RotorMotorDriver

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, Steves great .

No no Carl, the STOCK line is leaking. Maybe I shouldve been more clear. I dont know why. It never leaked from there before. It always just leaked from the water/oil cooler because of bad O rings. Today its just started bleeding from the front cover fitting for no reason. Like I said, I can save her with the new parts, I just cant work on it here, and the only place I really can work on it is about an hour away and I cant drive that far with her bleeding like this .

~T.J.

PS - I either deleted your PM without reading it, I never got it, or I just forgot about it cause I dont remember what it would have been about?? Can you send it again?

RotorMotorDriver

iTrader: (1)

So, does anyone have any tips to help me limp my car anywhere to work on it?

~T.J.

Rx7carl

Yea I know what you were saying.

ACKKKKKKKK.....You gotta get that fitting off!!!. Maybe teflon tape the threads and see if it holds.

Rx7carl

Ok, dont delete this one!!!!!!!!!! I PM'd u again.

RotorMotorDriver

iTrader: (1)

God Im slow sometimes...Why did I think of that?

~T.J.

Rotary13B1

iTrader: (8)

so.... did u teflon it TJ????

RotorMotorDriver

iTrader: (1)

No. I realized that I would have to drain (whats left of) the oil before I can even take that fitting out. So I didnt even try it tonight. I might try it later, but I dont know. I may have a solution later though.

~T.J.

djmickyg

the joys and problems of doing it all urself in the name of learning..

have you sorted out the oil leak?
does that oil line on the front have a copper crush washer?? i cant remeber now.

RotorMotorDriver

iTrader: (1)

Yeah it does, no I havent done anything. Gonna mess with it in the morning.

~T.J.

(the)mouse

You don't have to drain the oil to work on the lines. The lines will drain some as well as the cooler but it won't draw from the pan. There will be a copper or aluminum washer under the fitting, you should be able to just snug up the fitting or line, whichever is leaking, unless the line is cracked. I'm assuming you're still using the hard line with the water/oil cooler...

RotorMotorDriver

iTrader: (1)

Thats what Im afraid of.
Yup. Thats what Im getting rid of .

~T.J.

RotorMotorDriver

iTrader: (1)

Ok guys. A little bitty update for you all. My hard oil line was SHOT. It has a crack about an inch long going down the length of it. It was sad .

So, my step dad relented, and I got to work on my car. I swapped all the parts out, and have a "working" air/oil cooler. Im just kinda worried because when I first started the car, I didnt have a line tight all the way, and I lost a bunch of oil, and may have roached a seal or two . I also have an odd vibration sound coming from the oil cooler thats just pissing me off. Like its resonating with the engine RPMs. I have foam in there and everything . Also, my oil PSI is a lot lower than it used to be. At an idle, I used to have roughly 35 PSI. Now I have maybe 30 PSI. At a highway cruise in 5th, I used to have 65-70 PSI. Now Im barely making it to 60 PSI. Also, before, if I revved the car over about 4K RPMs, the oil PSI would rise with it. Now, it never goes over 60 PSI, no matter what . Im worried that something got screwed here when it ran without the oil ...Any ideas guys? I may have really messed up this time...

~T.J.

PS - Do your air/oil coolers get really hot too? Mines hotter to the touch than my damn radiator...Litterly. Is that normal? I can go around the block or something and feel it, and its a little cooler, but its still pretty damn warm. After it sits for a little while, it warms up again (obviously), but it gets pretty hot. Is that normal?

Rex4Life

TJ, Glad to hear things are starting to work out for you. Was hoping you would use the FC cooler but an FB will work.

Anyway, it sounds like your new air/oil cooler may just have lower pressure drop than your old system. That means you should be flowing more oil and just don't have as much backpressure to keep the oil PSI as high. Also I don't think the differences in pressure are that much to be worried about. What really would be good to know is the oil temp, but you probably don't know what it used to be. Try getting the oil temp and see if it is normal (~150F)--at least thats the setting for the thermostat. While sitting at idle, I would expect the temp to go up, maybe 180F. Anything over 200F I might be concerned and do some checking.

Oh, that ducting around the cooler would also help.

ps: hot=150F=can hold hand on it but uncomfortable, real hot = can't hold hand on it at all (unless your real tough)

Good Luck Fellow 7 Dude

Rex4Life

The 85 shop manual says 64-79 psi #3000 rpm so you are a little low.

setzep

I think you mean the opposite. With the new oil cooler he just installed he has more pressure drop. Remember the oil pressure sensor is after the oil cooler not before it.

I woulden't worry about the pressure drop, 30 @ idle and 60 while cruising isn't bad at all. I'm sure the pressure change is from the cooler swap not the oil squirting from the engine for that short time.

