my 93 SSM FD build

[Brent]

This is my 93 SSM T78 project I picked up in Jan. 2007... or should I say rescued... haha. The previous owner meant well, but his taste and my taste did not match. Oh well, it was his car before to do what he pleased. Now it's mine and it will be a weekend/track car.

Disclaimer: The veilside front bumper and side skirts were removed and immediately taken to the dump... where it belongs. It was replaced with a 99Spec bumper and feed sideskirts. The wheels were the next thing to go. Just wanted to clear that up... haha.

Here is what it looked like when I first picked it up:




Well, the car was rough around the edges but has a pretty good platform to work with. Here is the skinny:
1993 SSM Touring w/ red interior
112,000 miles

The car was purchased with a blown set of turbo's. The car had pettit turbo's on it that went bad. I have a few sets of twins laying around and thought about throwing a set on, but decided to finally take the plunge and go single. I picked up a T78 turbo kit with a Pettit Coolcharge III Intercooler(thanks to David Jerome from Speed for Sale). Here is a quick run down by category of mods on the car(updated Oct 2, 2008):

Engine:
- Rebuilt with 3mm apex seals and large street port and coolant passage mod approximately 10K ago
- Brand New OEM Engine Mounts
- Polished Throttle Body, Upper and Lower Intake Manifold, alternator, and front cover
- Ceramic coated chrome coolant filler neck and and waterpump housing
-Ground Zero Ceramachromed Lower Intake Manifold
-JDM UIM
- Water pump replaced
- Garfinkle Oil pan brace
- Garfinkle Engine Torque Brace
- All new gaskets to include but not limited to: UIM, LIM, TB, water pump and housing , front cover, and new injector seals
- Brand New OEM O2 Sensor
- Power Steering eliminated and lines looped using Gotham Racing’s Kit
- A/C eliminated
- Battery professionally relocated by Mike Lashlee to passenger side bin using a Westco Miata Battery
- Greddy Air Pump Elimination pulley’s
- New Spark Plugs and NGK Wires
- All Emissions removed and blocked off
-Charlies7 Coil relocation bracket

Cooling:
- Brand New Koyo N-Flo radiator
- All new OEM coolant hoses
- Engine coolant passage modification performed to engine during rebuild
- AST Eliminated
-R1 Oil Cooler added

Turbo System:
-Greddy T78 turbo kit that was rebuilt by Majestic Turbo’s in TX 700miles ago
- Brand new Turbo blanket
- Greddy Profec B, the older one with the knobs
- Pettit Coolcharge III Intercooler with duct
- Greddy Elbow with Greddy BOV
- K & N 4in Filter
- Oil Catch Can(not installed)
- Has a conservative map done by Dan Chadwick that is good up to 17lbs. I have it set to 10lbs due to not having a wideband installed yet to monitor my A/F ratio. I plan to run somewhere between 12-14psi on the track.

Exhaust:
- HKS Carbon Fiber/titanium Catback
- Midpipe with Borla XR-1 welded in
- All New Exhaust Gaskets

Fuel System:
-rx7store extreme fuel system that consists of :
Competition Fuel Rail
1600cc injectors x2 (just replaced with 2 brand new 1680’s from KG Parts)
Fuel Pressure Regulator (Aeromotive)
Regulator Fittings x3
Fuel Injector Clips x2
Injector Resistors x2
FPR Gauge
Fuel Line
90 Degree fittings x3
-550cc primaries with new FPD(both have 500 miles), I had 850cc in a modified rail installed, but one of the injector stuck so I switched them out with my 550‘s.
-Walbro fuel pump
-all new OEM injector O-rings and insulators
-Fuel Starvation Cover

Tranny:
-5th gear synchro replaced
-Centerforce Dual Friction Clutch
-Just replaced transmission fluid.

Exterior:
-New Paint Job
-Rotary Extreme 99spec plateless Urethane bumper
-99spec turn signals
-99spec front lip
-99spec undertray
-R Magic 99spec Oil Cooler ducts
-99spec Taillights converted by Sevenlust(great quality for a great price. Send him a PM if you would like your's converted http://www.rotarycarclub.com/member.php?u=478 )
-Feed Carbon Fiber replica side skirts from AeroFiber*
-RE Animaya "The Other" rear diffuser
-Brand New OEM Headlight Covers and hardware
-Brand New OEM Headlight Bezels and hardware
-New OEM Front and Rear Windshield Seals
-Brand New Rear Factory Mudguards
-New taillight hardware
-New Driver side dome light sensor
-LED bulbs for license plate, combo, and rear hatch lights

