My '76 Rx-4 hardtop build.

[Buggy]

Now that I have access to good internet and I have the time I thought I'd make a build thread about my Rx-4. I purchased the car I believe sometime in May or June of 2009. The previous owners imported the car to Canada from Ohio about a year before that. They had plans to build the car up with a 20B engine and lots of other mods. After starting the project, it got put on the back burner, ice fell on it caving in the drivers rear quarter, and then it was sold to me. As you can see from the photos it was a bit of a piece of work.

91669167916891699170

[Buggy]

Luckily the car was a fairly clean original car to start with. Very little rust, the interior was in great shape for its age, and basically all of the trim and glass was there. The original 13B was long gone, but the 4 speed and rest of the drivetrain was still there. I began the project by taking stock of what I had and formulating a plan. I started by wanting to just get it on the road as quickly as possible by dropping in a S4 13B engine with a megasquirt to run it. As I got deeper and deeper into rust repair though I decided to strip the car and have the whole thing painted. At the same time I lucked out and got a hold of an original 3B 13B 4 port engine from an early Rx-4 wagon. The engine was in amazing shape and it was a no brainer for me. Build up a stout, ported NA engine. After the sheet metal repair was finished on the car I began building a front bumper for the car. I didn't have a front bumper and I couldn't find one close by for a reasonable price. I decided I could build a better bumper myself for less money. I started with a 1993 Chevy full size truck front bumper. After much cutting, measuring, welding, more cutting, more welding, and more measuring I had the bumper fitted nicely to the car. I then molded in front turn signals from a late 80's Nissan Pathfinder and cut in the notch for my oil cooler. Pictures to come later of these parts.

[Buggy]

At this point the car was off to the body shop for paint and I turned my focus toward the engine. I decided to go with a full on frankenrotor creation consisting of a half brigeport, S5 NA high comp rotors, 1 piece carbon apex seals, Rx-8 e-shaft, stat gears, and bearings, FD oil pressure regulator, Racing Beat road race header, and a Weber 48IDF carburetor and intake manifold. Here are some pics of the cleaning, porting, and painting of the engine.

91719172917391749175

[Buggy]

More porting and engine pics....

91769177917891799180

[Buggy]

Right around this time it was the beginning of February 2010 and the car came out of the body shop. Time for some final assembly to begin!

91819182918391849185

[Buggy]

I can pretty much let the pictures tell the tale here. This was a crazy time of building because I was pushing to have the car ready for DGRRX. There was alot of assembly going on.

91869187918891899190

[Buggy]

91919192919391949195

[Buggy]

Here are the last of the assembly pics that I have. Nismo has a bunch more that I hope he will post on here. He helped me alot through the build of this car. Still owe him big time!
919691979198

[Buggy]

At this point I was stuck waiting on some key parts and the car didn't make it to DGRRX. I was forced to take my trusty GXL, but once I got back the build continued. I'll continue on from this point after I gather together more photos and stuff.

[Buggy]

Now we are at the real exciting part of the build, getting the beast to run. Nismo and I built the engine together and along with another friend of ours we installed the engine. We ended up having some clearance issues with the clutch and the bell housing of the transmission. I had to slightly clearance the bell housing and the clutch pressure plate to get the clutch to clear the bell housing. After that issue though the engine install went very smooth considering we were at it until around midnight. It fired up on the very first try! Here are pics of the engine install and first firing.

92119212921392149215

[Buggy]

92169217921892199220

[Buggy]

These pictures were taken as we were getting oil pressure built up and then when the engine finally fired up.

92229223922492259226

[Buggy]

Once we had it running, it was time to finish some of the loose ends up. The car still needed the front sheet metal to be assembled, it needed an exhaust system, and the carburetor needed tuning. I took the car to a friends shop where we made a custom exhaust system from the header back. It was dual 2 1/2" pipe with 2 moroso spiral flow mufflers. We kept it dual all the way back over the axle and then merged it to a single 3" with the big magnaflow muffler in the previous pictures. Once all of that was completed the car hit the road. These next pictures are from that very first day I drove it.

