A little refresh/save done my way! AND I LIKE PICS!!!

[proz07]

Hey guys ive been debating if i wanted one of these but here goes.

technically this is my 3rd rx7 and 2nd FD "technically" ill show ya why.


i first had an FC that i traded to a friend straight up for a front end collision 93 FD that i was going to rebuild in my cheaper days unfortunatly after i was buying parts for it i realized how bad it really was and would never be more than a pieced together track car (the pan was rippled to the rear bins). ultimatly i didnt want that so i started searching for a roller or the like.

Found one in arizona so i had to ship but for a fantastic price i couldnt pass it up. The body straight, 131k on the clock, with a new mazda reman that "never started", new engine wiring harness, walbro fuel pump, act prolite flywheel w/ 6puck solid hub. all in all it sounded pretty nice. except the "never started" part with no compression on 2 faces of the front rotor.


Well once i got the car it was time to see what was really wrong with it. First things first compression test showed front rotor low compression on one face none on the other 2. Well maybe it sat awhile and an apex got stuck, so i let it sit with MMO overnight. Still nothing so next step was to start removing the stock twins to get a good look see at the apex seals and thats where i started to see what went wrong. First thing the primary turbo comp wheel was chewed to hell, so looks like something else is in order in that area. Well once the turbos were off and i could actually see the deal i found the front rotor apexs destroyed, so thats it for that engine time to start ripping it out. and thats were i found a bunch of shaddy maintenance that took place on this car to ultimatly lead to the death of a brand new reman.


I lost half my pictures somewhere but i got the engine out and tore down. It did look to be a new reman but looked like possibly a washer went through it or possibly detonated with the old crispy harness and thats why they got the new harness possibly but it was already blown? Thats my deduction from it though. In anycase i sourced a 0 mile rebuild that came with a bunch of acc parts turbos and a spare trans another fantastic deal so i got it. can never have too many extra parts.


So i started to build up the new block after verifying 6 good wooshs and free play of the apex seals. first off was to put on my XM oil pan. and then start swapping over all the lines, racks and solenoids to the new motor. the goal was to get it running on the stock twins in sequential and start modding from there. The way i looked at it i could end up with a money pit that i wont get to drive for years while i finish it OR I can keep it simple stupid for now and get crazy later all the while enjoying the car. i went with the later.

[proz07]

So being i had a new engine wiring harness and the ALT harness was pretty crispy and spliced i picked a new one of those up too care of RAY at MALLOY. I also had my injectors sent out to WITCHHUNTER forflow testing and cleaning. Reason for doing this is as i was searching forums seeing what goes wrong these are all the major players that for some reason people cheap out on BUT WILL SPEND HUNDREDS on shinny parts. i guess if it dosent run it should look good when its in your garage?


ok so here's the car ready for its new heart. yes i probably could and should have cleaned it when i had the chance here, but i was on a time table of sorts so it didnt happen.



and with the help of a friend of mine i got it in and all hooked up. did a cold comp test and put a little MMO in the chambers to help compression for first start. Here it sits ready for the first start.


Did the prestart ritual of new premix gas, prime the fuel system while checking for oil press during cranking. all looked good didnt see any leaks yet all was good to go... AND first crank started right up and of course smoked like a banshee. Once i got a couple heat cycles in it and all looked good took it for a little roll up the street and back. This is where i noticed a FUEL smell, and you guessed it the FPD was leaking so that shut it down till a new one came in and i changed it out. hurray problemone out of the way, but i noticed a rather loud tick tick tick noise coming from ??????? i had no idea till i happened to turn the crank over by hand and heard it again. WTF the flywheel was LOOSE!!!!!! I never checked it cause it was already on the keg when i got it. WARNING: always check every nut and bolt dont assume. soo......out came the just the trans this time. (much easier than i thoughtit was gonna be)

fortunatly for me no damage was done to the key way or key so all i had to do was reinstall and seal flywheel nut.



2nd problem solved without insident. and then started the 1500 mile break in wich was ver hard to keep out of boost i will say. But as i got farther and farther on my break in drives i stopped by work one day and once parked the coolant would overflow. It would not do this while driving only once parked?????? not sure what the deal was with it so... i did the chanpagne test and it failed. oh great now im going to need to pull and restack the engine.

Since im not one to do unnessesary work without a definat reason there was one last thing to do before pulling the engine and that was check the sealing of the keg with a special tool. pineapple racing i believe makes one but i have the ability and time to do one with all neccessary parts laying around so this is the outcome.

[proz07]

and here it is installed. This is where i found the coolant drain plug loose! damnit the only 2 things i didnt check came back to bite me in the ass. Once it was tightened and my tool installed ops check GOOD.


once again on to finish breakin mileage. at this point it was about 6-7 hundred into it so time to give it more RPM to 6k and a couple pounds of boost 3-5max. This is where i started having problems with the sequential system. So long story short i believe i had every single seq boost problem on the forums and still couldnt get it t work right. I mean i checked everything replaced some solenoids re route vac lines so on and so forth. Now i planned on going single later anyway so... out with all the seq for poor man non-seq. hurray much simpler works as advertised. This was at about 850-9 mileage and i was sick of working on it and wanted boost and it to work.

in my book my break in was done at that point so once i made a HOME DEPOT manual boost controller to mantain 10 PSI i was in it to win it!