Rx7carl

30-60psi sounds ok. I think you need some shrouding from the cooler to the rad to make sure the fan pulls air thru the cooler. Air will want to take the path of least resistance, i.e. around the cooler, unless you shroud it so air has no choice but to go thru it. Just a rec piece of sheetmetal on top and bottom of the cooler and butted up to the rad.

Rx7carl

Calm down, I dont think you did any permanent damage. You didnt run it without op for any lenght of time right?

Rex4Life

You're right the sensor is after the oil cooler so he has higher pressure drop--my mistake--should of looked at the shop manual first.

RotorMotorDriver

iTrader: (1)

Ok, Im going to type out a little story now, just for you guys .

When I discovered the leak on my stock oil cooler line, I had also noticed that the fitting on the front cover was loose. Not knowing where it was actually leaking from, I thought I would try tightening that and see if that would help just to get the car to my Dads where I could work on it the best. Turns out, the fitting being loose had nothing to do with it. I later found out that it was a crack in the bottom of the line...

Well, my step Dad decided to be nice, and let me use his tools and work on my car here at my Moms house. He towed me into the back yard, and I went to work. The rain and cold made it really fun .

Basically I started by draining the "coolant" (actually mostly water), and started tearing into that water/oil cooler. I took the fitting off on the front cover, two nuts from under the cooler, one bolt from the top side, and two hoses and it came out. Then, I cleaned up some stuff (not much), and removed all the no longer necessary water lines. I cut the T off the hard line that runs up the passenger side of the car, and managed to find a piece of hose that I could use to make the bend to the outlet of the heater core. On my block, someone had already convienantly left just a stub for me to attach a hose to, so I hooked up the inlet of the heater core with the existing hose because it was long enough.

After that was done, I didnt put the new block and filter neck on yet. I took out the plug on the rear plate and the adapter fitting on the front cover and installed the -10 adapters with new crush washers. I put some covers over them to protect them and keep them dry for now.

I cut the stainless steel lines, assembled them, and pressure checked them. All looked good so I put them on.

Then, I decided that since I wasnt going to be working on the fitting on the rear plate anymore, I could go ahead and put the oil block and filter neck on. That was pretty straight forward.

I backflushed the coolant system with Prestone Super Flush, and refilled with 50/50 antifreeze and distilled water.

I actually reused my oil filter and the oil that was in the pan until the next day when I knew I would change the oil.

Eveything looked ok until I lost all pressure later that night driving a friend home. I changed the oil the next day, and everything seemed to be fine. I had installed a mechanical oil pressure gauge on my block just to be sure my oil pressure was good, and while test driving and checking gauges against each other, I noticed my temp gauge climbing. I kinda freaked and shut her down. Ive never had my gauge go over half way (where it was), so I was a little worried. I pushed the car the block back home on the back roads when I realized that the horrible noise that I heard moments ago was my water pump siezing.

I got home and started taking it apart...again. I got the pump out and borrowed some money and a ride from my parents, and picked up a new pump. Brought it home, and I was installing it mad (not a good idea), and broke a bolt off in the block tightening it down. So, it all came apart again, and the bolt had to be removed. It took me a while to get the damn bolt out, but I finally did. I went down to the store and bought some replacement bolts, and came home to install it all again.

I put it all together with new gaskets and Hylomar. I refilled the coolant system with 50/50 antifreeze and distilled water (again), and basically everything seems to be ok now .

So there you have it. All this took place outside in the cold, and the rain. The oil chage and water pump part took 6 hours on Sat, and the oil cooler swap took about the same on Fri. It was a fun begining to my weekend. Anyway, without further adu (sp?), here are some pictures. Im not gonna label them cause Im lazy and theyre fairly self explainitory .

~T.J.

S2-13BT

Those SS lines look good. I'm installing a new aluminium oil cooler made by www.pwr.com.au soon, and plan on using SS lines. I'm glad to see it'll look sweet.

I hope I do as good a job as you have. Although with less headaches planned.

DriveFast7

iTrader: (1)

30-40psi at idle is what it should be. 71psi over 3k is what its supposed to be. running w/o oil would put LOTS of wear on the bearings and the e-shaft journals. Effectively increasing the clearance. Bigger gap between bearings and e-shaft would lower oil pressure. Your pressure is a hair low but you're still good.

As for oil cooler.....mmm..... my water temps are typically 20-30 degrees higher than oil temp.

-bp-

RotorMotorDriver

iTrader: (1)

Not really...Just the stock gague says I am . Technically, it never actually ran without oil, just ran with VERY little oil.

Idle:

3,000 RPMs:

DriveFast7

iTrader: (1)

The aftermarket gauge pressure looks right on.

-bp-

Directfreak

iTrader: (2)

Man, you aren't kidding either. That brand of gauge looks like a stock Mazda part or something.

Perfect for the 81-83's. or Series II and III's.

85RX7GS

iTrader: (1)

It does look stock on Series II, in fact, it looks great! Who makes that gauge and where did you get it?