Interior:
-Red Interior
-Newly recovered red leather seats
-New rear hatch carpet purchased from Autospot
-New Gauge Cluster Chrome bezels and glass
-Replaced alot of interior pieces with new OEM parts
-All door trim recently replaced
-Gotham Racing Power FC Commander holder
-New Custom Made Floormats made by Jason S
-Center Speaker Triple Gauge pod by IRP
-Widefoot Gas Pedal for easier heel and toe shifting
-LED bulb for Dome Light

Electronics:
-Apexi Power FC, Dataloggit and Commander
-HKS Twin Power Ignition Amplifier
-GM 3 Bar Map Sensor with Banzai Racing MAP Sensor Adapter
-Greddy Profec B Boost Controller
-Innovative LC-1 Wideband w/ XD-16 Gauge
-Defi 60mm Boost, Fuel Pressure, and Oil Temp Gauge

Suspension and brakes:
- Brand New Tein HA Coilovers, Spring rates are 10kg front, 8kg rear
-Tri-Point Engineering .188 front Sway Bar
-Wide Foot Racing Sway Bar Mounts with bronze bushings.
-Porsche 993 "Big Red's" Big Brake Kit(recently rebuilt) with brand new rotors
-99Spec/RZ Rear Brakes- Brand new from Mazda
-Hawk HT-10 Brake Pads
-MazdaSpeed Brake Lines- Brand New
-MazdaSpeed Differential Bushings- Brand New

Wheels and Tires
-5Zigen 5ZR Corps Rims
Front Size: 18x9.0 +45
Rear Size: 18x10.0 +44
-SSR GT1 Track wheels
-Hoosier R6 track tires/ Pirelli P Zero Street Tires

Picture of the wheels... just because:


Here is a picture from a few months back shortly after the first paint job testfitting some parts:


The engine bay test fit from a few months ago(don't mind the dust, it's from the paint job):


Battery Relocation:


Currently, the car is mechanically all back together as of 2 days ago. It's not starting but I am troubleshooting it and am hoping to get it started within the next week.

The paint was done by a good friend of mine who use to do all kinds of work for the rotary community and has always went above and beyond on the stuff he has done for me. Unfort. that is not the case this time. The first time he painted it, He put all kinds of time into the prep work... where you make your money. The first time he painted it, it turned out great. Here is a picture:

We had one very small run, that was clipped off without issue. The paint had very little orange peel(less than a factory FD paint job), but he wanted a better finish so we wetsanded. When we started buffing the paint back out, he said he could see some hazing in the paint and wanted to shoot it again. I should have said no, but I had no idea what was about to happen. He started prepping it again, but started having problems with his wife. No problem, if I was in his situation I would want some time to take care of personal matters. Basically, after that the car was repainted I *think* 3 more times. Each time it got worse with more orange peel, all kinds of runs, and overspray on alot of stuff. He ended up getting kicked out of his shop for not paying the rent(which came as shock to me), so I went and picked up all my stuff. He assured me he would still finish the job and make it right. That was over a month ago and have not had contact with him in 3 weeks...

The only reason I paid someone to work on my stuff in the first place was because I flat out did not have the time to work on it with the upcoming 15 deployment(getting everyone ready to go takes up alot of time). I wanted to enjoy the car for at least a couple of months before I left. The engine came to him in short block form with every bolt and nut labeled in a bag, all gaskets were laid out, etc. I am very anal when it comes to stuff like this because I know what it's like to try to sort out what someone else has taken apart(mind you he has built over a 100 rotary engines so he knows the deal). All he had to do was install the new parts to the short block, hook up the tranny, and reinstall it in the car. Well, the engine, tranny, and turbo were in the car... but there was still alot of stuff to be done. I ended up having to all kinds of things ranging from installing the starter, radiator, refilling tranny fluid, etc... to troubleshooting numerous fuel leaks for 2 weeks. Alot of my new parts were not used and are now missing. Needless to say I am frustrated. Oh well, what goes around comes around. I'm out a good bit of money, lesson learned.

Anyhow, just posted that to let you know how nice it will be once I have this car screaming down the road. You can't keep a good man down I have wetsanded the hell out of the paint and have got alot of it looking pretty damn good, but I'm going to have to work on the overspray(like on my brand new rear hatch window seal).

I'll be posting the process and pictures within the next day or two documenting more of the build.

Brent

[djmtsu]

Very nice. Yhe wheels it came with make me cry.

[turboed13b]

looking good what size fuse did you put in when you relocated your battery i keep blowing mine so i just stuck a bolt in it...lol

[TRISPEEDFD3S]

How much was the paint? Like the actual paint itself. You get it from the dealer?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by TRISPEEDFD3S

How much was the paint? Like the actual paint itself. You get it from the dealer?

