New FB owner, project, teardown, and questions. Pictures too.

[N.RotaryTech]

So I obtained this '83 rx7 maybe a month ago, as a project car.
This is what I have before me, so I'll be asking some questions since I'm new to FB's.

Lets get on with it.

A little after the day i got it.




In the garage, cleaning it out begins.






The Diff.


The rear bumper.

Something is wrong here isn't it?
Looks like there was a section cut out.

[N.RotaryTech]

While cleaning it out, I found some strange parts.


Something was even more stranger in the engine bay.

Someone stuffed a Winsor V8 with a ford auto trans in there.

Engine was touching the firewall.


The fan was touching the swaybar.


So they tried to figure how to take it off, and opted for cutting it off.?


They actually had this engine and trans bolted in with custom mounts.
The trans was touching a section of the tunnel.
If this ever ran, I can imagine vibration like crazy.

Anyway, I fixed all that, I took it out.
Here's the engine compared to a 13b rotary.


The trans that was connected to it.


The firewall damage.

Looks like it was beaten, in some spots.
They also cut off the driver side original trans mount.

Then something about the front crossmember seemed a bit odd to me.

Is the crossmember backward / turned around?

Another angle.

Are all the right holes there?

[j_tso]

The cross-member is indeed turned around, plus a few holes have been added.

And on the rear, a bit of the bottom of the body panel was chopped off.

What are your plans for it? That 13B is going to need a different front cover and oil pan unless you're going to fab your own mounts.

Good luck.

[N.RotaryTech]

Thats what I thought.

Yep, plans are to put a 13b in it.
Ive read about the front cover and oil pan swap.


I have a lot of FC parts, so I'm going to try to use them.
I probably have to modify some things, a lot of things. lol.

I want to use the FC 13b engine and trans.
I'll probably put my old bridge port motor in first.
It will get my turbo motor sometime after that.

Body work,
There is some work to do, besides the scuffed paint, there are some rust spots on the roof and near the rear hatch, and of course the cut out piece below the rear bumper.


The rear differential,
classic question: How much power can this handle?
Its going turbo in the future, so what can I do about this section of the drivetrain?


Suspension,
I'll probably want to upgrade for track and autocross use.

Brakes,
Probably will upgrade them too.

Question,
Is there a 5 lug swap that can be done to this car?

[N.RotaryTech]

Update.

I got into the rear hatch area, took out the damaged carpet, and removed the rusty bins.
There wasn't much rust damage underneath.





I had to cut an tear away at it because of the rusted screws.




This morning I started taking out the dash.






I like how the dash is all metal and not plastic.

[dabranco]

Looks like 5.0 HO and an AOD. Congrats on saving an FB I hate when people do v-8 conversions it looks like it was done halfed assed.

[N.RotaryTech]

I sort-of admire your diehard rotary enthusiasm with not liking the v8 conversions. I don't like them either.
But I know a few who have v8-powered RX7's, and I have ridden in one v8 FC.
I don't hate on them.
But yeah, This one was done half-assed.


Anyway, I have a feeling this project is going to be a long one.
I have no idea when its going to be done.
The end goal in mind is for it to be a mix between a rotary track car and a streetable weekend driver.
I'm really just taking it as I go. Still deciding what to do with certain sections of the car.

[j9fd3s]

congrats for pulling the V8 out and swapping to the rotary! with swap work like that its no wonder the V8 didn't run either....

anyways, the car looks pretty good. the paint is BAD, but it seems ok under that. i vote for a return to white BTW

the subframe IS flipped, and they added a couple holes, but its easy to undo. the rear diff can hold plenty of power, if you don't launch the thing, if you do drag launches with sticky tires, its 250ish hp maybe a little more. 83 is small axle, 84-85's had bigger axles and can handle a little more power.

ReSpeed has all the suspension and brake stuff you need.

for the engine, a BP 13B in a 1st gen is FUN and not a ton of work

[rotarycrazy]

hey man what are you doing with the v8 you took out.