92279229923092319232

[Buggy]

Some videos from that day as well.
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h160/NismoConvert/Bryons%20RX4/th_MOV01237.jpg (http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h160/NismoConvert/Bryons%20RX4/?action=view&current=MOV01237.mp4)

[Buggy]

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h160/NismoConvert/Bryons%20RX4/th_MOV01238.jpg (http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h160/NismoConvert/Bryons%20RX4/?action=view&current=MOV01238.mp4)

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h160/NismoConvert/Bryons%20RX4/th_MOV01239.jpg (http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h160/NismoConvert/Bryons%20RX4/?action=view&current=MOV01239.mp4)

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h160/NismoConvert/Bryons%20RX4/th_MOV01240.jpg (http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h160/NismoConvert/Bryons%20RX4/?action=view&current=MOV01240.mp4)

[Buggy]

That just left a few other small loose ends to take care of like mounting my gauges, trim, etc. For gauges I decided to go with the external look and ordered Autometer pro comp marine gauges. Over the course of this summer I got most of the things done on the car that I wanted. I changed the exhaust to make it a little more tolerable by swapping out the existing mufflers for a Racing Beat road race presilencer and one of their 3" universal mufflers. I also changed a few different things with the carburetor and got it running much better. Some pictures from this past summer.

9233923492359236

[Buggy]

Here is a text version of the results from the dyno day we had. Not too shabby, but hopefully with a few modifications I can pull some more power from this engine. It should be able to see 200whp without a problem.

9237

[Buggy]

That pretty much brings us to present day. The car is now in storage for winter, but with any luck I'll be wrenching away on it this winter at some point. I have a GSL-SE front suspension and brake swap planned as well as a GSL-SE rear axle and brake swap. I want to send the stock rear leaf springs out and have them re arched and add a leaf as well to stiffen them up. All of this should lower the car very nicely and I'll be getting a set of 15" rims to go along with all of that. I also want to change my ignition setup from DILDFIS to an electronic setup using 4 individual coils. Keep watching this thread for updates, this car is not even close to being complete yet.:D

[RX-7 Chris]

cool build

[Prodigy]

cool build


agreed.... this is a sweet build... Love the color..


J.

[Buggy]

Thanks for the comments guys. I liked the colour as well, that's why I kept it that way. The car was originally red, but it was painted that colour sometime before I bought it. It is a later Mazda colour. I'll have to get the paint code from my body man.

[dr50376272]

here is my website:

www.kagoshimaenglish.com/rx4.htm

and youtube videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/1973mazdarx4coupe

updated just now

thankyou!

david

[speedjunkie]

Nice! Came out pretty clean. I've never seen a big tach on the outside like that haha.

[Buggy]

Ya that tach is a little excessive, but it was the smallest I could get in the autometer marine series that went to 10k. It's only 5" I think....

[Buggy]

Pulling this one out of the depths. I've decided to attend DGRR 2011 and this is my car of choice. Time to get cracking on some work before the 3000km round trip. On this list will be:
-5 speed SA transmission swap
-some sort of lightweight flywheel
-repair my ignition issues
-rebuild the weber to fix some fuel leaks and new taller velocity stacks with mesh air cleaners
-suspension and brake swap if I can find rims
-some other odds and ends that I've neglected to take care of.

That should keep me out of trouble for a while.....

[dr50376272]

beautiful ! my build is slow and painful

www.kagoshimaenglish.com/rx4.htm

[TitaniumTT]

Pulling this one out of the depths. I've decided to attend DGRR 2011 and this is my car of choice. Time to get cracking on some work before the 3000km round trip. On this list will be:
-5 speed SA transmission swap
-some sort of lightweight flywheel
-repair my ignition issues
-rebuild the weber to fix some fuel leaks and new taller velocity stacks with mesh air cleaners
-suspension and brake swap if I can find rims
-some other odds and ends that I've neglected to take care of.

That should keep me out of trouble for a while.....

I need me some sort of old school rotary and this thing is an inspiration for sure. Can't wait to see it at DGRR. Remember to bring a ton of carb jets on that trip.

[Buggy]

I have spare jets and a full set of numbered drill bits. I'm prepared for any situation.;) Thanks for the compliments TTT. Means a lot coming from someone like yourself that has built a killer car of their own and knows the work that goes into it. I'm looking forward to the trip to DGRR with this beast, and I hope to see you there.

