JhnRX7's 2017 Season Track Tour: Rotary FD & MX-5 Powah'ed
 

Goal: Have the FD track worthy by the beginning of the 2011 season.

My FD had been sitting in a garage down in Florida for 5 years while I attended college in the Northeast. In those 5 years the car saw maybe 50 miles of driving at best. After graduation this past spring I immediately flew down to FL to pick up the car. She started right up and and made the 1200 mile trip to the Northeast without a problem (with the exception of Scrub hitting a bridge transition too fast and making titanium sparks).

After being reunited with my FD after 5 years I took the summer to enjoy the car, but now winter is approaching so it is time to start thinking about my build and getting the car ready for some track time come next spring.

First item on the agenda is to ditch the stock single oil cooler for some large dual oil coolers. Naturally I have settled on The SakeBomb Garage track kit, which includes two 25 row Setrab oil coolers. These large coolers will fit nicely with my Mazdaspeed GTC bumper and utilize the large openings well.

Old bent up stock single oil cooler… Which also happened to be leaking at the quick disconnects.

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The SBG kit comes with everything necessary for your install: fully assembled -10 lines (very happy about this after going through the hassle of assembling my own fuel lines), pre-bent brackets, spacers to adjust the cooler height as needed, and even a fitting wrench! Of course, Setrab coolers and a Mocal thermostat are also included :nod::icon_tup:

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Instillation was a breeze. I only had one small hiccup with the install that was due to other modifications on my car. The SBG kit is designed to work with factory radiator placement. Due to my intercooler setup I have my radiator mounted vertically as opposed to the slanted stock mount. By raising the radiator into the vertical position I have reduced the amount of space where the Mocal Thermostat mounts. With the supplied fittings the thermostat ends up hitting my radiator fans.

Mocal thermostat with supplied fittings (extends too far for my setup).

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The guys at SBG will work with you if you need a custom application. They supplied me with a different set of fittings to bolt into the front cover which pulls the thermostat closer to the motor and it gave me the clearance I needed.

New fittings that allowed enough clearance for my fans.

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The A/C and Power steering bracket needs to be removed in order to remove the factory oil cooler line, which bolts to the oil filter pedestal. I do not have A/C in my car anymore, so removing the power steering and that bracket was simple. For a stock car with A/C still installed this step will be a bit more time consuming.

Some instillation shots.

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I will get some shots of the coolers with the bumper installed in the next few days.

Unfortunately I installed the coolers right as the fall weather arrived. So it is difficult to determine exactly how they affect my temps. I have never had any issues with my water temps so I was not expecting any drastic changes. It may be due to the cool weather (low 70's F), but since I have installed these my car has been running very cool..... almost too cool. On the highway I see 81C even after multiple long boost runs. On the back roads I am seeing 83-84C and sitting in traffic I see max of 85C. These are all water temperatures, unfortunately I do not have an oil temperature gauge (and have no plans to add one). The real benefits will be seen on the track.

Now that my cooling system is in check I can focus on suspension :egrin:

very nice addition! Ducting would be very beneficial

Thats my next step :nod::icon_tup:

I will be ducting everything properly in the coming weeks and I will take pics of the process and post it up.

Currently I am running a Shine 3 piece undertray and I have a cooling plate on top which seals the radiator so no air can escape, but I need to do something about my intercooler.

The oil coolers sit right up against the bumper openings with only small gaps. Unfortunately even small gaps are enough to let air escape around the coolers. I am currently taking with SBG about upgrading to the 99 spec kit which positions the oil coolers farther back. That should give me enough room to add ducting between the bumper and the coolers and seal them up real well.

I will post pictures detailing this soon.

Bam!

Those oil coolers look so awesome.

sexy :nod:

Looks good!

Are those SSRs going to be your permanent wheels? I read some where you were just borrowing them.

Lookin good!

The last picture is my favorite because I can see a sliver of both my cym's sleeping in the background, haha

Now you just need to upgrade those things above the coolers. We should just offer something called the "SBG Front End Upgrade Package" LOL . Anyway, it looks great!! Cant wait to see the fitment with the GTC back on! -Heath

PS Love the color!! Nice choice!

