how about grabing a radiator for an automatic 7 and running the oil thru the trans cooler lines?

 

If you really want to cool your oil, run 2 stock oil coolers in series. I've used a RX-4 and a GSL-SE (with t-stat removed and modified) in series. It ran cool except I took it off as I sold the SE oil cooler. I didnt feel its worth it for a street driven car.

Next time, when I complete my blow-thru turbo in the FB, I will do it again but with an RX-2 oil cooler. The RX-2 oil coolers were equipped with external oil-t-stat.

 

Again there are lots of way to do this, better ones too, but this is basically just an idea I hatched up and thought it would be an inexpensive way to cool the oil...

 

There are plenty of FC oil coolers in LA if you need some.

 

Ok what about the fittings? Can we use fairly standard fittings or are we going to have to call OddWidgetsRUs and pay more for fasteners than we'd pay for a regular oil cooler??

Are we thinking of running this inline or instead of the beehive?

As for crud in it, it couldn't be that bad. For one there wont be much in there and if there is its unlikely to be something dangerous to the engine. If it were a corrosive substance, it would probably eat the lines and bits in the A/C system.

When I first read this I thought RRTEC might have been thinking about mounting the coldside of the A/C system to the beehive. I'm glad I didn't have to teach him the laws of thermodynamics with a brick.

 

You hit the nail on the head. The pressure drop will be too much and oil starvation will kill it. Not a moron though, its good to be thinking like that. Shows your paying attention.

 

There was a discussion on that a while back. I believe the general consensus was that internal engine oil pressure can spike much greater than tranny fluid pressure, you'd just end up warming the engine oil, and it's just as good as the bee hive.

 

so hey is this a good idea for an auto tranny?? it seems like a nice big cooler and it will save me $$$$ my rx isnt an auto right now it will be...( i dont really wanna say why until i go find my fire suit but any opinions on the topic at hand would be helpful)

 

wonder if you can use the A/C system to cool an Intercooler

 

The engine oil coolers on a rotary are full flow, meaning that ALL the engine's oil runs through the cooler before reaching the engine.Its a lot of volume,pressure and heat.The AC condensor would be too restrictive,not to mention not having a thermostat to regulate temp and it probably lacks internal turbulators to break up the boundry layer which really helps with the heat tranfer.
Tranny coolers only have to pass bypassed fluid from the pump.Its a relatively small,low pressure amount compared to how much the tranny pump is moving.Ever noticed how flimsy and light AT cooler hoses and clamps are on some cars?

 

i think something like that maybe possible and before someone says that you can flow enough air thru the ac evaporator ford uses an intercooler on the supercharged svt cars stuffed between the supercharger and manifold that looks just like a heater core(just about the same size and same spaces between the fins)

it sounds like bigb is about to commit the ultimate rx7 sin

 

bigb3433,

You've got a Torque Converter that needs to be cooled along with transmission fluid.

For about $60.00 you can get a Transmission Cooler that keeps your fluid cool and at optimum temp.

B&M Hi-Tek/SuperCoolers

 

my thinking is, the AC cools air right? so it sound cool and IC. i might "see what happens"

 

Post edited, pic works

 

well guys...its been done. dan atkins had this on his 88 repu (b series pickup with a supercharged 13b) pretty neat idea i thought. I thought that until he overheated going over every grade we came up to! Most of this had to do with the location of the condenser, right in front of the radiator, not enough cool air for the radiator. i got some cool pics of the overheating...i might post em later.

 

there ya go. I remember speaking with Dan about this problem during his drive at SS7. He was to stop by at my pad so I can install a FC OC. Glad he made him home.

 

NO NO NO. Low Impedance, I knows ya and I likes ya so I'll be nice. My physics is a bit rusty, those who are more scientifical please neaten up my work with the specifics of the laws of thermodynamics. It's also kinda late for me.

The short version is that we're dealing with a very lossy system. You will not get as much power out of cooling down the intercooler as it will take to run the A/C. Never ever. If you do, you're measuring it wrong or you've shattered several hundred years of science.

The longer less coherent explanation is that the a/c condensor takes a certain amount of power to work. Thus the a/c takes power from the engine to work. That power is not converted 100% to cooling power, you cannot get as much power out of something as you put into it. Theres drag from the bearings, you're turning a mechanical spin into a compressed gas, and so on.

Now the intercooler will not perfectly mate to the cold-side of the a/c system (the evaporator) so you have another imperfect exchange. It will never exchange at 100% efficiency.

You're trying to create perpetual motion, drawing power from a system to add more power to the system. You won't ever be able to put even the same amount of power back that you took out. You will always lose power when you change it or transfer it.

 

I brought this up a long long time ago and yes, the concensus was that the passages were too small.

 

lol, funny you should mention that that, cause he barely made it home, somebody hit him on the way back! Although the new oil cooler solved his problems...

But yeah he had a hell of a time getting over the grapevine or whatever they call it, he left like an hour before the rest of the pack when we stopped right before to eat, and we still passed him...

its a very creative idea, but it just doesn't work, and thats been proven to some extent, although i am curious to see how it would work if it were not blocking the radiator, because you have to keep in mind dans condenser was right in front of the radiator

 

dan atkins has a supercharged 13brew in his b2200 mazda truck and hes using the trucks stock ac condesonr or radiator whatever the hell its called, fo rhte oil cooler, he has had no problems with it.

:EDIT: i guess this was already posted, i reposted.. sorry

 

ur right. its called the "grapevine". last struggle to LA from central cali

 

The Ford Lighting uses a system like this or did once. It has and after type IC like the SVT Mustang but has the Refrigent from the AC run to the IC to help cool it. It is a one time type system. Meaning you hit the button when ready and cools the IC for a minuate or two. Said to be good for 5+ HP. Down side is it takes a while for the refrigent to get cold again. So you have to wait to use it again.

 

AHA! so it can work! what if you made a dedicated system using liquid nitrogen....sure it would be almost impossible to control and be unsafe or whatever, but your charge temp would be somehwere around -100 degrees...

 

Well, I can see using the A/C system for a hot weather car, especially someplace like in Sacramento where we can get some gnarly hot air coming off the pavement, or for racing applications. Yes, you lose a bit of power off of your engine, but you can do some additional cooling beyong an intercooler that might help... or you could run an evaporator / IC setup (somehow... fabricate? People are gonna kill me for this! :P) that would allow you to cycle refridgerant in it for the same charge idea... or how about running cold air from the cabin A/C system into the intercooler?

If things get too hot, you have fuel issues, although I'm pretty sure the Rotary doesn't care about it, being such a fun system. When you get too cold, especially with a carbuerator, Bad Things happen. Mostly with fuel fallout. Admittedly, you might be able to use the Turbo to have fast enough airflow so that your fuel falls out into your engine, buuut...

I need to toss my beehive. Its leaking again! Time to head to head towards the junk yards again... grumble.

 

Oh well It was worth a shot.. I may still try it one day on an old raggedy 12A.......