theorie's "this is why I'm always poor" 20B-FD build.

[theorie]

I won't bother with the full-history on my car, you're interested in that, feel free to check out my CarDomain profile - I have an ongoing "build thread" over there that covers the time from when I purchased this FD up to present.

As a brief background: This is the second FD3S I have owned. I bought my first FD at age 17, and had it for a few years before selling it to fund a move to New York. While I was in New York, I got the rotary itch again, and purchased this 1993 SSM w/ Red Interior Touring model. The plan was to keep it in FL for when I visit family, but I eventually started bringing it up to NY.

Couple photos of the car when I bought it, near stock except a relocated battery, SSR wheels, a some kind of home-made dual-tip cat-back exhaust:





Between 2007-2011, I did quite a bit of work to the car. After a motor rebuild and some performance work, the car dyno'd peak power just shy of 400rwhp on 93, with a street ported motor and non-seq stock twins. With this setup, I was able to break into the 11s (exactly 11.98!) with street tires and virtually no suspension upgrades. Here are a couple of photos of the car at the end of 2011:





In November of 2011, while driving the car from NY to FL to leave it for the winter, I had an oil line come loose at 80mph, about 1100 miles into the trip. The motor never ran completely dry, but the short period of low oil was enough to cause an oil control ring failure on the rear rotor, which I found out after pulling and tearing down the motor.

I spent a few months considering what to do, and I finally decided that I wanted to go "all out" with the new build. There are a few things I've always wanted, since I bought my first FD at age 17: a RE-Amemiya GT-AD widebody kit, and a 20B motor. Well, I decided that 12 years later, I was going to get on the path to make that happen.

My soon-to-be-wife and I moved back to FL in August of 2012. The first thing I did, even before unpacking, was to have the FD trailered to my new house, which has a 2 car garage and plenty of space for me to work:



In a short period of time, the car went from that, to this:



The first step was purchasing a motor. It's certainly become harder and harder to find a good 20B to use as a starting point. I looked for at least a few months to even find one that was in my price range ($5000 for the longblock). After lots of dead-end leads, I finally came across an eBay listing for not one, not two, but FIVE complete 20B longblock motors. Listed at only $5500, it seemed to good to be true. Fortunately the seller was only 3 hours away, so I made the drive down to Drag International in Davie, FL to inspect and hopefully purchase a 20B.

The motor I was after was a "D" but the seller also had "C" and "A" series available. I really wanted the "D" or "C" but was willing to take the "A" if the seller was unable to come down to my $5000 limit. The seller had the motor out and hooked up to a battery when I arrived, so we compression tested the motor on the spot. After unflooding it, the motor made excellent compression on all three rotors, and after brief negotiations, I was able to get the seller to let me purchase it for the $5000 price I wanted. We loaded the motor up into my CX-5 (it barely fit) and brought the motor back to Sarasota to get the build started.



I'll begin this build thread from the point when I purchased the 20B, since it's really the start of a new life for my FD. I'll post more photos of the 20B longblock teardown, and some of the other work I've done to the chassis thus far, but I think I'll stop here for now.

[RedR1]

I reeeeeeally look forward to following this thread. I've always loved the look of your car.

Out of curiosity, do you think he still has any of those 20B's left? it's probably a long shot and he doesn't, but i figured i'd ask.

[one320fc]

I dig the fear and loathing poster! and the 20B FD build of course...

[theorie]

Originally Posted by RedR1

I reeeeeeally look forward to following this thread. I've always loved the look of your car.

Out of curiosity, do you think he still has any of those 20B's left? it's probably a long shot and he doesn't, but i figured i'd ask.

Give him a call: Larry @ Drag International (954) 423-1100

Originally Posted by one320fc

I dig the fear and loathing poster! and the 20B FD build of course...

So just to catch up a little bit...

Photos from the teardown can be found here:
http://gallery.tfrascone.net/index.p..._stripping-car and
http://gallery.tfrascone.net/index.p..._stripping-car and
http://gallery.tfrascone.net/index.p..._stripping-car

I want to refresh/refurbish/replace every part on this car, all the way down to the nuts & bolts.

