.

RW's kit lets you keep ac and ps also, but like you said you have to put some work into it.

I like the RW FD vmount because for 900 bucks it can not be beat. I believe my I/C alone: core, piping, t-bolt clamps, silicone hoses and fabrication cost I pay for is like 900...lol

Thanks again for the install instructions on the RW vmount.

This kit is a deal!

indeed, I'm planning on getting a kit my self :)

Any more pictures/updates? Would like to see how you mounted the condensor

i cant wait to get mine..... i want to go vmount ssssssssssoooooooooo bad

kit looks really good for the money....

They are reasonably priced because in the long run they figure that selling more kits at a lower profit will be advantageous. If I bought a V Mount i'd definately go with Rotary Works. Im sure we will be seeing alot more Rotary Works V Mount setups.

Bummer, with kits this cheap looks like having a v-mount won't make my car all that unique anymore :(.

Rotary Works customer service leaves much to be desired, they provide poor instructions for multiple products, and outright lie on their website (and admit on the phone they know it is wrong) about fitment of at least one product. Do a search. I wouldn't give them any business.

I'll be the first to admit that many people pay a premium to have a "brand name" such as Greddy or Knightsports or FEED. Some of these products I can see paying for. Others...such as some radiator or intercooler products, not so much. Do you really think RW is making those IC's in house?

My experience is that they have good intentions but like many mechanics and business owners of their sort the business practices are poor...or they'd have better customer support, documentation for their products, and truth in advertising.

Based on this, I highly doubt they have some grand long-term business plan/vision of selling 1000 inexpensive v-mount kits at a lower profit because it is "advantageous".

My opinion is they are using cheap products imported from China and then spend a couple hours modifying as needed for their kits. Cost effective? Yep. Effective overall? I'd guess yes. A good price? Yes. A company I'd support again after my first purchase? No way.

Understandable and you've made some valid points but according to your signature you are running a XS Power SMIC. Do you not consider that a cheap product imported from China? Because I do.

Direct quote from my post. Re-read it. I've got no problem with Chinese Parts.

Another quote from my post. Once again, do you see my say anything negative about Chinese parts?

If you carefully re-read what I wrote all that I mentioned was in my opinion their kits are inexpensive due to the use of Chinese parts...not some great business vision. Like many people on the forum, I feel many generic parts work as well as the "brand" parts.

So...what was your point again? =)

So, any updates?

I didn't notice it being answered in the thread and a few people had asked, so I emailed RW to see if they included radiator hoses with their kit. They DO NOT include radiator hoses with the v-mount kit, only intercooler pipe/couplers.

I was half considering this as an option if I can't get the pinhole leak (which I just found :() in my KS v-mount fixed, but not if it's an incomplete kit that requires additional fabrication to finish off. I am very surprised they wouldn't get some hoses made up for this kit, the ones on my KS kit aren't terribly complicated but would be frustrating trying to source if you're not buying in bulk.

So -1 in my opinion for this kit.

^^Moving from Knightsports to this kit probably isn't the direction you want to go. Just sayin ;)

I have this kit installed. With AC. But it wasnt easy. Lots of modification. Ill post pics soon

Obviously :lol:. But my Knight Sports radiator has a leak in it and if I can't get it fixed I'm not sure I would be able to find another KS radiator to replace it with, at least for a reasonable price. Racing season is rapidly approaching and I'm swamped with classes, so an easy solution (like buying a cheap kit) would have been nice, but not from the sounds of it with this RW kit being a PITA to install and not even 100% complete.

post some pics keister!!!...i been wanting to get their radiator but didn't know how hard it would be to install with the a/c on

For the price of the kit I'm sure you can have a radiator fabbed up just like the knight sports one. That would be an easier route to go then having to kind of "down grade" from the KS kit.

I know I could, I actually priced all of that out before I got my used KS kit. The problem is time, I have events coming up in a matter of weeks which doesn't leave much time for a fabricator to get something put together. Also I would likely have to make new brackets (at least uppers) for it, which isn't really difficult but it is more time and effort spent doing something else when I could just be bolting it in and bleeding the cooling system.

I'm not going to argue that it would be a "down grade" of sorts, but realistically what would I be sacrificing? the core looks to be at least the same size if not a little bigger, if it doesn't leak I really don't see where I would be behind the curve in the least, especially for a temporary solution. On top of getting an extra IC (that does appear to be larger than my KS) to play around with in the future and some other stuff to toss in the parts bin for a rainy day. But this was all assuming I can't fix my current KS radiator and that the RW kit was a bolt on which would be quicker to deal with than something custom. Between having to "massage" the RW kit into place and then source/route my own water hoses, it's just not worth the trouble.

For the record I would much rather retain my KS kit, it's worked great (even with a pinhole leak all last season apparently haha) and I have no real desire to replace it.

