Use something like this?
http://www.cbperformance.com/catalog.asp?ProductID=837

 

It is a dual use car. It's primary for track days, but does get driven a good amount on the street when I feel like it. The RX-7 oil cooler I have has a built in thermostat, hence why I went with the glowshift adapter plate instead of the mocal one. I honestly just got the car running with the oil cooler installed. While idling and driving around my neighborhood temps did get up to about 190 degrees. I have no clue what temps would be like during the colder months. I live in SC and was driving my car around with the top down in January and February, so cold is not something I am overly worried about.

 

RX7 cooler is good flow, good quality, and is a win. With the other ones and a non-thermostatic sandwich plate you could use a Michigan thermostat when you weren't on the track. Down here they call a Michigan thermostat a piece of cardboard over the opening of a heat exchanger. You could uncover the cooler for track days only. You don't really need it other times.

 

Nice! I was unaware that the RX7 oil coolers were thermostatically controlled. That sounds like the ideal part to use. What year donors should I be looking for?

 

2nd gen rx7 86-91 as far as I know. 3rd gen was different. Don't think first gen had anything but the water to oil cooler under the oil filter like the Miata has.

 

Putting a used oil cooler on my motor scares the $@#% out of me... what are guys doing to make sure they are clean? There's a reason the RX-7 it came off of doesn't need it anymore... likely because it had motor problems.

 

Yeah, there's a greater chance the rotary engine created the problems rather than the oil cooler.

I'll give you a for instance: If we put a miata engine in a F1 car (assuming it was possible), it would be much slower. Would you blame the brakes? Would you blame the suspension? No, it's the motor's fault, not the oil coolers.

Make sure there aren't any leaks, make sure the built in thermostat is opening, and run it. A good dozen members of mt.net are, and NONE have reported oil cooler caused engine failures.

 

I'm not concerned the oil cooler had a problem, I'm concerned that junk from the failing engine is still in the oil cooler.

 

run mineral spirits through it.

 

Is the factory oil/water cooler worth keeping?

I plan to install a mocal plate, -10, and 7x11 this summer. One of my motors has the factory cooler and one doesnt. The one with is 97, 94 without.. I just dont know if it needs to be there or not.

 

Its' not trial and error, its perfection. Building something on the car will always be a better fit than trading oral services for hydraulic hoses.

I'd run an accusump if I had aero. I'm all a scared woman.

 

You sound like a huge -----. Clean it out with a water hose, then use it. I did not like the RX7 cooler because its too big and I can't tuck it anywhere. The ability to tuck is very important to me.

 

I'm not sure if it's worth keeping, I don't use it on my car and my temps are pretty bauce in the 103*f Texas heat.

Have you seen my oil cooler set-up? Why are you not complimenting me by duplicating it? There are two reasons I put everything on the interweb. One is to let everyone know that I and my car are better than anything they will ever know, the other is to help people out on things I've done before them.

 

Had I not gotten my RX-7 oil cooler for free, I would have copied your oil cooler setup.

 

I run a mocal fluid transfer pump from the sump through the cooler and back to the sump. Being switched, I can manually flip it on when it's time to race, rather than depend on a tstat. I save the mocal sandwhich plate for accusump to pressurize. I think accusump is worth it just for pre-oiling ability, definitely a worthy investment on a built motor.

 

Thread jack: Which port on the RX7 oil cooler is inlet? Anyone got a good way of testing the thermostat inside the oil cooler (short of sticking into a pot of water)?

 

Does your hose spit out boiling water? If not you aren't cleaning anything but the bypass.

My initial impression of this forum was that most of the people here knew what they where doing... you are quickly changing my mind.

 

----! He's on to us guys!

I think they are yanking you ding-dong... a good solid soak with mineral spirits will flush everything out of the core and show leaks pretty quickly.

I have a used Setrab cooler from one of the Realtime Integras that used to run Speedvision World Challenge back in the 90's. Its still in my garage somewhere with a broken mount from a front end bump. I wonder if its still good...

 

Slightly off-topic

What is the general consensus on engine coolant oil "coolers" like you see on a lot of OEM cars?
I know it cant be anything compared to an air heat exchanger, but do they do anything at all really? I have a suspicion that theyre more for warming up the oil than cooling it...

 

They are called oil coolers, but they're really more for improving oil warmup time than anything else. There's not enough coolant flow through them to offer any significant cooling benefits (IMO). What heat they take out of the oil goes into the coolant in the mixing manifold anyway, back into the engine, so there's no net heat loss from the engine.

My oil temp sender is on a sandwich plate on top of the OEM heat exchanger. While the engine is warming up oil temp lags coolant temp by about 55*F.

I'm thinking now I'd rather have my sender in the sump, since the temps I see now have always been affected by having passed through the heat exchanger immediately prior (so the temps I see will always closely track coolant temp).