1.8 Oil Cooler Delete
 

So I did a little bit of searching around and didn’t find a solution I loved, so I thought I would share mine:

Newly rebuilt 94 1.8, supermiata qmax reroute and deleted the front water neck, throttle body warmers, and also wanted to get rid of the 1.8 “oil cooler/warmer”

yep, I understand the benefits of it, but my car is a 2.5 season a year car that’s just a fun street car, so I wanted to delete it — and I know there are other people out there that want to do the same for their own reasons.

The presented solutions I could find were:
1. You’re wrong just run it, Mazda is smarter than you (point taken)
2. Unthread it and buy the 1.6 one (im cheap with things like this, and that threaded rod is realllllly in there)
3. Run two mishimoto/GlowShift/eBay sandwich plates (I don’t love the idea of the two pressure gaskets used to seal the plates, yes I know the Mazda oe plate is basically the same... but also when you put the sandwich plate close to the block, you can’t use the centering threaded adapter, more on that later)
4. Just run the OE one with the coolant lines capped (eh, see #3, plus it doesn’t look great, and who knows what the old engine put through it and with a fresh build I would rather omit)
5. Chop it short like Greg Peters did (ayeeeee Greg, your stuff has been helpful... I don’t want to risk ANY chance of shavings from me hacking it off getting into my engine; though in many respects this is the best solution because you can run the sandwich plate against the block and use the centering threaded adapter)

So here is what I found, let me know if anyone sees any glaring faults (and proposed solutions)

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...54214dba2.jpeg
^ 94 bare oil filter threaded rod


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7b6dceca1.jpeg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...983f3b55c.jpeg
^ sandwich plate spaces it to JUST about the end of the filter threads, with the filter sealing lip being a few mm beyond that meaning the filter will bottom on the sealing surface and not bottom on the end of the threads


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...07b3198ba.jpeg
^ rough caliper measurement puts the threaded length at ~40mm


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...55f819a0f.jpeg
^ standard size oil filter for a 94 1.8 puts the internal length for the rod at ~41, which is too close for comfort considering my wide margin for operator stupidity I try to factor in so...


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...245f79a35.jpeg
^ I figured I would get one of the “extra capacity”filters you can google or search on these very forums (this one is a Purolator PL14610 but there are others, this was cheap for this experiment) and this one has the internal wall at a whopping 72mm, which would provide plenty of headroom


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7a2960c3c.jpeg
^ all snugged up, seems to fit well - the only issue I need to solve is finding a metal bushing that can be used to space the inside of the sandwich plate since this solution does not allow for their threaded piece to be used. I will measure the threaded piece tomorrow and see if I can find an appropriate bushing — if I do, I will update the thread with that part number. Otherwise you just have to use your hand to keep both centered as you tighten the filter (easy when on an engine stand, probably not as easy under the car)


TL/DR: long rod good, 1 sandwich plate and extra capacity filter, maybe can find adapter

The threaded rod comes out very easily with the double nut method. I just bought a 1.6 rod and a second nut for like $10 from Mazda.

I thought very hard about doing what you did before getting the shorter threaded rod, but holding the sandwich plate in place on the stand was annoying enough. I wasn't going to chance getting it wrong in the car where space is very tight in that area.

Yeahhhhhhh, after thinking about this more, I ordered the 1.6 "joint" as mazda calls it, part B630-10-319 and was $9 plus tax from local dealer, so I will give it a shot. At least there is some info out there for another option if someone wanted to do it fast and cheap

If you're not worried about fugging the threads and the whole piece is coming out, I'd personally grab a pipe wrench

I think you'll find it to be much easier. Using the centering threaded spacer for the sandwich plate just makes everything go together so much nicer. I will also allow you to retain the intake manifold brace, which I personally believe is worth keeping on any car that sees any track duty/high revving street fun.

I have the skunk2 intake so I’m not sure I can run the intake support — getting the engine back in the car on Saturday hopefully, I will reassess the bracket then 🤷🏽‍♂️

Ah, yes, that certainly changes things haha.

I mean.... You can't really see under the intake that well for it to really matter... But nifty!
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Any updates? I'm looking to do this same setup. Thanks!

For what, the oil cooler or the support? I ended up just buying the 1.6 oil stud and using that. Works great, I did not use the support for the intake though — and that has been fine too!

Hah sorry, the oil cooler setup. Got any pics of your external setup. What all did you buy?

So just to clarify, you just ran the short rod and the big filter right?