[Buggy]

Seeing as how it warmed up to above 0 degrees I fired the old girl up last night. Now I have a coolant leak to fix as well apparently at the thermostat housing.....:(

[speedjunkie]

Sorry to hear of your troubles. I hope to see you at DGRR though, if we can make it haha.

[rx2fan]

Sorry to hear about your recent troubles. on a positive note, the bumper you made for the fron is great, it really transforms the look of the car compared to the original big bumpers.

[Buggy]

Thanks, I was fairly impressed with the bumper as well. Considering that was my first real custom metal work project I've ever done, I think it turned out pretty good. The coolant leak really isn't an issue. I think the upper rad hose clamp may be loose from sitting in the cold weather. I'll make sure the Rx-4 makes it to DGRR this year. Can't keep a true rotorhead down!

[diabolical1]

this is a pretty sweet project you've got. with any luck, i'll see it in person at Deal's Gap this year as i hope to attend as well.

[Buggy]

Well I pulled the weber off of the beast tonight. Going to be taking it to a local weber guru to have it completely overhauled. Hopefully that will solve my fuel leaks from the throttle shaft and so on. Also got a line on a set of 15" Riken mesh wheels in 4x114.3 bolt pattern that I'm going to pick up on the weekend. Let the GSL-SE parts swap begin!

[Buggy]

Time for a LONG overdue update. I've been slowly picking away at this project getting it ready for deals gap. I bought an aluminum flywheel and I also got a hold of that set of Riken mesh wheels. The wheels were not in the greatest shape and had gold centers, but the price was right. I've been busy sandblasting, sanding, and polishing the rims. Here's a pic of one of the better rims before...
96919692

After sanding, then wet sanding with 400, 800, and 1000 grit, and then polishing this is what the lips look like.....
96899690

I've got 3 out of the 4 rims polished and 1 rims is completely done all but for laying down a few coats of clear. More pics to come....

[Buggy]

Here's the first rim all done.
9705

[Buggy]

The weather has finally warmed up here and I've started to work on the old girl again. Last night I worked under the hood and got the engine ready to come back out. After a season of driving I'm not real impressed how the engine looks so I'm going to freshen the paint up a bit. After today hopefully the whole drive train will be out of the car along with the front suspension.

[Buggy]

Well the weather has been terrible here and it really cut into my free time to work on the car. I didn't get the suspension swap done and my transmission swap went south fast. After having the engine running for about 10 minutes the clutch release bearing seized solid. There was an issue with the length of the push rod needed for the slave cylinder between the stock 4 speed and the SA 5 speed. Also, when I drained the fluid from the 5 speed to remove it a big chunk of metal was stuck to the magnet. I believe it's a piece of a synchro. So as of now the car is sitting with no transmission in it. I may end up swapping the 4 speed back in and I'll suffer on the drive to DGRR..... :uhh:

[Buggy]

Time for an update me thinks..... Those of you that attended DGRR know that the car did make the trip and in fact made the trip quite well! No problems of any kind at all other than a thirsty appetite and possible permanent damage to my hearing.:lol: I was actually surprised at how well the car handled on the dragon. Can't wait until I get the suspension, wheels, and brakes swapped. All the parts are waiting, just have to find the time to do it. I did however find some time the other day to swap my 5 inch velocity stacks and larger fuel jets on my weber. WOW did that make a difference! Traction is now a definite issue in first and second gear. MUST SWAP LSD REAR AXLE! There will be more pics and progress of this car hopefully soon. I want to get a lot done on the car yet this summer. Here are some pics from the DGRR trip.
Also forgot, I'm planning on taking this car back to the dyno within the next few weeks to see what kind of numbers it's putting down now. Should be interesting....
1047410475104761047710478

[Ian]

Subscribed! YA I was surprised how well it handled when we went down the the DGRR and thanks for letting me drive it! You would think I was a kid in the candy store with the grin I had the entire time I was driving...