[Kentetsu]

Yeah, if you need any advice on suspension just let me know. My car is a daily driver/weekend autocrosser. I can drive it across the country, and kill Miatas on Hoosiers in autocrosses. Respeed set me up right, so I help out when I can.



.

[N.RotaryTech]

Random post.
Dash removal.
This is how I did it,
(btw, I had no manual, and this was my 1st time taking out an FB dash. I'm not bragging, just a crazy gearhead, lol. I wanted to do this to my project car.)

Top part of FB dash removal.
I 1st took off the defogger vent strip, 3 bolts behind plastic caps.
Then the top part of the dash is held on by 5 8mm nuts very well hidden.

The 1st 2 nuts you can find pretty easy are located above the glove-box, so take the glove box out 1st. The nuts are close to the center of the dash and on either side of an air duct going front to back, in line with the car.

The 2nd 2 nuts are harder to locate, If you take off the gauge-cluster surround piece and look through the space between the dash and the right side of the gauge-cluster you can see the first nut. Get to it with an extension and finagle it up through the tight spaces down there.
There is another nut behind that one, but you cant see it from the gauge-cluster.
Get on the floor. I had to remove an air duct that had a phillips head screw holding it on to the air duct above it. Then peer through the dash to find the nut. Get to it with an extension.

The 5th nut is located on the right side of the glove-box and the left side of the air vent but under the dash of course.
I Didn't find this one, and ended up bending some metal before finding it, luckily the dash is all metal and whatever was bent out of shape can be bent back.

If you want to go further and remove the main metal contraption / the rest of the dash:
Remove the two screws holding the gauge-cluster on, located on the bottom and on either side of gauge-cluster. Peer up through dash to find them.
Remove all the junk in the center part of dash, stereo, equalizer, etc.
Remove two bolts holding the AC & heater controls on the dash.
Remove two bolts holding the dash to the transmission tunnel, need a wrench to get to.
Remove two bolts all the way on either side of the dash, next to the doors. 4 bolts total.
Don't forget to remove the two bolts holding the steering column on. Get to these from the bottom.
If you haven't done so already remove any electrical connections and switches.
Finagle dash out of passenger side of car, (dash is driver-side heavy).

[N.RotaryTech]

Does anyone know if the FB's came with a tan carpet?
I think they did.
Know anyone that can hook me up?
And with any other misc Tan interior pieces?

[N.RotaryTech]

Update, what I'm doing today.

So I recently acquired an FB front cover and engine-mount brace, drive-shaft, and a junk transmission.
I start with the drive-shaft to see if it will bolt up. It doesn't.
And now I'm confused.

The plan is to use an FC S4 trans.
I thought that the FB driveshaft would work. It fits the FC trans but not the FB Diff.
So I gather all the drive-shafts I now have, and do some fitting.

In the picture below: the top drive-shaft is the FB, the one in the middle is the FC, and the one on the bottom is the one that came with the V8 "kit".

The only one that bolts up to the Diff is the one that came with the V8.
Another angle of the drive-shafts.

From left to right: FB, FC, V8 "kit".

So I start to wonder what Diff do I have?



Then I wonder if the part on the Diff that the drive-shaft bolts up to(is this called a flange?) is interchangeable?

Maybe I could swap the right FB flange in there, so I could use the FB drive-shaft.

Or my other option would be to cut both the FB shaft and V8 shaft, get the right combination from both and make one shaft that will work.
Ill have to send these off to a drive-shaft expert to do this though.

Any help/ideas, on this will be appreciated.

[N.RotaryTech]

More (or less, lol) of the interior.





Even the roof.

[djmtsu]

If you are using an S4 trans, just get the tail section of an FB trans and put it on the FC trans. Then you can use your FB driveshaft.

And yes, FB's did have tan/brown interiors. Charles has a complete doo-doo FB at his house right now!