Mr. Pockets

Hi,

I took the oil pan off the bad engine from the race car and found...quite a lot of metal debris in there. That make me worry that the oil coolers are packed full of metal bits, and that I'll never, ever get them totally clean.

What are my options for new coolers? Is anybody using the RX8Performance setup?

Thanks!

9krpmrx8

iTrader: (46)

Lot's of options but you can just get the stock coolers cleaned and refurbished. I have had a few oil cooler setups and if I had to do it all over again I would just have made lines for the stock coolers. When I had a large single Fluidyne unit, it was able to keep temps down at full tilt by quite a bit, but it had to go when I went turbo.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

You noobs never know how to search

I had my OE coolers serviced here and they did an excellent; looked good as new, they only charged me $105/each, might depend on the condition when received

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-racing-...6/#post4771920

Same thread covers the aftermarket kit you asked about too.

I personally avoid SS hoses though because they weigh a *lot* more than the OE or fiber braided hoses.



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Mr. Pockets

I like asking you for the personal touch instead of searching, Mark! :P

Actually, I did search. I just didn't find.

Thanks. I'll contact American Cooler.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

Well it’s true that the Search function here is all but useless any more ... but otherwise I was just a foolin’ wichya ..

NotAPreppie

You going to have them remove the thermostats and plug the bypass while they have them?

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

I did that on my own and posted up in the appropriate thread maybe two months ago.

Mr. Pockets

Any chance you'd mind sharing a link to that? I just tried to search for it... :P

Mr. Pockets

This sounds like something I can do on my own. But I will probably send them an extra or two, so I have at least one spare. A rock through an oil cooler could right now end my weekend on the spot.

NotAPreppie

No HomelessDespot screens?

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

You probably want to read through the whole thread ...


https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tec...8/#post4842475

Mr. Pockets

I did make some screens for the grey car. I used lath from...Menard's, not HD.

The lath was super light, and I spray painted it black. I made brackets out of aluminum angle and riveted those right to the fancy Mazdaspeed bumper cover.

It worked well and wadded up beautifully in my wreck.

I will say, if you're gonna make those, wear gloves throughout the entire process. Lath is super light and thin, but it's also like a whole sheet of razor wire. It'll very happily and readily cut the absolute **** out of your hands.

RX-Tuner

Sorry to hear of the debris in the system Mr. Pockets, hopefully you will find some of the internals reusable...

As for people running our upgraded oil cooler kits they really are being used in all types of applications. A significant amount go to road course cars either for track day use or customers competing in classes such as Scca-T4. We do however have customers that use them in Autocross, guys competing internationally in rally events and of course street cars. It's pretty typical in road racing applications to see oil temps drop 25-45f over the stock setup.

From a weight perspective the kit weight is actually very close to the OE cooler setup.

Is your current setup N/A or are you using F/I of some sort?

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

Well I'd be surprised because the OE kit is extremely lightweight overall. The OE metal lines and hoses look heavy until you take them off, and then it's kind of surprising to see they way almost nothing as compared to SS braided hoses. Same thing for the AC hoses, etc

I have no experience with your kit, but have installed the SS braided hoses from Racing Beat on on someone elses RX8 and was shocked at how heavy they were. Maybe you're using a lighter braid or something, which again I've never used or otherwise had my hands on your kit.

It be interesting to see you post the actual weight of your kit because I have the entire OE hoses and coolers off my car right now and can go weigh and then post a comparison weight of the OE system to prove your claim.

RX-Tuner

The shipping weight for my kit is ~21lbs Mark.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

OK SCOTT, let me see what I can determine later this evening and post that up. I need to run over to the shop for several other things then too.

Being laid up and not able to get down there much for the last 8 weeks dealing with this throat cancer deal has set me back on many things, completing my RX8 competition car especially. Only four more days to go this week and then it's recovery time to just wait & see. So almost home free.

The one thing I will provide feedback on is if you're going to offer parts and kits for racing components then it seems like you'd take the time to weigh and list that weight for your customers rather than give a shipping weight of it all boxed up. It doesn't seem that hard to do since I build & fabricate most of my own stuff and that's usually one of the first things I do for myself once completed. You always only seem to have the boxed up and ready to go weight which who knows how much weight that is in materials.


