1992 VR FD3s JDM In CDN

[Prodigy]

So this is my baby, bought her just over a month ago. She is the start to what I hope to be a very long and abusive (both ways) relationship...

By the way, Her name is Ruby...

One, because it matches the color (somewhat)
Two, she will turn into an expensive display of affection...


I do not plan on her being my only Rx-7 but for now, she will be piloting my Rotary love boat solo


plans for her

Street car
with the odd track day
more power based (as most North American vehicles are)
hopefully around 400hp at the wheels once I'm "done" with the engine mods, as much as this car will be for street use,(for now) I do not plan on leaving out very important things, such as brakes, suspiension, drive train, comfortable interior, etc...


Down the Road I hope to pick up either a FC (I love the classic 80's look that scream Transformers) and turn it into a track beast..



this is currently what she looks like













that is how she sits right now....

I bought a bunch of used parts, so over the next while this thread will mostly consist of the odd and slow (on a budget) update of her build up

Most of the parts were purchased either on this forum, or another rotary related forum...


such things purchased so far

Petit AST (installed)
Petit Boost gauge
Blitz intake (want to get apexi)
HKS downpipe (just got in the mail)
Mid pipe (cat free, one of the wonders of living in Alberta, no emissions or inspections)
MazdaSpeed Cat back (came installed)
Power FC, and Commander
Turbo Timer
BNR stage 3's (first generation, bought from Phil)
Efini Y pipe
90mm Hella High beams (for use in a sleepy eye modification, later on this year)
Stainless Steel Brake Lines
Greddy FMIC (need to be cleaned up, and some charge pipes made)
New rad hoses from Ray @ Malloy (all 14 of them)
Koyo "N" flow Rad
Greddy Pullies
"dudemaaan" Fast acting AIT sensor
BBS LM's in silver 17x8 front and 17x9 rear (offset not perfect, but works for first set of rims)
I have a few things on Order from shine on the 7club, so few body alterations are in the works


only three of those are installed, the Rest are either on their way, or sitting in my room...


Currently the car sits 750kms away (450 miles) from where at live, she is taking up space at my parrents house



Tiny bit of History (might as well be a life story)


2004
Since hearing about the Rotary I was interested in it, this idea of a engine without any pistons just made me smile for some reason

I started looking around, and finding out more information about this "wankel" engine that Mazda holds so dear to it corporate heart...

2005-2007
I joined rx7club.com, realizing if I could sift through some of the massive amounts of information on the car, and have a somewhat clear understanding of what I was getting into, this would be a good thing...


this year I spent many, many hours and free evenings glued to my computer, searching, researching, information pictures, whatever I could find...

Since I did not have an Rx-7 I became somewhat obsessed with them in general...

example.... I had so much time on my hands, that on my other computer I have well over 15,000 pictures of cars...

all categorized by manufacturer, Model, sub model, color, etc...

Of those estimated 15,000 picstures over 7000 of them are in the folder labeled "Mazda"

I even went as far as to save pictures of cars that I liked, or gave me ideas on how I wanted mine to look, what I thought worked, etc...

over the next 2 years I just spent my time on 7club, hanging out in the 3rd gen section, forum, listening, learning taking so much info in..

it was at this time that I was looking at importing a 1992 JDM FD, sadly my bank account did not match up with my dream of owning a Rx-7 so the dream was put on hold... but never forgotten..


fast forward almost 3 years later, despite the recent economic issues the world may be having, my personal finances seemed to be doing quite well, even though I had recently bought a great DD (1999 Integra GS, every option) I wanted to spend some of my hard earned money on something, so I started spending little bit here and there on my car, nothing huge, I knew my car was going to be nothing more then just a DD so just put some small stuff on it, Headlights, Stereo, intake, nothing big buy any means...
I took it to the track once or twice last year, a semi local carting track that allows for a few days a year for cars

I beat the snot out of it, killed my wheel bearings (they only had 65,000 miles on them) but had a ton of fun....


So i knew I needed to start looking for a car that I would be able to spend money on... and not just throw it away later from high milage...

I kept my eye open most of the summer, fall begining of winter...

I found this car (exactly as it is in the pictures above)
and knew it was a good by...

now JDM FD's up here 2 years ago went for anywhere from $8000 CDN to $14,000 CDN depending on condition...

but that was 2 years ago....

So I set a price in my mind that I was willing to spend, and low balled the seller, much to my surprise, he accepted, and I was now the Owner of a nearly bone stock (except for turbo time and cat back) FD

thus began my sending spree of the extra money I had in my bank account (its empty now )

I bought all these parts, while only being able to drive it after going on a 6-7 hour road trip every weekend too see her, At this point I had only driven her maybe an hour total...

