Horizontal oil cooler mounting

**TurboRA28** · 03-11-2005, 02:48 PM

Hello, I'm trying to find a suitable way to mount my RX7 oil cooler(bloody huge) in the RA28.

I'm thinking it may need to be mounted horizontal, with the fins pointing down towards the ground.

Is enough air going to flow through it mounting it this way? Does much air come under the car and up into the engine bay? Or does it really need to be mounted in the air stream hitting the front of the car?

Thanks
Joel

**The Witzl** · 03-11-2005, 03:06 PM

maybe if you did something like that "vee" configuration some race cars and drifters do with intercoolers/radiators which forces the air through the fins..... she'll be ok.

Basically the fins do the cooling, thanks to air and thermal conductivity

**Hen** · 03-11-2005, 04:54 PM

I think mounting it in the airflow would be a much better option. Especially since as far as I know air flows into the engine bay through the grille and then exits out the bottom between the crossmember and firewall (though I am sure someone can confirm/deny this with one of those cool coloured pictures of air pressure throughout the engine bay)

However you may be able to mount it horizontally and put some sort of ducting to and from it to force air through.

Hen

**roadsailing** · 03-11-2005, 07:11 PM

i think your car is a prime candidate for jap oil cooler mounting

oil cooler in frotn of the grille, pipes hanging in the breeze.

is it really that tight for room? if you mount it flat, (or V) you would probably have to put drop vents in the bonnet, and i dont think that would look too cool. thought about using an oil cooler that is mounted inside the radiator? might be a good idea, dont know too much about them myself.

**TurboRA28** · 04-11-2005, 10:03 AM

Haha yeah last night I was tempted to do the jap spec mounting method!

Ahh the RX7 cooler is just a really large cooler. But I really am keen to use it for a few reasons, it cost me next to nothing being the biggest one.. Also it has a thermostat built in so saves me another $100 or so there for a remote thermostat.

The problem is, basically intercooler touches the grill, so no room in front of that.

There is some room between intercooler and radiator, but the oil cooler is quite long and would require some relieving of the radiator support panel.

I guess it could go behind the radiator, but then it'd just be getting hot air blown all over it.

Not into cutting stuff up and mounting it in the V fashion.

I'll try and squash it between IC and radiator.. Or sell it and buy a smaller one and remote thermostat.

Cheers
Joel

**Joshstix** · 04-11-2005, 11:34 AM

What about mounting it below the radiator with a small amount of the cooler below the front panel line? This will catch a fair amount of fresh air.

**BigWorm** · 04-11-2005, 11:47 AM

If you can mount it flat somewhere just make sure you can also fit just a simple sheet alloy scoop directly to the oil cooler, either on the top or the bottom, so at least some air is forced through it. You could get away with only an inch or so opening on the scoop, as long as it goes the entire length of the cooler, but obviously a few more inches would be better.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

ed · 04-11-2005, 02:04 PM

did exactly what youre asking about, facing downwards twards the road surface. as long as there is a high -> low pressure differential, air will flow and it will do its job... and typically under the car is low pressure...

...it doesnt need to be in the middle of 'air flow'

**stark** · 07-11-2005, 09:13 PM

Hey Joel

Those RX7 oil coolers actually are not that good at cooling the oil yes they are very big and can be picked up for a song but they have really coarse large fins which do not disperce the heat anywhere near as tightly as the more modern ones. I learnt the hard way when I had an rxy cooler on a little 1.8 litre turbo motor and it provided nowhere near the cooling properties of the $180 super ebay special. You can pick up one of the nerwer ones as cheap as chips off ebay they are all manufactured in china now.

**TheStitt** · 08-11-2005, 10:07 AM

What would be the problem of having it under the car with a thremo fan strapped to it blowing air thru???

**TurboRA28** · 08-11-2005, 10:14 AM

Thanks for all the info and suggestions..

I managed to squeeze it in between the intercooler and radiator. I had to move the intercooler forward a bit.

Bit concerning the comments about the rx7 coolers not being up to scratch. As really wanted to run this mainly due to the internal thermostat it has.. Might as well run it I suppose and get a oil temp guage to see how the temps are.

Having a 6ltr sump should also help the oil getting overally hot.

Here is a pic of it almost mounted.