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RX-Tuner

Sorry to hear of the situation with your throat, I hope you have a positive outcome and a complete recovery Mark.

Mr. Pockets

I bought the car with a bad engine, because I had just replaced the engine in the car I destroyed. So the one I took out can just be a core for the next reman I buy. If I don't just put an LS in it.



25-45degF is a pretty huge difference. I just bought a couple of used coolers that are in better shape than the ones I have. If I find I need better cooling, than I'll head your way.

From a weight perspective the kit weight is actually very close to the OE cooler setup.

I don't hate myself enough to try to turbo the worst engine ever made.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

Ok, well my memory was not so good. I forgot that I bought a complete OE oil cooler hose and line set from another member, which made it easy because I have the two coolers in a box still from having them cleaned and refurbished, but I was shocked by how heavy the trash bag with all the oil cooler lines in it was when I picked it up. It’s still lighter but not by as much as I was expecting. I think a lot of the weight is from the all the metal OE connection joints with the spring clips that hold them together. There’s a whole bunch of those and they’re a bit bulky and all solid chunks of metal.


Both oil coolers - 7.5 lbs
All the flexible and metal lines 8.5 lbs
Guessing that all the banjo bolts and other misc hardware are about 1 lbs total


Approx. 17 lbs



Assuming 21 lbs or less is accurate for the RXP kit, then it’s not really that much to worry about for the extra security and cooling capacity that the kit seems to offer



Between both cars now I have a huge stack of parts etc in boxes building up in here. I need to get out here and get to work someday soon. I really only have the new oil cooler lines to install (which that OE weight kind of makes me happy because I’m confident what I build to replace all those is going to be much lighter, even though the current total weight is only 8.5 lbs, but I wasn’t expecting any savings so anything is a bonus. I only plan to have three hoses and no connectors in between the engine and coolers (2 hoses) and the cross-over from cooler to cooler (1 hose). Thats just more metal and another potential leak point. I’ll just have three super-light fiber-braided hoses with banjo bolts connection on each end, so 6 total of those metal banjo bolt end connections, and I might need one angled fitting on the banjo bolt attachment end where the one hose attaches to the oil filter pedestal. That’s about as simple as it gets. If I have to take off a hose then I’ll just pull the whole long thing out of there.). Then I also need to only finish the engine bay fuel line system with the addition of a filter and eflex sensor and the hoses to have the car in a running condition when engine oil, coolant, etc. is all filled and proper.

Still have some other things to do before getting it out for a test & tune session



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lOOkatme

I can make a kit for rx8's. I made a dual oil cooler kit for my rx7. I already swapped my reman rx8 engine back in with the stock oil lines but I can use my car to make a kit if people are interested.

The kit on my rx7 uses setrab 25 row coolers, improved racing thermostat and I made all the lines myself. No leaks. I also made my fuel system and oil drain line, etc on my rx7 for my EFR turbo.

I run the car in the summer, sometimes really hard in the mountains. it came with a single cooler and was overheating so I went to the dual oil cooler format and its been great ever since. I also went V-mount and fabbed it myself.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

There are multiple people/companies selling kits, not sure why you feel the need to offer one too

maybe offering something that nobody elses does yet will make more sense.

Mr. Pockets

In the end, I bought a much nicer set of used stock coolers. I had them cleaned out just in case. I'll probably block the bypass and remove the thermostats in each.

hufflepuff

Scott, one of the issues with the OEM coolers is that they overcool during street driving, often rather dramatically. i have made a couple of block-offs that insert into the oil cooler openings so that i can get around 200F during street driving and then take them out during competition. Do you know whether the RX8Performance kit bypass rate is such that it also overcools (below the T-stat setting of 180*) on the street?

RX-Tuner

Hi Matt,

I have not experienced nor heard from any customers any issue with over cooling with our kit. The kit allows the engine to get up to temp timely and then maintains temps pretty consistently.