Soon! It's at a friend's shop right now. Should have pictures tomorrow for you. fyi, AC was the hardest part, but I'll make sure I have detailed pics of the hardlines and brackets.

I'm glad that the RotaryWorks FD vmount requires less fitment than their FC vmount.

However, from reading the posts through this thread, brackets still require modifying and re-drilling holes (it's like they never test fitted any of their products!), and they include random hardware. There is also a lack of ductwork (or gap between radiator and intercooler). :(

I bought the FC vmount kit and it was awful (thread). :icon_tdow My end result was nice, however, it cost a lot of money to fix and fill in the gaps. RotaryWorks is horrible to get ahold of. They do not respond to emails, and give you the run about on the phone, bouncing you between people and different numbers, only to talk to someone who barely speaks english.

Just adding my opinion about the company. I spent about 2100$ with them and am very upset. :madfawk:

I would check into Rotary Exteme and his FD vmount kit. While his parts are more expensive than others, I know he is a stickler about making everything fit perfect. :icon_tup: I am 100% satisfied with his hood struts for the FC I bought from him. It's the only thing so far that I bought for my FC and didn't have a single issue.

Here's some pictures of how I have it all mounted. As well as a small review of problems/issues/ things you need to know for this kit.

Kinda dark out when I took the pic's so if needed I can take more tomorrow.

1. On the back of the rad, the stock fans did not lign up at all. Fan shroud had to
be coerced to even go in the tabs at the bottom. Also only two of the holes ligned
up at the top bolt mounts. the 3rd isn't even remotely in the right spot.

2. I have the touring model with only the driver side oil cooler, the return line for the
rad pointed straight down into the hardlines for the oil cooler with about 1mm to
spare. It had to be removed and a 90* elbow welded in. Odd that this wasn't
considered as the other side of the rad already had a 90* elbow for the inlet.

Also, AC does hold charge. Even with the "snakey" look of the hard lines.

Had to find a rubber rad hose for the inlet. Return has a 4'' section of alu in
between two rubber couplers. No rad hoses provided.

On the plus side..my car runs cold. 85-93*C W, 22-28*C Air

Nice...doesn't look too hard to fit on with the a/c. Gonna order mine during the summer when it gets hotter:nod:

you got your top RAD brackets on wrong....that's why you got that big gap in there, between RAD and IC...

switch the holes around .... the longer arm on the bracket is the one that connects to RAD

Full time work + full time school + new home life leaves little time for car. After a 3 month hiatus I made it back down to work on my car. Reading through the experiences of others, I test fit the electric fans to the radiator to see if they fit.

Yeah, it doesn't fit at all. The mounts need to be cut off, and rewelded at least half an inch up the radiator. The bottom mounts aren't any better. The water neck interferes with the fan itself meaning that A LOT of modification will be required to make it fit.

If I were you, I would not buy this kit. Frankly, I'm tempted to sell it now and look for other options. More than likely I will just make it work, but it's taken a lot of effort thus far, and I haven't even looked into getting the AC condenser mounted. It looks good in the box, all shiny and gigantic, but nothing in the "kit" seems well thought out. Little to no care was taken in it's assembly/manufacturing; holes don't line up, aren't drilled in straight lines so mounts are crooked, etc.

In the words of the infamous Rick James, I wish I had four hands so I could give it more than two thumbs down.

I ended up sending my KS radiator out to have a shop replicate it, a local radiator shop had a guy they use for custom builds so $400 after both shops made their money I had a replacement. The fabricator claims it will cool 20% more efficiently than the original KS but we will see about that. The fan mounting bungs/tabs weren't lined up properly on mine either, not nearly as bad as yours Ehron, but bad enough I had to hack up the fan shroud a little bit. I think he took the measurements for the outside bungs/mounts from the edge of the radiator instead of measuring between the bungs themselves.


I may be able to snag some more radiators for cheaper than that too, thinking about having him make me another one with properly spaced mounting points and I'm sure he'd give me a discount for multiple orders.

LOL. Oh have I got a GREAT addition to THIS story....

Got the bracket kit... NOTHING of theirs fits right. Gilmer-Drive pulleys need modification, as well!

The V-mount kist pissed me off so Io bad I sent a SCATHING 3-page email.... To which they replied...!

Nothing.

Fuck-o. Bupkiss. Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

They DID, however, go so far as deleting my account, so I can't log-i, to their site, for ANY reason (just to hit their 'Installation Instructions section, so that I could add it to my fodder-collection, against them).

Whatta buncha chodes.

Will post a link to the Email that I sent to them - both here and in the 'complaints' section.


>>>> Here's the link to the directory, with 3 different formats, of the email. <<<<


The audio recording will also be posted, when I can get the time to set it up and allocate an hour-or-so, to crawling up their asses, like a proctologist.

Did you get the gilmer drive for the 13brew? They don't work since our waterpump spins the opposite way.