BUT.... she did have a coolant leak.... the previous owner knew about it... so he informed me about it... It was somewhat of a pain to find...

I did however, find it this last weekend.... as it was a long weekend up here, I spent the entire valentines day with my significant other (my car)

I took her out for a good 2 hour cruise, finally able to stretch her legs for once...




this will be the running log of modifications done to the car, as well as a comment area (good or bad is welcome)

I would not be posting this up if I did not care about what other people think..

to what extend do I care, well I care about some peoples opinions more then others... but all are welcome to comment..

Keep in mind, I am doing most of this on the weekends, with very little time to work with, and I like to work at a slower pace, as to not destroy, or damage things unintentionally

Enjoy


Jon.

[Prodigy]

The leak

I was able to find the leak, after pressure testing it a few different times, at different temperatures (the coolant)

and found this



the rad was leaking, but it was so hard to find because the coolant would rarly make it to the ground...

It was leaking out of the rad onto the AC condenser, onto the under tray, then the ground, most times just ending up on the condenser or the tray....

So the new Koyo, hoses, and clamps are going on in 2 weeks times...(providing they all get delivered in time)

I would rather do the whole thing once, then cheap out and just band aid the problem... for my car right now this will be over kill... by a large margin, but why spend money twice. get the right parts the first times, and enjoy them now and later..

so, providing that it all goes smoothly (I know most people have fitment issues with the Koyo's) It will be running nice a smooth again with an overkill (for the moment) cooling system


J.

[prrex4ever]

Nice FD, enjoy your build.

[Snoik]

douche get rid of the stickers >:P

[Prodigy]

Already have, some people find it nerve racking to take a razor blade to the paint, not me, it was strangely comforting


Oh and I blew a coolant on the weekend... So tear out then tear down is going to happen soon, hopefully it all goes well....

On the bright side, I get to learn much more about my car, and install some pain in the ass parts, but with the motor pulled make it much easier


J.

[pineapplesoymilk]

very nice good luck

[Prodigy]

So I was in the process of driving my baby back up from where it was stored to where I live (Fort McMuuray) and on the way up i blew my coolant seal...

that was the day of the Mens Oylimpic hockey Final, (feburary 28) I was 19kms from my parents house when I pulled her over to assess the damage,


well long story short, decided to rebuild it myself, cause I wanted to learn, I was a bit apprehensive about messing something up, but I decided too anyways... I bought some parts from some vendors on here, Garfinkle provided me with some products, again just want to say great build quality, love the engineering that goes into your products, also Ray@Malloy got me the seals and gaskets I needed, and a bunch of o-rings I have no idea where they go :P


well after a month and a half of driving 700kms (one way) to even work on the car, it finally all came together last Saturday night, For some reason me and my dad mad a bet for $100, I get three cranks if it starts at all.... he owes me, if it does not start and idle for a tiny bit, I owe him...


so here is the video of the first start
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EsfA7hrmVM



as you can bet I was quite happy with the result....


the lumpy idle is cause by a few things

foremost

Emissions removal,
New Turbos,
New full through exhaust
Street port


also the motor has Rotary Avaiation "Super Seals" in it, they were the only ones readily avaliable to me at the time of the rebuild, so I went with them....


I am quite proud she "runs" as of right now, got a booking in for tuning middle of June (ick) but until then I will be a slow break in period...


Let me know what you guys think...


J.

[R1_Stormrider]

thats a pretty nice RX-7 you got there

it looks clean, and the body is in great condition from what i can see. id say you have a nice start to a project that you will enjoy working on. i notice you plan on keeping it twin turbo, so for sure start looking at things to increase reliability with that set up.

ive only had experience with a single turbo FD, and maybe someday you should consider going that route if you ever have time/money. its been an overall positive experience for me, we dont have that mess called the rat's nest and it simplifies alot of the things going on in there.

either way goodluck and enjoy! ive always loved checking out twin turbo FDs that run great

[Prodigy]

Originally Posted by R1_Stormrider

thats a pretty nice RX-7 you got there

it looks clean, and the body is in great condition from what i can see. id say you have a nice start to a project that you will enjoy working on. i notice you plan on keeping it twin turbo, so for sure start looking at things to increase reliability with that set up.

ive only had experience with a single turbo FD, and maybe someday you should consider going that route if you ever have time/money. its been an overall positive experience for me, we dont have that mess called the rat's nest and it simplifies alot of the things going on in there.

either way goodluck and enjoy! ive always loved checking out twin turbo FDs that run great

Thank you sir...