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up to this point it has all been to make my newly aquired FD run in a stock fashion.

Now its on to start making it MY OWN performing road car.

TRANS BRACE:

First things first i was missing the 3rd gear shift as for some reason the trans tail shaft was flexing quit a bit. So the fix I decided to use was a transmision brace that i made being i had the material and ability. once installed it made a WORLD of difference in drivability, especially running an ACT solid 6-puck.

EXHAUST:

Of course i wanted to do an exhaust as i was still running a stock cat and some redneck catback. I then decided to do a 4" setup although i knew it would be loud i did not know how loud. i picked up some 4" bends and started running it from the 3" twins downpipe by necking it up to a 4" v-band.
then ran it back to a magnaflow 4" oval race muffler to a single 4"inlet dual 3" outlet flowmaster super 50 hd. Reason being i still wanted a slightly covert twin exit at the rear yet still be able to flow. at this time i picked up a banzia/pineapple rear diff brace(the one that will clear a 4" pipe) and installed it being i was there already.


TWINS:

Now that i had a rather free flowing exhaust i was experiencing boost creap as the stock wastegate was not flowing enough. I removed and disassembled then to port the wastegate unfortunatly my air compressor istoo small to run my die grinder so i ended up doing it with a dremmel. i dont have any pics of it but i opened it up to the outer edges of the flapper door and it know maintains boost perfectly with the large exhaust.

[proz07]

Well i decided to enjoy the car for the next 2 weeks till i was deployed, I had essentially gotten to a good stopping point on the car till I returned. Basically i was exactly where i wanted to be with it till this year.

While driving the car i started to make a list of what was annoying me, rattles, noises, broke parts, ablity to drive consistently so on and so forth.

During this time my local ADVANCED AUTO store rented a dyno for the day at one of thier local car shows. It was free 3 runs if you could get in before like 6pm, there were a few cars in line but i figured if i dont get it no harm if i do itll be a free BASELINE dyno for me to go off of for later power mods. Turns out some people left early and i got to get on the dyno. I only got 1 decent pull unfortunatly because my cheap plumbing coupler started to blow half way through but still held 10psi to the end so it came out in the end good enough for a baseline.
heres the dyno and busted coupler.



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THIS IS WHERE THE CAR SAT TILL 09'


I GUESS THIS IS WHERE THE BUILD PART STARTS.

THE LIST:

rattles
loose interior parts
tranny whine/grind all except 4th ????
hard to start with current cutch
LOUD NOISES EVERYWHERE


O.K. this all kinda is going to go together for one reason. THE CAR IS TIRING TO DRIVE IT ISNT AS ENJOYABLE AS IT NEEDS TO BE.

I have ordered EDEAD for the sound deadening department it is an equivalent to DYNOMAT from the reviews i read and is close to 1/4 the price. i hope it works as good as they say! So needless to say while i wait for the material to come in i am removing the interior to gain access to the bare metal where it needs to be attatched to. While doing this i am tightening. clipping, fixing interior panels parts and pieces to make everything fit correctly and not rattle once i reassembly it. As of right now everything up to removing the dash is done i will do that task tommorrow but this is how the car sits currently in my garage.



During this whole process i will be relocating my battery to the passenger bin and adding a painless 7 cicuit harness to power all my non standard accessories. Such as my gauges and wideband i installed last year i didnt really like tapping into existing circuits so i will be rerunning the power to them through this fuse block. I hope to run the power wire after the dash and carpet is removed.

Summit brand battery relocation cable kit 2ga
Odyssey 925 batt
Painless 7 circuit fuse panel 3x constant 4x ACC
150amp c/b autozone brand



I will then mock up a battery, C/B, fuse block holding tray that will fit into the passenger bin without cutting out the entire bottom of the bin hopefully just enough for 3 mount posts if all goes right. I figure this will allow me to practice my tig welding in a not so critical area.


Dash out, now i think this is as far as i go till the EDEAD comes in that way i dont forget where everything goes when i put it back together. This is going to be a good time to clean out all the dust and debries in the air ducts.

[proz07]

i do hve a question though with the clutch pedal mount? Take a look and if you could check yours let me know if this is right? im going to look in the FSM see if i can find anything but if anyone can check that would be great.





Well iv bee alot busier than i thought i was gonna be so im still working on sound deadening but before i did that i decided to change the clutch out from a solid 6-puck to a street modified ACT disk. i only changed the disk as the clutch was new and only has 2k miles on it practically new.



I refilled the trans with REDLINE SHOCKPROOF HEAVY weight as the trans was grinding in everything but 4th assuming bearing noise but it was loud with royal purple. So hopefully this will quite it down with the rest of my "comfort" mods. THis stuff is one step away from grease it is THICK!!!



