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Hey there. Iv'e lurked around on here a bit and finally decided I should do a build thread to document this project as well as create a forum for anyone to leave feedback and tips as well as sell all the stuff I don't need and you to sell me all of your parts I do need.
The car is an 83 with open diff, drum in the rear, not sure which trim level. I heard about the car from an old friend who's roommate had the car sitting in a backyard for the last 4 years. The price was basically free so I wasn't expecting much when I went to look at it but I was surprised to find a pretty damn straight body and very very minimal rust in non critical areas. Apparently he stopped by every month or so to start it up but I don't know how true that is. The coil wires looked like they had been chewed so I never had a chance to start it, but I will be swapping a T2 motor in anyway and the body looked good so it was worth it.
My ultimate goal is to make a reliable 300-350hp while also 100% California legal. Plans so far are an S5 (or S4 if I must) and T2 tranny swap, I wan't to go with a hybrid turbo to maintain an OEM appearance, I believe BNR and Knight Sport are the 2 big contenders here, front mount, all supporting fuel mods obviously and EMS, will be doing full coilovers and new suspension components all around, and large axle LSD with disks in the rear.
I'm still a little grey on the power obtainable with the the hybrid turbos, and also with the legalities of an EMS system. I believe the smog procedure for an FC does not involve it hooking up to a machine so as long as I look stock and pass emissions I should be good to go.
Also this is my first Mazda, first rotary, first turbo, hell this is my first rear wheel driven vehicle so I'm super excited for this build and am looking forward to driving this classic.
The old *** trailer we borrowed snapped on the drive home and almost dumped the car into oncoming traffic. Fun stuff. So I found out mobile weld repair is a thing.
Selling this for dirt nasty cheap if anyone is interested. Needs to be rebuilt I'm sure. 125k and has been sitting for a few years. Comes with the tranny.
Cleaning the shell and painting the interior. Will re-install dash, center consol, and front carpets as they are all in good shape. Rear end will stay race car mode.
And they first part I ever bought for the car. OEM sunroof to replace the rusted vent roof.
Up next is cleaning and painting the engine bay. I removed both front fenders and bumper and headlight assemblies. Bay will be painted metallic bronze to go with a black on white on bronze theme. Thinking about grabbing some of this.
Ok So it's been awhile. the 12a and tranny has since been sold and I have acquired an 88 turbo 2 engine. Still looking for a tranny and SE oil pan and front cover but that will be much easier.
Apparently it has been opened up and cleaned/rebuilt and just was never installed. It's been sitting for about 6 months. I'm going to open it up anyway and take a look, wiring harness seems to be mostly untampered with, I still might just save up and go for the Haltec terminated harness and standalone right from the get go.
So had a chance to crack this thing open yesterday.
I kind of want to strangle the previous owner for using the amount of gasket sealer he did. Other than that it mostly looks ok (amateur here) as you can see the turbine housing is unusable, it was also missing the compressor wheel and there is a lot of play. I'm wondering if anything is salvageable from the turbo setup, I was originally planning on going with a stage 2 or 3 from BNR but have heard that the s4 based setups aren't that great, I was also considering a knightsport hybrid but can't find a whole lot of info on these. I'm open to any advice or recommendations on this but I am biased towards keeping it as stock looking as possible as I would like to pass California smog.
All seals and gaskets are going to get replaced, it was definitely NOT rebuilt. Housings look great (again amateur here) but I have a couple concerns with the middle iron and one of the rotors as well as the bearings. Im going to get everything cleaned up so maybe I can get some input from some vets.
Any idea on how to strip this shitty brushed on paint without hurting anything? I'm really hopping I can soak it in something or use a stripper.
Besides the engine I think I may have found an 84gsl lsd/disk setup so fingers crossed.
Going to be cleaning up all the parts soon based on Aaron Cake's videos. Only thing he doesn't cover is removing paint from the housings and irons. Anybody have advice on the best route to take? Will a parts cleaner solvent remove paint as well?
you can try spraying them with brake clean and use a plastic or brass bristled brush, also you can soak it in a solvent tank , that might loosen it up a bit
you can try spraying them with brake clean and use a plastic or brass bristled brush, also you can soak it in a solvent tank , that might loosen it up a bit
This worked for me - took a couple cans and some elbow grease and a brush, but it got most all the paint off. Cleared out my head too!
So I finally got around to cleaning the engine parts. I let everything sit in a diluted simple green mix for a few hours (irons overnight) this got most of the oil and carbon off but the paint didn't budge. A scrubbed them down while in the tub and then sprayed everything off super good, compressed air dry, brake cleaner spray down, and then wd-40 on the rotors and faces. I'm thinking I will probably have to get a wire wheel to get all the paint off. Not excited for that. I will probably have some time tomorrow to measure all of the clearances and see what is still usable.
Ok so got to testing today and everything seems to be in check. I'm actually very excited at how good the housings look. The middle iron and rear rotor have a few areas that are potentially a cause for concern. I'm hoping I can get some more experienced opinions.
The middle iron has some pretty noticeable edges along the corner seal groove on either side of the iron on the cold side. Spec is .0038" difference and they both measured around .003 or .0035. Wondering if it's ok to use since technically it's in spec or if I should look for a new center iron.
And on the rear rotor it looks like the bearing has spun a bit past it's slot and has slightly indented the rotor itself.
Opinions? I am looking to make 300hp or more. Wondering if those issues are a large cause for concern.
So I picked up this 85 SE donor today. Will be parting/selling the shell in a few weeks with some goodies missing. Let me know if you need anything or want the car, will be letting go for pretty cheap or next to nothing without the engine/tranny.
I'm going to be pulling the dash cover, gauge cluster (I have an 83 gs cluster for sale now), the rear end will go in my car and my gs will go in this, I'm swapping my drivers fender ( red, damaged), hood ( red, small dent), and front facia thing (red, damaged), tail lights ( one of mine is missing a cover), swapping the glass sunroof for my metal one (red, small rust spots), I'm also pulling the oil pan and engine mount. I have an 83 oil pan I can throw in if someone wants the engine, but I need the mount. I believe most of the interior is there still. It had koni shocks which I'll be selling, I'll have more details on that when it's actually sitting in my garage.
When you say you are using the engine mount, are you speaking about the front cover mount or the cross member that bolts the the frame rails? The cross member that mounts to the frame rails is what you need to install a 13B in a 12A body. The other option is to notch the front cover mount, but since you now have the cross member, use it.
You might already know about this, but it's a common oversight.
Also, the gas tank from the GSL-SE will come in handy with your swap.
I need the actual crossmember mount, I mistakingly sold my original one with the 12A from the 83. Kinda salty because I also just bought an SE front cover and now I have 2 but oh well.
The SE tank has a slosh cup built in so the fuel pump doesn't starve.
The SE frame cross member moves the engine mounts 20 mm toward the front to make up for the extra 13B rotor size. This helps position the shifter in the hole better.
Last edited by KansasCityREPU; 03-27-16 at 01:59 PM.
11-08-15, 01:31 AM
so I'm super excited for this build and am looking forward to driving this classic.
