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Made some progress today.
Ordered 2 id1000's
Started port matching and polishing manifold since the ports were for an older model 6 port. Pictures is one side done. I did leave a small lip for anti-reversion and only polished part way up the runner. I don't plan on polishing the top half as I want the fuel to atomize correctly.
Port isn't actually crooked. Picture is slightly tilted for better lighting.
So I am on the fence about Alpha N tuning as apparently the e6x has some issues with it. With my current setup, I do not know where the best spot would be to pull vacuum for the map sensor. My itb's do not supply a vacuum provision on the bodies themselves, and my manifold only had two provisions of which run to the Brake Booster and Fpr.
Would it be safe to run a splitter or vacuum block on for these three fuctions? My other concern would be getting a decent vacuum signal from the existing provisions.
After speaking with Claudio, he recommended map tuning and I may just go that way.
Decided to put the car out of commission for the next couple weeks to get everything done.
Installed injectors, fuel rail, and fpr. I have heard of horror stories involving an fittings, so hopefully nothing leaks.
Sorry for the bad picture. Test fit to check the clearance on the fuel lines. Seems all fine. Still thinking of an innovative solution for the throttle cable.
Removed the Aux port sleeves since the manifold has no way to operate them.
Recently got all the mechanical components installed. Lines, fpr, vacuum block, throttle cable bracket. Etc.
FPR, Fuel lines, and vacuum block installed.
Teat fitting home depot racing throttle cable bracket. After about 5 variations, this worked the best
Front view of the finalized mounting positions.
I didn't take pictures but after talking with Rob from Pineapple Racing, he indicated my manifold was made for the Jdm 13b -sle. This makes any off the shelf lim gasket not match quite right for my block. I had already purchased the metal gasket and he advised to cut the extruding inch off each side of the LIM gasket and seal it with black rtv. So that was done as well.
Yanked out the efi harness and de pinned all but the alternator field wires, wipers, and temp connector.
Installed the haltech harness and ran most of the connections I will need in the cleanest order. I will need to lengthen the ignition output and one of the pwm output wires.<br/><br/>I may also shorten the map sensor, and air intake sensor wire for a cleaner install.
Well, I wired up the trailing coil last night and started running the lead for the leading. I need to purchase some 12g wire for the fuel pump relay and the main power relay and I will wire those in tonight.
I also began fabbing up a ECU mounting plate. That should be completed by tmmrw.
Well. Everything is wired up and working properly! Except for my f****** an fuel fittings. I have tried every method to get them to seal and they just pour gas right out of them. I am done. Never again.
Going straight to Home Depot after work and replacing them with 3/8 brass push lock and hose clamps.
Sorry for the lack of updates. The rx7 has been at the tuner for a month and a half. I am not happy about this. There have been constant excuses for delays and an extreme lack of communication. Hopefully, I will get the car back this week.
I have been collecting parts in my downtime.
Recently purchased a Ford Contour alternator and a compatible double pulley.
Picked up an alternator connector at the local junk yard.
I also snagged a nearly full mint black interior for extremely cheap.
Including the dash.
So basically, it's just the waiting game for now. Then I can post my dyno results and swap the interior.
So it's been awhile and many things have happened since the last update. Essentially, the car was at the tuner for over 3 months and never got tuned. The shop kept assuming I screwed something up and insisted they couldn't get the car to run. I'd rather not explain everything again so if you're interested in hearing what happened, here is a link to my vendor review in the Bad and Fugly Section:
After they read my honest review, they told me to tow my car home and that they didn't want my business. So what did I do? I towed the car home and got the car running within an hour. Since the car was running, I decided knock some things off my list. I started to properly extend my front chassis harness from the wiretuck I did previously.
Re-stripped the front harness
Stripped what I didn't need, drilled holes for the zip ties, and wrapped everything up nicely. Even with as low as my car is, nothing is rubbing. I plan on re-installing the stock fender liners for further protection.
At this point, I attempted to zero the timing and encountered a whole mess of issues. The timing wouldn't zero out, the car ran like crap, etc, etc. Finally, it wouldn't start at all. I loaded map after map with no luck. I was terrified that I screwed up the wiring somehow when extending the front harness and caused this problem. So after over a week of headaches and great advice from fellow forum members, I discovered the fuse for the fuel relay was blown. I checked this previously and it didn't appear to be blown. I finally measured for continuity and discovered there was a hairline crack. So stupid. After changing this and putting new plugs in, the car started immediately and idled great. I attempted to zero the timing again but no matter how I adjusted the Haltech settings, the lead timing mark remained at 6 o'clock. I ended up reading a post on the forum that mentioned to flip the pick-up for the timing light 180 degrees. Well, I did this and found the timing to be spot on.
While the car was down and I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't start, I noticed that I had a coolant leak coming down the front of the engine. Turned out to be the water pump. I also broke down and did a second compression test. GOOD NEWS EVERYONE! Perfect 90-95 psi bounces with the schrader valve removed on both rotors. Compression may actually be higher due to the foot long hose it came with. I swear, compression testing is like an STD test. You know you have to do it, but you're scared to hear the results.
Old water pump vs. New Duralast water pump. Not entirely sure that I'm a fan of the internal design. It seems like the castings around the bolt holes would affect coolant flow. Oh well, we shall find out.
Old vs New
My factory oil pressure sender was also leaking and spraying oil all over the engine. Replaced with an autozone sender and the leak is gone. Old sender is on left while the new is on the right. Seems to read correctly as well.