At this point i have around 20+ hrs in sound deadening time and much more to go. I'v been looking around and it seems im doing quite a bit more than most have done. So we will see how it turns out. As you can see in the red circle i also did the firewall as i already pulled he dash, I figured might as well do as much as i can so i dont have to do it later. Basicly do it right the first time and it comes out cheaper.

[proz07]

well been busy getting the carpet in and dash back in and connected, it takes a min when your doing it by yourself!




now before the rear bins go back in i needed to run the power cables for the battery relocation.



well iv been researching how people would mount thier batteries in the rear bins and most of them i didnt like so i ended up making one with feet through the bin for mounting and a bracket for the painless 7 circuit fuse block.



and here it is installed just need to get some more eyelets to redo the short run to the breaker as its only 4 gauge right now.



i have also relocated where my WB was to the center consol, it still needs to be adjusted once i redo my exhaust and move the sensor location to give me more wire to put the lc-1 in a spot that wont hit anything.

[Whizbang]

nice work man! Where are you deploying to?

[Randy024]

Looks like somebody has been practicing with the TIG !!!

Looking for ward to seeing the rest of the build (and more dyno sheets)

[proz07]

well i havent been as busy working on the car as i would like but then again if i was id run out of things to do or money. which is not on my list of things to do

So iv changed my exhaust to a much better flowing cleaner install 3" setup. after realizing there is no way to make a 4" setup quiet EVER on an rx7 and the 3" will support power goals of 99% of us. so build pics of that as follows.

3" exhaust setup specs info.

409 stainlesssteel 3" tubing 6ft worth and i have 3ft or so leftover
only used 2 bends total 1x 90 and 1x 45 mandrel 409SS
2x v-band clamp setups for ease of install and service THEY ARE SOOOO NICE TO WORK WITH
1x 3x6" flex pipe for movment
1x dynomax bullet race muffler 24" i believe NOT SS unfortunatly fiberglass packing so i dont know how long itll last
1x magnaflow muffler dont know which one i had it laying around
1x SS wideband bung

i also have 100ft of exhaust wrap i have yet to put on as i think i want it a bit quieter BUT im not sure if the wrap will be enough or should add another dynomax or build my own full SS style from the old 4" setup then wrap it. take a look at the video it has the sound but dosent pick up the deep bass tone of it unforunatly.

I opted to weld it all up with 308SS .025 mig as i dont have a backpurg setup for my tig yet although i should have tried as the 110v mig i have definatly struggles with the SS it just needs more heat that a 220v system would give but oh well.

and for cuting the hole for the wideband i fired up my new plasma at lets just say it was worth it

heres the pics ill get the video up soon.

heres what i ordered. it is WAYYYY to many bends i only used 2 but ill build the downpipe for my single out of some of this so hopefully ill be able to use the rest somewhere.

heres the patient ready for operation

This is the old 4" i built notice the poor flowing midpipe. This setup is LOUD its not for me so im scrapping it and trying to recoup some cash selling the mufflers and v-bands. the only thing i did like about it for its size it didnt hang any lower than stock suspension parts. not an ideal setup but i learned ALOT from building it and that is what this project car is all about. so the new setup is much better designed.

another old setup the catback section did flow really nice unlike the midpipe. notice the flowmaster DONT use these on your rotary its not designed for this type of engine use it on your old muscle car or v8 truck not the rotary

and hers a shot of sections being built up and my welding and cutting setup used by this DIYer

[proz07]

heres the dynomax bullet race muffler inside i was trying to get a shot of the packing but you cant really see it.



and here is the completed 3" as it is on the car now i will be wrapping almost the entirething in header wrap once i decide if im going to add another bullet muffler to the midpipe or not



installed




and heres the quick video i made of it and a quick walk around.

[proz07]

oh ya know just the 4th trip to iraq... i saw you joined awhile back how do ya like it so far?

z

[Whizbang]

cant complain aside from having a long wait time to complete the training. Hoping to get out of Mississippi come December and then i get PCS'ed to Idaho for quite some time.

[JShiz]

Good build. I like your battery relocation. I may copy it later on.

[proz07]

well continueing with the install i have made a turn down elbow off an extra y-pipe rather than run through the crappy stock piping. i didnt use a 180 turn as then i wouldnt have enough to finish it up today so i did a sectional bend...those btw are very time consuming and if ya had to pay for it just buy an extra bend. also the relief pipe i cut off and welded over the holes for the charge control valve only cause i can .

heres that i had other pics while building but for some reason my camera didnt save them once i pulled the sd-card 14pics



and to get this done i had the my GF help a bit and strip shorten/lengthen and rewrap the wiring for the fans and if my right fan still had the plug on it it would look close to OEM those pics didnt come out heres the final. as well as reclocking the top radiator connection to work better. the universal pipe is going to be temp till i get back in feb and then i will get some 1.5" pipe to run it better

[Phoenix7]

That's a nice build, love how you have pics along the way.

The rad is low, like you said....maybe into some skid plate or something thick so minimize any impact with rocks and little things on the road?