As I'm currently planning and buying for the next version of my car, I've come to the conclusion that I will need an oil cooler for track duty.

The specs of the car will be:
Intercooled turbo system on stock internals, S4 mani with inconel studs.
This will mostly see track in scandinavia, with the odd nordschleife excursion.

I'm leaning towards a mocal 16-row oil cooler with a thermostat block, since the car sees street/auto-x/track and I don't really want it running to cold.

So what do you guys think of my choice? What do you use for oil cooling?

Please chime in, especially you guys from tx / cal, as you see high ambient temps.

cheers.

 

Anyone from Tex/cal will say to run a rx-7 oil cooler in place of the front bumper support and forget about it. Big enough that you don't need airflow, and has a built in thermostat (I think).

 

Would that be FC or FD?
Seems like a 10-row piece (FD), and probably with lower efficiency than a mocal.
Maybe 16-row is a little over the top then.

 

FC. It doesn't look like any other oil cooler. Roughly 6x6" and about 2 feet long.

 

FC cooler does have a thermostat built in, but I don't know the temp it opens at. It is big, and very effective. Would not be the lightest choice if thats a concern though.

 

Can anyone post pics of their rx7 oil cooler setup

 

thesnowboarder's setup:

 

That is actually pretty cool, but without ventilation? I dont want to cut holes in the bumper, and no airflow seems... well, inefficient.
What about the flyin miata-kind of setup?

 

No airflow needed, it's big.

Thesnowboarder, Savington, and a number of others (Hustler now?) don't have ANY airflow beyond the little that goes under it, and have ZERO issues. One of the reasons it's so nice. It's hard enough sealing a intercooler and radiator, no need to complicate your heat exchangers with another one to duct.

 

This is exactly what I was assuming, but it seems that Hustler is running some other oil cooler and he said ducting was required (I think).

I don't believe many people duct the FC oil cooler.

 

I have a smaller 8x13" Earl's cooler mounted to the steering rack. It gets the job done but needed a duct/rock scooper. I'm going to move it to a bumper duct eventually.

 

does the RX7 one come with the AN fittings?

 

Nope. Thread is m18x1.5. Need crush washers as well.

 

i just ran my car at the track this past weekend in the nice blazing AZ heat and my oil temps only got up to 200* (oil temp sensor is installed onto the oil drain fitting). Do oil temps really rise that much more running moderate boost.

Also where exactly is the thermostat located on the RX7 cooler and what year RX7?

 

Think about the fact that you would be running oil through a super hot turbo. Yes it changes oil temps that much.

 

Need to fit something like this in mine for the track...

 

RavynX,
You'll want something to keep rocks out of there and other debris. I would not mount one there, naked.

 

Are you referring to not having the wheel-well liner in there? I definitely would not leave it naked like that. They probably did that just for the photo's sake.

 

You'd be surprised... I've seen many installations such as this that never get any sort of protection.

 

Seriously? Wow. Common sense isn't so common I suppose.