After towing the car home from the tuner, I also suddenly had a clicking noise coming from the blower. After some troubleshooting, I removed the blower and discovered ONE dry leaf stuck in the blower that caused the sound. Cleaned it out and enjoyed the sweet sound of silence.
Here is an updated video of the car running smoothly. SO MUCH BETTER. There are still slight hesitations that need to be ironed out in the final tuning.
Took the car for a quick trip around the block and discovered that I have extremely poor vacuum to the Brake booster, despite having 2 ports tapped and ran to the vacuum booster. Anyone have any bright ideas?
12/23/2015: Flushed the entire coolant system to prep for the upcoming tuning session and installed a full black interior, minus the dash. Pics to come when I actually have light.
Still trying to figure out what to do about the brakes. They build pressure properly when the car is off but seem iffy when the car is running.
Ignore the no brake leak statement. After having the car in the air for for a few days, I noticed a leak dripping off the front passenger wheel and onto the ground.
The culprit
Seems as though the hardline got pinched or cracked. Pumping the pedal resulted in a stream of fluid coming out. After discovering this, I rush ordered some new hard lines for both sides of the front from Atkins. Now we play the waiting game.
It's been awhile since I've updated this thread, so I figure it's about time.
Got the brake lines in from Atkins and swapped them in.
Figured, I'd make shipping worth it and picked up a stainless clutch line as well.
My Kumho's were shot and extremely skittish in the rain so I picked up a new set of tires. Hankook Ventus Evo 2's in 205/50/16 all around.
Drove down to a rotary meet in Salem and met a bunch of really nice people with some pretty sick rotaries. There was also an FC with a 1jz swap. (I thought I took a picture of it, but I can't find it. Pictures from the meet:
My FC
Forum member Derekcat's TII and FD3S Engineering's mint FD with the 99 spec front end
Recently imported Cosmo and a pretty baller RX3
Group Photo
After leaving the meet and accelerating into the merge lane of the road, I was greeted with a horrendous thumping sound in the rear end. I pulled over and could see my front diff mount torn in two. I managed to reverse and somehow it re-settled enough to wear I could drive the 2 hours home.
Ordered a competition front diff mount and spent the next 3 days after work replacing it. After doing it in my tiny garage with limited tools and space, I'd rather eat my own leg than replace another one. I actually had to borrow an electric impact to get some of the stupid bolts off. While I was in there, I also installed an Energy Suspension pinion snubber and got the pre-load dialed in.
Other than that, I've been daily driving the car until I find the right truck. I brought the car back to the tuner to address some issues with the tune.
I was also having some issues with voltage drop affecting my idle quality. Every time I turned the lights on, the voltage would drop and this would make my car idle like crap or lean out. After verifying in the haltech that my voltage only dropped .04v when this happened, I upped my Battery/Fuel correction map. So far, this problem seems to have gone away.
I'm also getting fluctuating readings on my TPS sensor, so this probably isn't helping anything. Time to order a new one.
Not much has been going on with the rx7 recently. I'm waiting until I move in July before I blow more money on my car. I did get a local group buy going to have Pineapple Racing make a a phenolic intake manifold spacer. I've had good results reducing intake temps on other motors with these so I figured it couldn't hurt. This spacer is around 5mm thick. I have yet to do an air intake temperature test between the stock gasket and the phenolic spacer. I should probably buy a temperature sensor so I can test it and post the results.
Attended an impromptu late night meet in Vancouver, WA with a few friends.....and over 300 cars came out! It was pretty insane. Someone snagged a picture of my car and was kind enough to share it. Picture from the meet:
I do believe a caliper rebuild is in order some day soon as my front brakes were lightly scraping. I pulled the wheels off and the pads/rotors are still like new. However, there was a slight drag when rotating the rotor by hand.
Got bored and decided to waste some money. I borrowed a collected exhaust system from a local and scheduled some dyno pulls.
RESULTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These dyno pulls were done on the same day within 30 minutes of each other.
Here is an image of the paper copy. I'm still waiting on the digital file.
1st pull:
-Racing Beat True Dual full system
---175.3whp/ 143.7 ft.lbs
2nd pull:
-Racing Beat collected header->RB presilencer->2.5 in. ID pipe->magnaflow muffler
---179.6whp/ 152.4 ft.lbs!
3rd pull:
-Same as 2nd
---177.8whp/ 149.8 ft.lbs (not sure what happened here, intake temps going up?)
Overall, the mid range picked up nicely and the car feels more responsive. I'm convinced to go single, plus I get to lose 40+ lbs of dual exhaust!
Since I can't keep this single exhaust, I'm going to use my true dual header and have a merge collector made to connect to a single exit presilencer/muffler.
I appreciate the offer unek87! I'm probably going to just go with a magnaflow or borla muffler and a resonator mid stream. Once this is fabbed up, I'll do some more pulls with collected at the header and collected at the diff.
Sanded down to bare metal and masked it off. I then hit it with self etching primer.
After 3 light coats. Much better! I'm not worried about putting a top coat on at the moment. I was more concerned with fixing the rust. I'll eventually buy a can of touch up paint and clear.
Nice build. I like what you've done and good job persevering.
If it were me, I'd build an intake box around the velocity stacks and feed with a couple ducts going to the front. Hot under-hood intake air will hurt performance, plus if you do it right (ie measure pressure drop in the intake box) you will get a real positive pressure at speed (hard to measure on dyno with fan). Worked for the 787b .
I may have missed it but are you still using the 5th and 6th ports? Wired open?
06-22-15, 11:37 PM
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