Just finished with my oil cooler swap. I got the cooler from an '86 mounted in my '83 GSL now. I actually had it done about a month ago, but I used -6AN line instead of the -10AN on there now so I was fighting oil pressure problems for a while.

I made an air deflector to route more airflow up to the cooler since I had some trouble mounting it as low as I wanted.

I installed some AutoMeter oil and water temp gauges too. Enjoy!

 

Sorry, I don't know how to make the pictures come up on their own. Here's another view.

 

That installation looks pretty good. One thing that I noticed, however was that it appears that you've hard-mounted it to the radiator surround. The stock Mazda mounts were rubber filled, which allowed for some movement of the aluminum cooler on it's mounts - this was to reduce fatigue of the metal due to vibration.

Also, it looks like you've moved it up a bit, which I would think would take it OUT of the incoming airflow from the air inlet. Your directional vanes should be effective, however.

Did you get custom oil lines to fit that installation? My stock lines wouldn't allow mounting of the cooler that high, as it's designed to be mounted just behind and just below the cross-member brace and just above and behind the front stabilizer bar.

 

Here's a pic of the stainless steel braided lines I used... had to make them myself, of course, due to their unique length. These were the most expensive part of the whole project (about $180 for the lines and fittings/adaptors required).

 

Actually, you can't see them in the picture, but I was able to retain the rubber-filled mounts from the '86 donor car, so no vibration probems.

Here are my new gauges.

 

nice place for gauges on the S2/S3.

 

Nice work. I see you used the correct hose end fittings. It looks identical to my FC cooler in my racecar. I have no oil temp problems with it mounted there (and yes the car does have an oil temp gauge). Gotta love the 45* and 180* fittings.

 

Cool install. I can't tell but I assume that you have no A/C.



Will mounting a oil cooler in front of a A/C condensor provide too much heat for it?

How much of a problem willl there be by solid mounting the Cooler?

 

No, I no longer have A/C, removed all that stuff a while back.

The fittings I used were a 45* leaving the engine, 150* entering the cooler, 90* (barely fit!) leaving the cooler, and 90* returning to the engine.

(*=degree)

I don't think you'd run into any trouble putting the cooler in front of the condensor, but I've got no experience with doing that.

 

I still dont get this, I bought a FC cooler and it is the EXACT same size as my old FB cooler, the only difference seams to be where the fittings are, bigger fittings on the FC, and different mount.

The FB cooler looks like it will fit better (just because of the mounts and where the fittings are.

did I get a FC cooler??? it looks like the one shown on mazdatrix.

Im confused.