[Buggy]

Well I've been really busy all summer and this car has just been kind of neglected. I drove it last night and I think one of the flex lines collapsed on me. I turned a corner and it started to brake pull like crazy and I could smell hot brakes. I guess it's time to tear it down and do the brake/suspension/axle swap. I have all the parts I just never had time to do it. While I'm at it the flex lines will get changed, (probably with stainless ones) and I'm going to send the master cylinder away to be rebuilt.

[Buggy]

Well this car is back under the knife. I have it in my garage on jack stands. The entire front suspension has been removed so far along with the brake master cylinder and booster. Turned out the left front caliper actually locked up. Anyway all of that will be in the past. All new stainless flex hoses along with a set of camber plates have been ordered from ReSpeed and I plan on swapping in either an FB master and booster, or an FC setup if it will fit. After the front has all been done and I figure out my suspension drop, I'll start tackling the rear axle and suspension.

[Buggy]

I made the trip to see Sam at ReSpeed yesterday and picked up all of the parts for the front suspension. Hopefully today with some luck I will get the front suspension and brakes together. I also took apart all of the exterior gauges and cleaned/polished them. I've tweaked the carburetor a little more and I upgraded my screens on the velocity stacks. I've also finally bought MSD coils and I made a proper bracket to hold all 3 coils together. No more zip ties!:biggthumpup: I'll try and take some pictures today to show you guys the mess in my garage.

[Ian]

Awesome Buggy! Can't wait to see the new upgrades on your cars. May make a trip up to ClassicAuto soon to check my car out and pick up a part or two..

[Buggy]

I've been working away at this project and I've hit a few snags along the way. For those of you who think the GSL-SE front suspension is a "bolt in" swap think again. I had to drill out the holes in the bottom of the struts where the ball joint bolts up. The GSL-SE uses M12x1.5 bolts while the Rx-4 uses M14x1.5 bolts. Also finding a M14x1.5 tap is not the easiest thing to do. Luckily a friend's boss had one that I could borrow. I also ran into issues with the FB brake booster and master cylinder swap. The studs on the Rx-4 brake booster are much longer than the FB. To use the FB brake booster you have to remove the stock studs and somehow install longer ones. I decided to just reuse the stock Rx-4 booster. The next issue I ran into was with the brake master reservoir. The stock Rx-4 reservoir is remote mounted on the strut tower while the FB has it mounted directly on the master cylinder. This interfered with my DLIDFIS ignitors that I had mounted on the strut tower. After some thought and some parts swapping I got the stock Rx-4 reservoir to fit on the FB brake booster. Just had to remove the rubber seals from the Rx-4 master cylinder and swap them with the reservoir seals on the FB master cylinder. Anyway, after all that I finally managed to get a rotor on and I mounted one of my Riken wheels just to see how it was going to look and get an idea of the new ride height in the front. First thoughts, it's going to be low and mean!

[Buggy]

I got the front suspension and brakes all assembled the other night and got the car back down on its wheels. My fear that it was going to be too low was then confirmed. It looks mean, but unfortunately I think it is going to have rubbing issues with the fenders when turning. I may have to make spacer plates to go between the camber plates and the strut towers to raise the front end back up a bit. I also stripped down the whole rear axle to get it ready to swap in and took measurements off of the rear axle to give to the guy that is building the leaf springs. Picture time!
1166611667116681166911670

[Buggy]

1167111672

[2gslse]

Looks perfect the way it is. maybe it won't rub

[Buggy]

For just normal street use it would probably be okay. I'm just worried about on the track when I throw it into corners hard that the car will lean and hit the fender on the tire. You can barely fit your fingers between the fender and the tire.

[Buggy]

I put the car back up on jack stands on the weekend. The rear axle and leaf springs have been removed, and I'm taking the leaf springs to a local spring shop tomorrow. There they will get a re arch and probably and extra leaf added to stiffen them up. I'm going with just a 1" drop in the springs for the rear. I'm also getting 1/2" spacers made for the front to go between the shock tower and the camber plates. That should raise the suspension just right. :)

[Buggy]

After comparing the GSL-SE and Rx-4 rear axle I realized the SE rear axle is actually 2 3/8" longer than the Rx-4 rear axle. I'm in the process now of shortening the axle. I've also been told that my leaf springs should be ready in the next day or two. Should be able to have this car back on the road in early May! :)

[Oyvindjs]

This is one sexy RX-4! i thought the RX4s only had the "pointy nose" front. Different front up there in canada? Many of theese left up there? :)

[rxse7en]

Beautiful.