How do you like that Shine undertray? For the money, it seems like a no brainer, especially considering the condition of most trays I see and the price for one new.

-M

The setup looks fantastic.

Thanks for pointing out the clearance problem between the stock fans and the therostat. I'll probably run into that problem as well once I get my kit.

Ducting is always an issue. Gotta get that sorted out if you want max air flow.

Can't wait to get this kit ordered!! :)

looking good! i still need to get a set also. :D

I love the undertray. With my intercooler/radiator setup combined with having the aftermarket front end I could no longer use the stock undertray (and ran without one for years :icon_tdow).

The 3 piece undertray is intended to be used with a '99 front end, so there is no guarantee that it will fit up perfectly with aftermarket front bumpers. I got lucky, my Mazdaspeed bumper has about a 5-6" extension under the bumper so the undertray was able to reach that with no problems. I have seen other bumpers (Burnout) that dont have such a large extension/lip under the bumper and the undertray did not quite reach. An adaptor had to be made to connect the front of the undertray to the bottom of the bumper.

The undertray by itself will not seal up to the radiator. If using it, you will still have large openings between the undertray and the frame rails, as well as a small gap between the bottom of the radiator and the undertray. The gap under the radiator is simply fixed with some large foam and double sided tape. However you will need to fab up some panels to seal up the gaps at the frame rails.

I currently have mine setup this way because it was a simple quick way to seal up the radiator, however I plan creating radiator ducting that does not incorporate the undertray soon.

Here are some pics of my cooling plate setup:

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Thats correct, the wheels belong to Scrub... there are on extended loan :blush:

There is a set of Wedssports that I will be picking up soon :egrin:

MOAR pics!

Overall front shot showing oil coolers and intercooler setup. You can see my temporary radiator ducting on either side of the intercooler which seals off the gaps between the undertray and frame rails. On the passenger side I added a small duct for my filters.

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I believe this FMIC will work great for track use (once properly ducted). The intercooler is a Spearco core with custom end tanks welded on. It sits far enough back and is short enough that it does not block all the air going to the radiator.

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SBG provided me with some larger spacers which allowed me to lower the oil coolers about an inch lower than the normal setup. I could have kept the original spacers and left the gap under the cooler to be used for some brake ducts, but I opted for additional oil cooler coverage. I may reconsider when I upgrade my brakes. There is still a small 1/2" gap at the bottom of the cooler. I added some large foam strip which seals this section off nicely.

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From above the gap grows to maybe 2". This could be ducted as is, however even the large openings of the Mazdaspeed bumper is not enough for these coolers. I would estimate about 20% of the surface area is blocked. By pulling the cooler back a few inches I would be able to add ducting which would take advantage of the entire cooler.

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Looks great man! :D Too bad the wheels weren't yours...I was about to say nice wheels, they look familiar. ;)

Although at a quick glance those appear to be in better shape than mine. :(

Agreed. I have grown quite fond of them and dont want to give them back :lol:

Here is an exterior shot (before the oil cooler install)... Scrubs wheels really are in great shape :icon_tup:

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They really do look fantastic on your car man. :icon_tup: Had I had the pleasure of buying these wheels brand new, mine would be immaculate as well. ;) Previously I had a set of SSR GT-1 integrals that were flawless (purchased new), but they were only 7.5” wide, so they didn’t make for good RX-7 rims. :( And being that SSR GT-3’s are extremely difficult to find in the right offset and bolt pattern, finding them used for an RX-7 is difficult enough, and finding them new is pretty much out of the question. Mine had a little curb rash that I fixed when I got them, but they still have some minor scraps on the spokes. :wallbash:

Beautiful A.S.I. engineered intercooler piping ;)

Wow! Really clean car & good mods.

POW POW!!! Looking good man, keep it up.

-Austin

:lol::lol::lol: its pretty ghetto... the welds are cracking and the sharp bends cant be good for flow haha

Replacement intercooler piping is on my "to do" list. :)

want pics of the wedsports on! were they ordered yet?

HAHA! The good ole da..What am I sayning?? The bad ole days!!

loving it man. nice car...