Water to Oil Cooler install

[cazman]

I think this has been mentioned here before, but I thought I would post my install and challenges. Thanks to Paul Freen's help I installed the Mocal / Laminova PN - C43180712-M32 Oil/Water Cooler. I have used air coolers before and I am usually disappointed in the performance. Thermostats, good air flow, fans, etc. never seem perfect, so I am going to try this. Paul says his works great. Also, I think a good place for an air cooler is challenging in the Europa.

What I had to do:
1. Cut down the coolant pipe that sticks out from the frame Y by about 2 inches. This is because this cooler is too long for the space between it and the next connection. I used a saws-all and it looks harder than it is.
2. Moved the pipe section that has the heater lines brazed in from the horizontal to vertical position. It is too long for this so I had to make it smaller (pic 1).
3. Purchased (2) 90 degree hose fittings and one coupler to fit it all together.
So, it is out of the water pump, into a 90, down into the modified pipe for about 6 inches, into a 90, into the cooler, onto the main (pic 2).

 

[jbcollier]

Interesting.  It would save me miles of plumbing as I have my cooler upfront.  It would also speed warm ups.  Please do report back on how well it works in practice.

[Pfreen]

The good thing about these coolers is it warms the oil faster and keeps it at the coolant temperature, which is what you want to keep clearances constant, unaffected by differences in oil and coolant temperatures.

[Nero]

Hi,
I do run a Setrab heat exchanger for about two years now. It from a 2.2 NA Opel/Vauxhall Speedster.
The major thing is to control the water temperature. I went with a water thermostat that opens sooner than stock, because once you oil temperature goes to high it does need a very long to come down again. That’s due to the smaller temperature difference when cooling with water. I also use a two speed fan on the water cooler. The first speed kicks in at 82C and shuts off at 79C. That sounds low but you need it that low because I do run the heat exchanger with the warm water coming from the engine. Also keep in mind that you are. Is putting a lot more energy in the cooling system. You water cooler needs to be sized appropriately

[Mecky]

Very nice, I like the idea that water and oil are always in a similar temperature range, because they are dependent. I think, that is a very healthy configuration for the engine. The only thing I feared about the water/oil heat exchanger was the possibility of a malfunction, which leads to mixing of the fluids. That's why I went for the good old oil cooler and positioned it in front of the radiator. But I have a huge custom-built aluminium radiator sitting just behind the grill. I'd never recommend my mod with a stock water radiator. How is your cooling configuration? Are you using the stock radiator?

[cazman]

Yes, I have a stock radiator. I am not in a hot climate, so I will see how it performs.

[DreamsOfA47]

Hello all! At risk of getting flamed I'm going to try and revive this thread as I'm very curious as to how the oil-to-water cooler did! It seems like  great idea in practice, but that being said there's a constant debate in the RX7 world about air-to-oil and water-to-oil coolers as they were both factory options. I have a water-to-oil cooler on my daily and I'd love on on the Lotus if it worked well.

[cazman]

Worked for me. As, I said earlier it's not super hot around here, but the engine never over heated.  I guess that means that it did not pull too much heat out of the cooling system.