I even refurbished the climate control system, photos here:
http://gallery.tfrascone.net/index.p...c-foam-replace

After the car was stripped to the chassis (except the windshield, I left that on), the first step was to give it a deep clean. I literally spent 20 hours just cleaning the chassis with various solutions, sponges, and brushes. After cleaning it was time to paint the engine bay and treat the fender wells with "truck bed liner". Here are some photos:









And then my friend and I painted the engine bay:







More photos from painting can be found here: http://gallery.tfrascone.net/index.p..._93/2013-01-11

Next was spraying the fenders with "truck bed liner":





...and the rear fenders:



I also did part of the transmission tunnel:



More updates soon...

[theorie]

Some photos from the 20B longblock-to-shortblock teardown.















With the motor torn down, the next big step is to decide on which transmission to use (either the stock FD transmission or something else). I am considering using a different transmission for two reasons, #1 because I would like to make more power than I feel the stock transmission can handle, and #2 because I would like to sit the motor as low and far back as possible, and relocating the shifter to the frontmost "port" on the transmission might not be a possibility.

In the meantime, I have a number of parts I'm cleaning / restoring / modifying. I started by refreshing the front & rear subframes with through cleanings, scuffing, and coating with rust-preventing enamel.

















Subframes reinstalled onto the chassis:





In the above photo you'll notice I have the new "track compound" polyurethane mounting pucks from IRPerformance. I'll be using these with custom-fabricated mounting arms. The IRP pucks are also available in "steet" (soft) or "track" (hard) compounds for 13B motors, and you can buy them though their website, www.IRPerformance.com

[Fendamonky]

Did you link pics from the 7club? They are all broke for me.

[djmtsu]

Originally Posted by Fendamonky

Did you link pics from the 7club? They are all broke for me.

Ditto. All I see is a pink teddy bar knee smashing someone poor kid in the face.

[RedR1]

the pix were working on friday. now, just the pink teddy

[theorie]

Haha crazy stuff. I tried to block the pics from being hotlinked on RX7Club but it's preventing them here too...gotta fix that lol

edit...think I fixed it. Hopefully you guys see photos now.

[afgmoto1978]

Lol

[theorie]

Another update...

While the car is stripped down, I'm also working on the interior. I decided to strip out all the sound deadening using dry ice. The plan is to paint the inside OR coat it with something like LizardSkin/QuietCoat. Not sure yet...









I've also started media blasting some parts. I've been using this old blast cabinet at a local machine shop. The glass window was almost completely frosted from years of use, so I was pretty much working blind.









Also did the rear diff cover...this is going to get modified to increase fluid capacity...

[RedR1]

Originally Posted by theorie

Haha crazy stuff. I tried to block the pics from being hotlinked on RX7Club but it's preventing them here too...gotta fix that lol

edit...think I fixed it. Hopefully you guys see photos now.

Works perfectly now, thanks

I have lizard skin (one jug of lizard skin and one jug of their ceramic composite heat layer) to put under the carpet in my FD. . . but since it doesn't run i can't tell you how effective it is yet

Will you be at DGRR in a few weeks (obviously the car won't be there unless you are working 32 hours a day, 11 days a week

[theorie]

Originally Posted by RedR1

Works perfectly now, thanks

I have lizard skin (one jug of lizard skin and one jug of their ceramic composite heat layer) to put under the carpet in my FD. . . but since it doesn't run i can't tell you how effective it is yet

Will you be at DGRR in a few weeks (obviously the car won't be there unless you are working 32 hours a day, 11 days a week

I am either going to go with LizardSking + Carpet, or silver paint to match the exterior with no carpet (just floor mats).

No, I won't be able to make it to DGRR this year. I'm getting married on the 20th so I have to skip this year. I hope to have the car done for DGRR '14. though!

[RedR1]

Originally Posted by theorie

No, I won't be able to make it to DGRR this year. I'm getting married on the 20th so I have to skip this year. I hope to have the car done for DGRR '14. though!

Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper congrats!!!!! It's very, very, very rare when one of us finds a special someone that approves of a hobby where setting money on fire is more cost effective than FD projects

[diabolical1]

great start to what I figure to be a fabulous project.

congratulations on the wedding.