I was at the paint store today and rather than dig through my receipts, I priced SSM(3L) for you Jeff. I priced upper grade PPG and it was $40 a pint and $70 a quart. I think you could do the whole car with a couple of quartz very easily. A gallon of clear package(includes cataylst, etc) is around $100 a gallon. Unless you are a really good painter you aren't really going to be able to tell the difference between the cheaper stuff, but I still get it anyways. Don't forget all of your other supplies like sanding materials, primer, high build primer, fillers, sealers, tac cloth, etc, etc, etc...


I troubleshot the idle some more today. I redid all of my vacuum hoses and was able to get the idle down to around 2850rpm. I pulled the throttle body w/ TPS off my working red FD that idles great at 750rpm today and put it on the car... no luck... Idles is still around 2850rpm. Dan Chadwick gave me some great sugguestions on how to search for the vacuum leak that I will be checking out tomorrow.

I also was limited in what I could do today because fedex wouldn't deliver my stuff I had overnighted from Mazda Motorsports on Thursday. I went to the fedex location and they said it was unsorted and there was no way I could get it. Oh well, I guess I'll get the rest of the little stuff on Monday.

I put my 5ZR wheels back on as well as installed my feed sideskirts made by aerofiber. The car is starting to look a little better. I still have to clean it up ALOT though!! Here are a couple of pictures. I'll get better ones tomorrow. I'm planning on hopefully *knock on wood* fixing the idle finally. Installing the 99spec front lip and 99spec undertray as well as a few other things.

My buddy Mike eating some dorito's, hard at work... haha. He's the guy that did my battery relocation and all my electronic stuff. Great guy that does quality work.




The car currently has eibach springs with Tokico Illumina's. My car seems to sit higher than any other FD with this set up I have ever seen. I'm hoping they settle a little since the car hasen't really been driven since the engine and tranny were pulled. I was trying to hold off on installing my Tein HA's until later, but I don't know if I can take the huge gaps.

On a side note, on my way back from the parts store I spotted a very very red FD with Pettit fender flares and kenesis wheels. It looked so MEAN!!! However, as I got closer, although it looked like a rotary... it certainly didn't sound like one LS1. So I did what any self respecting rotary owner would do... I burned his car to the ground. J/K. It was a nice car all around. Just not for me. I do think I will do pettit rear fender flares now though at some point.

[David Jerome]

Originally Posted by Brent

I.

On a side note, on my way back from the parts store I spotted a very very red FD with Pettit fender flares and kenesis wheels. It looked so MEAN!!! However, as I got closer, although it looked like a rotary... it certainly didn't sound like one LS1. So I did what any self respecting rotary owner would do... I burned his car to the ground. J/K. It was a nice car all around. Just not for me. I do think I will do pettit rear fender flares now though at some point.

That is syclonejak off the other forum(the guy with the 99spec bumper I need to get for you), I think he is still overseas so it may have been his dad driving. The live in Kingston so I am shocked they were down your way. That car is mean 0-100 and is really good looking car with the fender flares and 18x13 kinesis wheels

[Brent]

Originally Posted by David Jerome

That is syclonejak off the other forum(the guy with the 99spec bumper I need to get for you), I think he is still overseas so it may have been his dad driving. The live in Kingston so I am shocked they were down your way. That car is mean 0-100 and is really good looking car with the fender flares and 18x13 kinesis wheels

Doh!!! I should have got him to pull over. Maybe he will be back this way sometime. It was his brother driving it. I talked to him at the stop light. You need to do those Pettit Fender Flares man!!! or I'm going to.

[Brent]

I don't remember off the top of my head. I'll have to look at my receipts. I got it from the local paint store, which is the best place to get it IMO. All you need is the paint code. My base and clear was some of the more expensive stuff from PPG.

[TRISPEEDFD3S]

So we can get 3L mazda paint at a local paint shop?

[Brent]

Yes, that is the ideal place to get paint at. You get the same stuff that Mazda painted the car with. They can tell you exactly what you need to go with it as well(ie prep supplies, type of clear, paint cards that comes with the paint that tells you how to get the best results, etc...)

[TRISPEEDFD3S]

Thanks Brent!

[Brent]

It's ALIVE!!!! Finally got it started today. I bought a faulty PFC from a forum member. As soon as I unflooded the car and switched out the PFC's with the one in my red car, it started right up. It's idling really high(3000rpm) and my turbo manifold is glowing red so I only let it run for a few minutes... but I am on top of the world right now!!!! Here is a quick 5 second clip with no lighting, but you get the picture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_oHekE2z2U

[Chadwick]

Congrats !!!

[djmtsu]

Originally Posted by Brent

I bought a faulty PFC from a forum member.

Brent, do you still have the broken PFC? And if so......how much do you want for it??

[Brent]

I do, I'm trying to contact the member to see if he will refund my money. I doubt it though, I bought it several months ago. I'll let you know.