Friday, October 3, 2008

R1 Rear Spoiler....pictures

I know it isn't much, but I personally can't stand FD's without a spoiler. I found a perfect condition used R1 spoiler on the forums, so I bought it and installed it last night. I swear it transforms the look of the car in my eyes.



And a couple of the two RX-7's together



Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Long time no update...

Its been a while, but my final year of engineering school is eating away at my time...plus no job my last year of school = no money to put into any projects. I drive the FD a few times a week when I feel like annoying everyone (4" exhaust and w/g dumps will do that) and then drive the FB the rest of the time...both are running like champs.

The FD motor now has ~1500 miles on it and is about 75% tuned (~11.5 psi and 6000rpm). Pulls extremely strong and hearing the wastegate open never gets boring. When I finally find the time I am going to finish up the tuning on wastegate spring pressure to 8000rpm and just drive it like that for a while. Then maybe when I get some money I can tend to some other things like wheels/tires. Weighing the car is on my to-do list as well.

The first gen has turned out to be an incredible investment. I took the gas tank out, completely cleaned and resealed it, cleaned the pickup/return tubes and reinstalled everything. Now the fuel starvation problem it was having when I bought it is completely gone. Also on that note, I have to recommend POR-15's tank repair/reseal kit. It took a while, but man it works wonders...I should have taken pictures.

Once I sell the Subaru, I will need to put a little bit of money into the first gen and hopefully be able to put the rest into the FD. The first gen needs a full brake overhaul (rotors, pads, lines, fluid), new tires, and could use some new suspension bushings as well. Luckily everything for this car is dirt cheap, so this should happen soon.

Maybe at that point I will have a more useful post.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Bought another RX-7....

Just picked up this 83 RX-7 GSL to keep my FD company. Paint is pretty bad, but the body is great and so is all of the mechanical parts on the car. It has 101k miles on it and incredible compression. Only one real problem with the car that I am going to figure out shortly...not bad for $650 if I have to say so myself.



Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Engine and more parts!!

Got my motor in from David Jerome at Speed4Sale yesterday. It is a rebuild using good condition parts sourced by David, who then sends the parts to Kevin Landers of Rotary Resurrection to do the rebuild. These engines are by far the best deal you can find right now. They are priced cheaper than a Mazda Reman and are higher quality. Here are a few pictures of the engine I received.


A picture of the street porting on the exhaust port...


Other parts that I just received include the Banzai Racing oil pan brace and polyurethane motor mounts...


...also the ACT HD clutch (with sprung 6-puck disc) and ACT Streetlight flywheel.


I also have other parts as well but these are the most significant to the build right now. Everything else is either supplementary to existing modifications or maintenance related. I'm not sure if the car will be running this weekend or not, but it should be damn close.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

I didn't lie...

...when I said things would be happening fast with the FD. It's only been a week and I have a ported engine on the way from David Jerome of Speed4Sale. Also ordered a ACT flywheel/6-puck clutch, Banzai Racing oil pan brace and polyurethane motor mounts, Rotary Performance fuel pump and braided clutch line, G-Force harness hardware, and a bunch of OEM gaskets to make sure I do have any loose ends. I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures next week once everything is here.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

RB26 in an S10.....

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....oops, guess I should have specified that it was in the bed of the truck.

But yes, this does mean that I have sold the RB26 and am ready to finish up the second installment of the saga that is the RX-7....new engine, motor mounts, clutch/flywheel, and a few other cool things. I haven't driven that car since February, so this should start happening very quickly.

As for the sale of the RB....I couldn't ask for a better transaction. The buyer is a great guy who has big plans for his car. Keep an eye out for pictures of it sometime down the road.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Been slow, but more progress made...

It's been a while since my last post, but since I actually did some work on the RX-7 this week I figured it was time. I still have not rebuilt the engine yet, which really means that I still have not sold the RB26 yet. Once sold, everything I am trying to do will be given the green light, oh well. Anyways...

Last week I finished installing the racing seats into the RX-7 (I only started about a month ago...please visit lackofmotivation.org). I do however still need to order the eye bolts for the lap and submarine harnesses. So the seats will come back out for that in the next couple of weeks. Then I can finally say that the interior is finished for a while.

I also decided to drain the gas tank and install my fuel surge tank cover (thanks to Hyperion on rx7club). Draining gas sucks, but the installation of the cover was a breeze (took 30 minutes MAX). Here is a picture from the group buy...



The one high note of draining the fuel is that I was able to put ~10 gal. of 93 octane into the Subaru DD before it got too old (the gas not the Subaru). This leads me to my final point....my '96 Suburu Impreza Wagon shit-box with 217k miles and fucked up axels must have felt pampered yesterday.

It isn't often that a beater gets almost a full tank of 93 octane fuel (~$4.05/gal. right now), gets washed and waxed, and gets an oil change. The fuel and oil speak for themselves at this point, but the washing and waxing is a different story. This is the first car that I have ever had that I truly don't care much about (refer to my post 135hp of fury)...if it gets me where I want to go I am happy. The trouble comes when the clear coat starts to disappear off of the hood and roof. That is when resale value enters my head and I think....hmmm maybe it would be a good idea to at least wash this thing and get a good coat of wax on it. Now I didn't use the Zaino that I use on my other cars, but a fresh coat of Mother's carnuba sure did make that car look a hell of a lot better.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Saturn GT-R

Awesome car I saw today....the infamous Saturn GT-R....



....some people

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Pictures of the damage...

Broken Apex Seal (aka...bringer of death)


Bad Rotor Housing....


Bad Rotor....(and shitty picture)

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Broken Apex Seal = Bad Rotor and Rotor Housing

...but the turbo is still good (such a relief).

I got the engine tore down last weekend and began to inspect the damage. It took a minute to find the broken apex seal, but didn't take long at all to find the gouges in the the rotor and rotor housing. I'll take pictures of the damaged parts tonight and post them up.

Oh yea,
Someone buy my RB26 please, so I can get to rebuilding the 13B...

RB26 FOR SALE

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Engine=Broken

While tuning this past weekend the motor blew. It seems that trying to make power on a rotary that has 92k miles on it isn't the best idea in the world. Everything in the tune was safe when it blew and my logs have been reviewed by others to say the same. Oh well....shit happens....now it is time to rebuild and port.

Here are videos of testing compression. As you can see rotor 1 is a good consistent pulse, while rotor two is basically non-existent. (*This is a cold motor, so the actual numbers are useless).

Rotor 1:





Rotor 2:

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Complete sans tuning...

Been a slow winter it seems, but the car is finally 99% complete. Currently driving/tuning it, but thought I would post a few pictures I took during the final work...



...and a few specs

Garrett T04R Ball Bearing (.84 A/R)
Tial 46mm W/G
Tial 50mm BOV
Exoticspeed Manifold
A-Spec 4" Turboback exhaust (had to modify to fit my setup)
HKS V-Mount I/C
Dual 19row Oil Coolers w/ thermostat
Removed A/C and PS (Sent my steering rack off to Maval)
RX7store fuel system (550/1680cc injectors, Aeromotive FPR, etc)
Denso fuel pump
...etc (other stuff like removed emissions, cruise, double throttle, etc etc)