Rotary Engine Install: Part 2, Page 2
05/06/99
Another tricky part of the install concerns cooling. A
rotary motor generates more heat under load than a
comparable-HP piston ("boinger") motor, and also relies
heavily on the oil to provide a significant part of cooling
as well. 79-85 RX-7s came with large radiators (23" x 26",
double row), and two types of oil cooling devices.
One, a very large (5" x 23") thermostatically-controlled oil
cooler, and the other is an oil-to-water heat exchanger
positioned directly under the oil filter. The oil cooler is
the more desirable of these two options, so I tried that one
first.
But, due to space limitations, I had to use the exchanger
instead. The steering box in the Samurai seriously crowds
the radiator to begin with, and the oil cooler's size only
reduces the available radiator space. After looking at a
catalog of literally hundreds of radiators in an attempt to
find one that would fit in the available space, I got
frustrated and had a custom one built for $250. It is a
three-row core with end caps from a Chevy Cavalier rad, and
the outlet has been moved to the other side, with a block-off
plate installed. Here's the custom rad next to the stock
Samurai rad:
Here's a few more shots showing the proximity to the steering
box and to the inlet/outlet for the motor:
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