[legatia]

Love it!

[Buggy]

The '76 and up Rx-4's had a different front end. Originally though it had huge bumpers and bumperettes with lots of ugly rubber trim molding on it. I scratched the entire stock front bumper and made my own. Also removed all the trim and crap from the rear bumper and welded it smooth. I tried to clean the look of the car up as much as possible. As far as how many are left here in Canada, there are a few but not many. My car actually came from Ohio.

[Buggy]

I found an actual PDF of my dyno results from back in 2010. Still love the torque and hp curves.
12003

[infernosg]

What are you using for the "screen" on you velocity stacks? Do you feel they're doing a sufficient filtering job? I'm trying to find a filtering solution for my 55 mm IDA-style throttle body on my FC.

[Buggy]

I'm using 2 layers of just plain steel window screen and then a layer of really fine screen I got from a buddy. I forget what micron that screen is but it is really fine. I just wrapped the velocity stacks and then clamped it down with a hose clamp. I think it does a good enough job. My old filter setup let in just as much dirt if not more than this does.

[RXheaven]

this is really cool

[speedjunkie]

Man this is beautiful!

[Buggy]

I'm just playing the waiting game with this car now. I'm waiting on my axle shafts to be finished so I can finish up the rear axle. Hopefully it will be done soon. I'm getting tired of seeing this car in my garage on jack stands.

[Buggy]

I spent pretty much all afternoon this past Sunday shortening the axle housing and getting it all sorted out. We got one axle shaft pretty much done. Just one more to go and this bad boy can get put back together! I'm planning on hitting the track with it in July at Toronto Motorsport Park for a Sigma time attack event.

[Buggy]

I worked hard on the car the last few days and had it back on the road yesterday. Man what a blast to drive now! With the new higher gear ratio out back it's a rocket! The ride is perfect too. Stiff enough you feel confident to throw it around, but still very comfortable to drive. I had a few problems though.... First one was the car is now too low to get in and out of my driveway. I need two 6 foot long 2x4's to do it. Second problem, and this is a big one, I snapped an axle shaft. :( I went to take off in front of a buddy's house and I did a nice peel in first gear full throttle to about 8K, then a hard shift into second full throttle. I heard the tires chirp into second and then SNAP! Had to push the car back to my buddy's house and call CAA. :) Guess I'll be on the phone with Sam at RESpeed on Monday ordering Moser axles. :lol:

[Buggy]

Here are some pictures for ya!
12090120911209212093

[Ian]

Looking good! Fix her up for the BCM for sure!

[Buggy]

The axle shafts are ordered. They should be here in about 2 weeks so I should have it done in time for BCM. :)

[Buggy]

The new Moser axles have arrived. I may get time this week to put them in or it will be on the weekend sometime. :)

[Buggy]

I haven't updated this in a while. I got the new axles in and took care of some loose ends like hooking up the parking brake cables and doing a tune up. The car was starting to run a little rough. I replaced the plugs with new platinum plugs and I tore the carb apart completely. I cleaned everything up and started over setting the idle and everything correctly. Got the car running almost perfect! I had no idea a bridgeport could run so smooth and be so streetable. I drove it at our annual Bruce County Rotary meet and it worked great! Having a few issues with the 4 speed though now so look forward to a 5 speed swap in the near future!

[Buggy]

It's time for a long overdue update for my cars! Not too much is planned for the Rx-4 this year. I have to replace a piece of trim around the windshield that flew off the car late last summer. I decided one day to see how fast the car actually went and the trim decided it didn't like that idea. ;) There is also a small rust hole that developed in the rocker panel that I need to get fixed. I'm still deciding if I want to tackle that myself or just have my body guy do the work. I may also get at the 5 speed swap depending on how my TII build goes this year. The most exciting thing though is I'm getting a gilmer drive setup! It should be here next week. As if the car wasn't loud enough already!