I bought BNR stage 3's off Herblenny (Phil) and installed those when I rebuilt my engine a few weeks ago...

the rats nest was "smaller" in size from the factory... due to the JDM, it never had 2 or 3 solonoids that the USDM ones have...

I have already removed the emissions though, full exhuast, BNR Stage 3's Mild Street port, DBL throttle replace, etc...

those are all done..


Now I need to install a few more things..

Garfinkle Motor Mounts.... (he does great work)
reseal my oil pan
remove PS
remove AC
install GReddy FMIC
then I have some rims and body rice to go on...


first I was all about the go fast goodies...


on friday (My birthday) I got her running 100% and took her out for a while, putting kms on her....


Drove her to a wedding 140kms away (Calgary) everything was good...

got to the church early... decided to go for a little cruise...

well 20 minutes before the wedding it stalled on me, after doing a full run through the gears..

i tried to accelerate from a stop sign... and it died... I did the de flooding procedure on the side of the road, in dress shirt and pants... hoping it would start... but when I tried to de flood it... there as no sign of fuel at all....


so now working on getting her back up and running... agian.. lol

it was a nice 148kms tow, thank God I have a AMA membership

[Mobius]

Sorry to hear this. I had something similar happen to me. I could not get fuel to the car, the fuel pump relay would not energize in either the start or run ignition modes. I ended up jumpering it out from the diagnostics box under the hood. It got me home, and come to think of it, I haven't fixed that problem yet either.

[Prodigy]

Originally Posted by Mobius

Sorry to hear this. I had something similar happen to me. I could not get fuel to the car, the fuel pump relay would not energize in either the start or run ignition modes. I ended up jumpering it out from the diagnostics box under the hood. It got me home, and come to think of it, I haven't fixed that problem yet either.

Thank you sir!!!! thinking back to it, that could be a way to help narrow down what the issue is...

cause it could be that the stock relay for the Fuel pump is not getting a signal from the ignition, there fore, no fuel pump...

but when I ran the diagnostic test I could clearly hear the pump going... when with just the ignition on i heard nothing..


if that is the issue, then its just an easy fix... run a new signal wire from ignition source, and run power from battery to a new relay... this would also be a way to upgrade the power going to the system, thus allowing the pump to get a bit more voltage, and flow a bit more..

I was hoping to Make it to the AGM yesterday, but left late due to trying to eliminate something off the board...


J.

[Prodigy]

So i'm rebuilding/rebuilt it...

i'm not sure if it will run this time, but even if it does, I dont see myself registering it this year anyways, I have other financial obligations that are IMO deemed more important...

so the car is mostly back together, kinda afraid to start the car, as it still has all the same Compression as before, yet every seal has been changed...

but either way... I'm thinking/hoping it just needs to "break in" so maybe after that it will all work out, if not its the housing/irons/rotors, which I doubt/hope its not..

I pulled the Old RA Super Seals, and they were toast (by doing of my own right foot) and so they, (and every seal) was replaced so i'm crossing fingers it will run... but if not, life goes on, and I might get it rebuilt locally... if it does nto run, I'm gonna go ahead and assume some part of the keg it toast...


BUT!!!!!

onto the pictures...


since I have no Digital Camera, and The Iphone looks stupid in full RES, and I'm getting tired, and annoyed I'm just going to link this to my Facebook album that has been keeping track of pictures for me...

I will say this though...

I purchased and Recieved one of these bad boys

to my knowledge, first one in North America...

(Yes I will need to paint mine)


http://www.rhdjapan.com/uras-frp-gt-...d3s-rx-7-60762







heres the FB album link...

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...6&l=a107f5146a


I'm thinking i'll get off my ass soon and see if she starts...


J.

[funkspectrum]

Let us know how that lip fits. I was considering one of those to replace my 99spec lip...

[Prodigy]

It's just a test fit, with a few screws and a bunch of zip ties, but in that link to the FB album it has a few different pictures... The holes were spot on, I was impressed really, I only have a few remaining hardware bolts so the rest of the lip was zip tied on, I would say fitment is good, but I also have zero body shop experiance and dot know what I'm looking for...

If you want better pictures/explanation let me know, I'll see what I can do...


J.

[Gomez]

Nice car.

Suede seats, strut bar, foglights, rear spoiler.....it's a JDM version I Type R.

These cars were the hardcore FD's of the day. The first RZ came late in 1992.

The Type X was the luxo pack with sunroof, cruise, airbag, leather, Bose, etc. The Type S was the pov pack that had none of the Type R gear.

Well done on the rebuild